After my recent off-road adventure, I found my coil-sprung Defender's biggest weakness was the belly of the car. With it hanging ~3" lower than the sidesill, I was scraping on easy terrain. Rock sliders would be the ultimate solution, but coming from old school SUV's - the prices are 4x higher than I'm used to. Gotta pay to play I suppose.

So as a solution that will do for now, has anyone removed the two felt/composite pieces in between the wheelbase of their Defender? Is there any aluminum protection for the gas tank, or it is plastic?

For reference, I'm talking about these - can't tell from the pics what the fuel tank situation is:

 

You got a LOT to take out at that point. You probably know that those two big black plastic things are the fuel tanks. Interestingly, NewDefenderMods says that they are coming out with a 179L tank that will fit up in there! Yea haw!! Anyway, to get to the shot you are seeing, you have to take off a LOT. There is a "Left Undershield" and "Right Undershield" that are protecting both sides. Before you get there you have to remove that front "Transmission Undershield". And to get there you need to take off a bunch of rocker panel covers. Not sure what your end game is if you aren't going with a slider, but post pics! Would love to see the project.

EDIT: I see that you've already reused the pic from a company's instructions, so I'm not sure what the Q is anymore. They lay it out perfectly re: what needs to happen to remove all that. Can you reask the Q? (Not trying to hassle, just don't understand the question).

EDIT 2: After re-reading your post - there is nothing between the felt and the tank. Hope that nails it for you. If you shoot a flashlight into those square drain holes you should see the plastic tank.

 

Haha - re-reading my post, I too can see how ambiguous it was. Apologies for that. What I'm trying to figure out is:

1. Has anyone driven their Defender sans undergarments? I'm assuming that composite material helps with NVH and underbody aero for fuel economy - but can't imagine it makes a big difference.
2. I did find those photos of the underbelly from Lucky8's slider install, where they did have to remove quite a bit of stuff to remove the 2 composite panels. Thanks for confirming that the fuel tank is unprotected plastic (ugh). Doesn't seem like I'll be gaining much clearance, as it appears the composite material hangs ~1" down from the fuel tank. So this might all be for not.

Also - hello fellow Austinite!

 

I hope those with sliders answer. Here's my "going to be doing that, here's my research" answers:

1. Nope, not yet. I suspect it's 100% for fuel economy with a nod towards minor road debris. Most who off-road dislike it because it traps a lot of sand and dirt (previously known as mud, but now dried out) and fear it causes problems because it's hard to clean out. The only folks who really do proper work on protecting that is really limited to the VERY costly Matzker out of Germany.

2. I wouldn't bank on any additional clearance with it out of the way. Too many exposed "jewels" up there. It gives some protection, but out of the way - it's worse. I'll eventually put sliders on, but I'm already trying to figure a way to put the "felt" back up there if not more without going the Matzker route (Link - either browser translate or some of it is in English at the bottom of the product pages).

 

I have the lucky8 sliders and have removed all the felt except the one that’s sandwiched in between the transmission protection plates up front. The sliders protect everything important in the middle/sides of the car, but the fuel tanks remain exposed. I’ve been hoping lucky8 would come out with plates for those, but nothing so far. I suspect taking the felt off did knock mileage down a tad, but the sliders are 120lbs each, so it could just be them. The felt does muffle sound a bit too, but nothing major. I’m glad they are off though since I was able to coat everything with fluid film now to protect against corrosion from road salt.

 

gb junkie:

If you are sufficiently interested to off-road to remove the felt / composite under liner, my advice is for you to add rock sliders. To do otherwise is to risk damaging the monocoque body of the Defender.

I refer you to these two threads:
Lucky8 slider install w/ transfer case photos

Lucky8 sliders -- worth every penny and pound

Enjoy !!

 

Currently trying to convince the wife they're fancy running boards, wish me luck

 

 

Sarek has introduced a very clean, effective low-profile slider. They do very meticulous, quality work.


https://landroverforums.com/forum/20...-rails-109417/