Skid Plates

ASFIR - they are out of business. Called the Scottsdale store that used to sell their stuff. The Israeli factory shut down. Looking at options for under-body protection - starting upfront and then over time adding underneath and back. Tactical 4x4 and Land Rover - are those the only options?

Called Tactical 4x4 - hoping that they have added some LR4 products. Nope. Looks like OEM front under-body protection or nothing as far as I can tell at the moment.

A couple of months ago I ordered a skid plate from Asfir in Israel (replacement for mine, which got mangled in a road accident.) If they did shut down, it must have been very recently. Have you sent them an email to confirm they are really out of business? This is the info I dug from my emails with them.

Susan Shefer
Asfir Technologies Ltd.
Tel Adashim 19315 Israel
Tel: 972 4 6511429
Fax: 972 4 6527742
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.asfir.com/catalog-landrover/catalog-landrover-discovery4

With shipping ($189!) the plate ended up costing just under $500. It was part of an insurance claim, so I didn't really care about the price (I paid them via PayPal, FYI. Got the plate about a week later.) But their web site is still up, so I'd be surprised if they were gone. I do know they didn't have any US distributors currently.

I just emailed her. When I tried the web site email - it seemed to be blocked when trying to send. The error message was in Israeli - so I could have entered something wrong., We will find out soon!

They posted as recently as yesterday on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ASFIR4X4ENG

In fact, they may even have a coupon available for orders placed in June, although the coupon expires on June 31st: Maybe June has 31 days in Israel, lol. Anyway, I was able to enter a mock order on their web site for 1 x 539055, with the "June2015" discount code the price came to be $385 with shipping to the US, which would be one heck of a deal compared to what I paid just two months ago... Didn't press the "Buy" button, though.

Umberto, what would you suggest as the first necessary skid plate? I think I may take advantage of this June discount.

For underbody protection, rock sliders are most important in my opinion, more than the skid plate / sump guard above. Rock sliders (the steel ones that extend under the chassis to protect compressor, air tank, etc., especially) are also very heavy and quite expensive. It depends on your level of commitment I guess...

I've got an old FJ62 Land Cruiser (gasp) that I use for the crazy stuff. The LR4 won't see any rock crawling, but plenty of forest roads and back country in the Ozarks. I think sliders may be overkill. Maybe none of it is necessary?

How many of you actually find you needing underbody protection a lot? I'm new to Land Rover's in general and don't know how they handle off road yet and what's prone to damage, but hoping to change that this weekend.

My very first upgrade was Tactical Rovers rock sliders. Even before I got my Compos and BFGs. Then I added Asfir sump guard followed by tactical rovers transfer case and fuel tank skid plates. Expensive ??? It depends how you look at this. My LR4 is my family daily driver and off road truck for weekends. All the skid plates are heavy but LR4 is not a sports car so 0-60 and fast corners are not my priorities.
My transfer case skid plate and rock sliders were put to work few times. Without them I would have damaged my truck and the bill for a repair would be much higher than the cost of underbody protection. I do not know how V6 SC handles extra weight but for NA V8 it is not a problem.
Customer service from Tactical Rover is great Lets keep those guys in business. Great people and great product and made in the USA.

Thanks for the feedback TLB.

I would love sliders, I'm just not sure they fit the budget right now. The other thing I don't like, is with a stock height LR4 the sliders make it look even lower to the ground. I think a lift would be in order to accommodate....the list keeps getting longer haha.

I'll have to look into Tactical Rovers, thanks for the suggestion.