I know many on the Ranger Facebook groups moan about the position of the ARB Recovery point but as a mechanical engineer, I find it hard to understand why anyone would fit anything other than ARB, with the possible exception of the near-copy from Superior engineering. Yes, the placement isnt ideal but its nothing that can be solved by fitting a short extension strap before heading off-road.
Initially I had planned on designing my own bash plate but by the time I factored in a few hours of my time, parts and painting it worked out cheaper to buy from ARB, particularly at trade price, without GST, through work.
The ARB product is very good and the manufacturing quality, including welds is very good. A lot better than some others I've seen.
Some things that I'd do differently:
- You have to fit an adaptor plate to the second cross member before mounting the tail of the longest bash plate. This plate could have been 15cm longer and picked up on an existing threaded hole but instead they made it too short and give you a nut welded to a plate that has to be positioned inside the crossmember.
- The transfer case plate is mounted directly to the transfer case. This makes no sense as hitting it will transfer the force straight into the transfer case housing - Dont know why they didn't make it chassis mounted?
- I would have welded nuts onto the back of the plates rather than use silly clip-in captive nuts. I guess it's easier for them as they dont have to clean threads after painting but welded nuts would make installation and removal easier in the future.
It took 2 of us with occasional help from a third person about 2 hours to fit. You will need a ratchet spanner to tighten the two recovery point mounting bolts in the rear face of the cross member.
I had considered painting the plates black before fitting but now its on, I quite like the way it looks with the bumper skirt removed.
Nice to see the "wings" ARB came up with to meet the PXII fire risks problem. Must chase them up.
