Skid Plate Protection Needed on Passenger Cars

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 21:40:03 +0200 (CEST), Nomen Nescio
> wrote:

>Low slung cars are excellent on smooth roads, but are susceptable to damage
>to their under carriages under certain conditions occassionally
>encountered.
>
>Particularly, when there is a small radius dip, driveway, holes in the
>road, on unimproved roads and in the dark when road obstacles cannot be
>seen. If the clearance is not enough, the oil pan, frame members, steering
>linkages, or rear axle can be damaged. This damage is expensive and or
>creates safety problems from the damage inflicted.
>
>Chrysler must address this problem by shielding the underside of the car in
>all critical areas. Usually, it requires a curved steel plate that will
>ride up and over these common road obstructions. The plate does not need
>to be so heavy as to prevent damage to itself; it can sacrifice itself in a
>hard impact to protect vital components under the car.
>
>Bash plates or skid plates are easily designed, fabricated and fitted. You
>should see these items on next year's models. If they are not adopted in
>this timely manner, I see liability exposure to the car maker to road
>clearance damages which occur in the future, given prior knowledge of the
>problem and its cure.


Off road vehicles already have them - and generally on standard
passenger cars they would be needless extra weight and would
contribute to engine overheating if the rest of the design was not
changed to take the sheilds into account.
All cars sold in North America MUST have a minimum ground clearance.
If that is not adequate, the LAW should be changed making more
clearance mandatory. Right !!!. That will never happen.
Ever hear of driving to suit conditions???

Nomen Nescio wrote:
> Low slung cars are excellent on smooth roads, but are susceptable to damage
> to their under carriages under certain conditions occassionally
> encountered.
>
> Particularly, when there is a small radius dip, driveway, holes in the
> road, on unimproved roads and in the dark when road obstacles cannot be
> seen. If the clearance is not enough, the oil pan, frame members, steering
> linkages, or rear axle can be damaged. This damage is expensive and or
> creates safety problems from the damage inflicted.
>
> Chrysler must address this problem by shielding the underside of the car in
> all critical areas. Usually, it requires a curved steel plate that will
> ride up and over these common road obstructions. The plate does not need
> to be so heavy as to prevent damage to itself; it can sacrifice itself in a
> hard impact to protect vital components under the car.
>
> Bash plates or skid plates are easily designed, fabricated and fitted. You
> should see these items on next year's models. If they are not adopted in
> this timely manner, I see liability exposure to the car maker to road
> clearance damages which occur in the future, given prior knowledge of the
> problem and its cure.
>

That would be fine if we are willing to sacrifice performance and fuel
milage and generally increased repair bills for the additional labor to
remove and re-install the shields for the simplest undercarriage
maintenance.

Compare the total initial cost of the shield on millions of cars to the
total cost of avoided damage to a very small percentage of the vehicles,
and I think you'll come up with a huge net expense to the buying public
(even before factoring in extra fuel cost and general maintenance cost
increases of having to deal with a freakin' shield before any work can
be done). Costs for routine maintenance and the simplest of repairs is
ridiculous enough as it is.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')