Just wanted to share a great experience I just had. So many of you know I took my 2011 full-sized RR up to the rally with Rausch Creek this past weekend. She actually hit 5,000 miles on the way back, lol. Just before going I had Land Rover Alexandria add the Land Rover side protection bars at the General Manager's recommendation. He hadn't used the new ones before but relayed a story where he wished he had had them on when he was off-roading once.

On the green trails at Rausch they only lasted a few hours before being completely destroyed. The bars have some kind of vinyl cover that immediately rips off if you come in contact with any hard objects. I can't even begin to understand why they would design a "protection bar" with this as any contact would result in you having to replace the bar. In addition both bars bent upwards towards the door sills and pushed my door up. In other areas the previously round bar folded into a square.

I was fully prepared to see the bars scratched and roughed up at the end of the weekend but I fail to see how Land Rover can get away marketing these as "protection bars". They are what could kindly be called "decorative" bars.

I let the GM there know about how they held up and he immediately offered to refund my money for them and have them taken off. Ever since I bought my Range there in December, my experience has really been top notch. The GM, Sales Manager, Kevin in Service and Byron in parts have all been great to deal with. Dealerships often get a bad rap but in this case I have nothing but great things to say about Land Rover Alexandria.

Now, onto what to put on to actually protect a 2011 full-sized RR. In short the options I'm learning are limited. It seems no one is making a slider yet that will fit so I'm talking to Lucky 8 about doing a custom fabrication. I'm also talking to them about making a custom set of steel wheels. We are shooting for 18" if they can fit it around the brakes or 19" if not and a trail dedicated set of aggressive tires.

I'm also looking at getting a sump guard from Mantech which should fit mine.

I figure with those things, she should be pretty safe for the basic trails and some more difficult stuff. For the truly risk fraught stuff I'm planning on getting a dedicated trail beast for which the dents and scratches will just be part of her charm.

If you're talking about Land Rover Alexandria, I would expect nothing less from those guys. They are top notch people in my experience. So are the guys at Land Rover Roanoke.

With the exception of Drew Sabota at Land Rover Richmond, that place is a joke. Land Rover Richmond is pathetic. If you were referring to LR Richmond in your post, all I can say is give it time.

If you want some pictures of the sliders Justin at L8 sells, my wife has a set on her LR3. They're pretty stout.

Yep. I was talking about Land Rover Alexandria. I just realized I never fully named them in the original and edited the post to fix it.

Justin showed me some pics already but thanks. He would be custom fabricating but using the ones he sells as the model. They look like they would definitely do the job.

OneBadDisco wrote:

If you're talking about Land Rover Alexandria, I would expect nothing less from those guys. They are top notch people in my experience. So are the guys at Land Rover Roanoke. With the exception of Drew Sabota at Land Rover Richmond, that place is a joke. Land Rover Richmond is pathetic. If you were referring to LR Richmond in your post, all I can say is give it time. If you want some pictures of the sliders Justin at L8 sells, my wife has a set on her LR3. They're pretty stout.

Would you mind posting a pic of the sliders on the LR3? I'm converting from the Jeep world where eveything was custom fabbed and looking for a nice set for my LR3.

Thanks.

My wife has the Rover Specialties sliders on her LR3. I think Lucky 8 is the only place you can buy these now. At one time you could buy these sliders through Rover Specialties directly, but I don't believe you can now.

My wife has sort of a custom application. Traditional Rover Specialties have a nerf extending off the slider to push you away from rocks, stumps, etc.. We both thing the nerf looks like crap. In fact, we hate it. With the nerf, the LR3 looks like a helicopter and the nurf looks like the runners. So, my wife ordered her set with no fern bars. Neither she nor I have any regrets.

Here is what my wife's truck looks like from afar.


Here is a picture of Nathan's truck with the nerfs.

Personally, I think the truck looks better without the nerfs.

The sliders are very stout. They will easily support the entire weight of the truck, plus some. Without looking, I think the sliders have at least 5 mounting bolts; and at least 2 or 3 being body mounts. The sliders also do a good job at protecting the air compressor - although you do have to remove the sound-deadening cover from the compressor. That's annoying.