I made this. It’s not a splitter. It may have some aero advantage, but that’s not the purpose. I’ve been telling you about where I live for years now. Rural Alberta is a gravel world, often a snowy gravel world. Gravel is loud, and abrasive. Snow is pillowy soft, but it disguises where roads go, and blankets harmful debris. This is my protection, or at least part of it.
It’s constructed out of 3/8″ UHMW composite, which although I only heard of recently, is widely used by rally guys and offroaders for skidplates, splash guards, mudflaps and lots of other stuff. It’s tough shit. But it’s not cheap. The only real alternative for me was aluminum plating, which is almost half the cost. They are about the same in weight, but because it was a lot easier for me to work with, I went with UHMW. My 5×4′ sheet (enough for a full front plate and rear diff/gas tank protector) cost me $190.
It cuts with a semi-fine tooth blade and a jig saw, and given a little heat can be bent relatively easily. I rigged up a pretty large break for my sheet using some 2×4’s and plywood, and then gently heated the bend with a propane torch as I pulled it down with a set of ratchet straps. Very ghetto, but it worked very rad. The cut out you see, is for my downpipe. It hangs down a bit lower than everything else, and putting the plate underneath of it would have required a LOT of extra work. Namely, building a second and possibly third mount. I didn’t think it needed protecting as much as my oil pan, transmission, oil lines etc.
The mounting bar bolts to the front bumper mounting bolts, and is beefy enough to use as a jacking point (I really like having a nice accessible front jacking point). I’m also running bolts to the transversely mounted cross member, and the longitudinal control arm support.