I briefly looked underneath the car as best I could and didn't see any thick metal skid plates like I've got on my Jeep, or any skid plates of any kind. Found that odd for a car touted for its off-road capability. The first rock or log the underbody slams down on and the car could easily be put out of commission.
How come it doesn't have skid plates? I would think any car advertised as going off-road would have them. If you're just taking dirt roads you don't need them obviously, but if you're crossing over uneven terrain or going over small logs, they are very necessary.
I understand what you mean. Anyone who has driven around a LRE centre will know how great this car is off road.
But as 90% (my guess) of Evoques will never see anything more than the supermarket speed bumps or a grass field I understand LR just covering the underside with plastic to keep weight & cost down.
There is a thread some ware about underside plates, the company makes them for LRD & if my memory is correct they spoke about making them for Evoque.
Tim,
I believe you had used them on your LRD.
Given time & LR could start making them as a option. Like anything, if there's a Market for a product someone will make it.
Just found this
http://babyrr.com/forum/Thread-Offroad-m...kid+plates
(27-06-2012 09:48am)doug Wrote: [ -> ]I understand what you mean. Anyone who has driven around a LRE centre will know how great this car is off road.
But as 90% (my guess) of Evoques will never see anything more than the supermarket speed bumps or a grass field I understand LR just covering the underside with plastic to keep weight & cost down.
There is a thread some ware about underside plates, the company makes them for LRD & if my memory is correct they spoke about making them for Evoque.
Tim,
I believe you had used them on your LRD.
Given time & LR could start making them as a option. Like anything, if there's a Market for a product someone will make it.
Just found this
http://babyrr.com/forum/Thread-Offroad-m...kid+plates
Thanks, Doug! Yeah, I saw there was some plastic under there but I figured that was more for road aerodynamics (BMW does the same thing) than off-road protection. That plastic won't do anything against a rock except get destroyed.
I wouldn't be TOO concerned if car insurance would cover anything that happened, but typically car insurance does not cover damage that occurs while 4x4ing off-road.
Cars on the LRE courses are unmodified showroom cars, OK the courses are designed to show off what the car can achieve and they don't find any need to fit additional underbody protection to their Evoques. I agree though that what there is is not very substantial, but then anything heavier would knock out the emissions calculations by adding more weight. I remember not so long ago on Disco3.co.uk they did a group buy of bash plates for their cars, and also for RRS's. I cannot remember if they got a member who owns a metal bashing business to make them or if they did a huge buy from Mantec. Withe Freelander1 I remember several members made their own from aluminium plate but they then had problems with service bays who wanted to charge extra because it required 2 techs to remove the skid plate instead of one at service time as the plate had to be removed to do oil and filter changes and was quite heavy.
I have taken mine offroad and yes it is scary to hear every twig catching on the under side but you get used to it! I have reverted to letting my Defender do the serious offroad stuff and save the Evoque for less testing forest fire road drives rather than full on mud plugging and rock climbing. After all doing taht sort of thing also wrecks the smart alloys and ULP Craptinental tyres
(27-06-2012 02:34pm)XFullFatTim Wrote: [ -> ]I have taken mine offroad and yes it is scary to hear every twig catching on the under side but you get used to it! I have reverted to letting my Defender do the serious offroad stuff and save the Evoque for less testing forest fire road drives rather than full on mud plugging and rock climbing. After all doing taht sort of thing also wrecks the smart alloys and ULP Craptinental tyres
Very true! I've taken my Jeep Liberty on some wicked off-road trails and messed it up quite a bit cosmetically. Mechanically, it's bulletproof. After taking a Rubicon trail meant for Jeep Rubicon's with 30" wheels with my stock Liberty with 17" wheels and practically surfing down a waterfall of rocks on nothing but my skid plates, I was convinced a Jeep could survive all but being driven off a cliff. The durability of my Jeep is unbelievable. Largely thanks to those quarter-inch thick steel skid plates that cover the entire underbody.
But you're right... any off-loading that would damage the underbody is also going to damage the alloys and you don't want to scratch those $2,500 wheels.