Anyone put a skid plate under their engine?
In three days I've bottomed my Gene Berg sump twice (once on a speed bump and once while drive (rather quickly) over a very bumpy road.
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Anyone put a skid plate under their engine?
In three days I've bottomed my Gene Berg sump twice (once on a speed bump and once while drive (rather quickly) over a very bumpy road.
In three days I've bottomed my Gene Berg sump twice (once on a speed bump and once while drive (rather quickly) over a very bumpy road.
Ron, I can't imagine it would be especially difficult to make something in the way of a removeable 3/4" box-tubing brush guard frame. As long as the front and back ends were curved to avoid them snagging on things, you could keep a pretty low profile and still be effective.
Tab the ends so they could be un-bolted, and run it from the front of the engine to the steel frame around the engine compartment. Just two pieces of longitudinally run box tubing with a plate welded between them should suffice. You'd want to keep it as narrow as possible to the sides of the engine's case, in order to not interfere with airflow from the fan and such, and you'd want the plate to only be on the horizontal plane, in order to still have air flow past the bottom of the engine from front to back as you drove.
I'm sure it could be done, probably in less than a day. Here's a quick sketch:
Tab the ends so they could be un-bolted, and run it from the front of the engine to the steel frame around the engine compartment. Just two pieces of longitudinally run box tubing with a plate welded between them should suffice. You'd want to keep it as narrow as possible to the sides of the engine's case, in order to not interfere with airflow from the fan and such, and you'd want the plate to only be on the horizontal plane, in order to still have air flow past the bottom of the engine from front to back as you drove.
I'm sure it could be done, probably in less than a day. Here's a quick sketch:
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What a about a simple dune buggy skid plate?
Just need to watch how far down it hangs but would be easy to adapt.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/STANDARD-SKID-PLATE-Dune-Buggy-VW-Baja-Bug-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2eb67cf46bQQitemZ200630137963QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
Just need to watch how far down it hangs but would be easy to adapt.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/STANDARD-SKID-PLATE-Dune-Buggy-VW-Baja-Bug-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2eb67cf46bQQitemZ200630137963QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
Thanks for the replies. I'm also thinking of raising the rear up 0.5 inches to improve my ground clearance.
something like a Beetle trailer hitch might work.
I used to always have one on my Beetles to protect the rear end of the car. If I remember right the forward end clamped to the frame horns and the rear end fastened to the bumper brackets. It seems like two bars under the engine would suffice rather than a full plate.
I used to always have one on my Beetles to protect the rear end of the car. If I remember right the forward end clamped to the frame horns and the rear end fastened to the bumper brackets. It seems like two bars under the engine would suffice rather than a full plate.
The two points that hit the ground are the bottom plate of my deep sump and the merged header collector, so I don't anything very wide.