Defender Diff Guards

[roamingyak]

I'm in the market for some 110 Diff Guards front and rear on a 1991 Defender.

Any tips or recommendations? From talking with a few people it seems the sliding sled type are better than the round ones?

[eightpot]

I use a round one - very pleased with it. Cheap, easy to fit and remove and does what it needs to. I like it cos it's a very close fit to the diff and doesn't reduce clearance - a mate of mine's got a fancy cage type one on his rear salisbury, but it tends to dig in to the ground on deeply rutted tracks.
Don't think I'll bother fitting a rear one though, I figure the front one should knock the stuff out the way before the rear gets there - the theory's worked so far....

[sv130]

I had a round one on the front of my 110, it was on there for at least five years, when I took it off to sell the truck I found it was rammed full of dirt between the front and the axle case.
If you are in a dry environment all the time I doubt this would be a problem but when it gets wet it just holds the wet dirt against the very parts you are trying to protect.
Land Rover diff pans are known for the way they can rust through, as several companies sell weld on replacements. You could fill the gap with expanding foam and then it would leave no room for mud to collect but that seems a bit over the top to me.
My advice is go for the skid type.

Gaz

[diesel jim]

I use the sledge type ones Darrin, got a southdown on my 110.

a lot of "competitive" type off roaders moan about the lack of ground clearance with the sledge type, and i myself have got hung up on it once or twice, but i'd prefer to have to winch for 5 minutes then to have to grovel around underneath straightening the track rod.
i suppose if you're competing against the clock to get another punch, then a few minutes is win or lose.


although you can now get a "track rod protection thing" which is a copy of the safarigard guard, it's like a "box" that the track rod sits inside and protects it from getting bent... you still need a diff guard though to protect the crownwheel.

[freeagent]

my reply would be the same as Eightpots, cheapie round one on the front, and don't bother with the rear....

[Col Campbell]

G`day mate, glad to hear your still alive and kicking.

I have a QT front and rear, they have been on a couple of vehicles now and I an very happy with them, the front has taken a few big hits and it just deflects everything off it, it is a bit different shaped now but still going strong, so in my books it is doing its job perfectly. You can also drain the oil with it in place.

I disagree with the rear, I only have the place which protects the light crown wheel cover on the back, it saved me at least once when I reversed into a big rock in front of a pub in the UK, they are quite cheap and non obtrusive.

[To Hel And Back]

i don't suppose anyone has any pictures of the different types of gaurds you are discussing do you?

[diesel jim]

Front (Southdown) steering and axle guards on my 110, and some make (don't know who!) of guard on the back axle of mine.

[To Hel And Back]

Thanks for posting that Jim, we currently have a sterring guard on our Landy but it doesn't look very sturdy or have any holes for towing/recovery so we are just looking around to see if it is worth our while changing it. Cheers

[rclafton]

i used the qt diff guards on my 101 (salisbury axles both ends)

remember you can do damage reversing into things aswell

rich

[langebaan sunset]

Hi folks,

We only used a front diff guard (circular type) on our 300tdi in Africa that bolts onto front of diff and held in place by 2x small bolts that compress it on.

We are glad we fitted it as we hit the front diff "hard" in Cameroon / Gabon / Congo / DRC. The ruts are so deep that your front diff is real exposed to buried rocks in the central "hump" .... a couple of knocks without the protection here would have been messy.

We did not bother with any other underneath protection....we had good clearance on the vehicle that saw us through most issues and took it steady on rocky sections.

One lot of advice we had before we left was; "if you bolt lots of steel onto the underneath of the vehicle and it gets bent, you have a real job taking it off". Not sure that is a universally applicable set of advice but we went with it and only went for the front diff protector. If you go rock crawling as a hobby you might want more protection. On balance, for your average overland trip, we found our set up worked fine.

HTH

Nick