Shields Up! Fitting a little protection to your Quad. - DG Baja Plate - ATV at Off-Road.com

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Shields Up! Fitting a little protection to your Quad.DG Baja Plate

Publish date: Mar 1, 2000
By: The Dave
Source: ATV at Off-Road.com

Mother Earth:1 , Skid Plate:0

Last month I told the story of my trail ride out in the Red Rock Recreation Area. I also mentioned how my swing arm skid plate was turned into a trencher. What I didn't know was how tweaked it really was until I got home and cleaned my quad. Tweaked hardly describes it's condition. The rocks, boulders and gravel had their

This is the side that the rocks
get to see!

way with it and left it used and abused. In fact it was so badly tweaked that I had to remove it just to keep it from grinding on the brake disk. Enter my biggest hammer. After attempting to beat it back into serviceable shape with less than desirable results I came to the conclusion that a replacement was in order. Besides, if I missed the skid plate and hit my thumb one more time I was going to go postal and that's never pretty!

A call for help!

The chain is protected
all the way up.

Now that the reality of replacement parts being needed had set in and the hammer was safely locked away in the tool box it was time for a phone call. It didn't take long for me to hunt down the number for DG Performance and give them a call. Jack Edwards at DG felt my pain and was more than willing to help. "DG's Baja line of skid plates would be more than capable of handling the job of protecting your vitals", says he. A few days later the goodies arrived along with a new 400EX pipe to boot! I will look at the pipe next month and have a full report.

Go Ahead, make my day.

Upon opening the aforementioned box from DG I not only found the swing arm skid plate but a frame skid

Full on protection is mine!
Now I can leave no stone unturned.

plate and a new front bumper as well! Score! Now the whole bottom of the quad would be in the safe guard mode. These aluminum skid plates are HEAVY FARGEN DUTY! An easy bolt-on product that will protect your equipment from the harsh reality of riding. The main chassis plate is stamped and formed out of 3/16 inch aluminum and is held in place with machined clamps that pinch the frame between the plate and the clamps. The swing arm plate uses the stock mounting method and stock hardware. It took me less than a hour to install both plates and I only had minor difficulty with the chassis plate because it was so stiff making it hard to line up the bolt holes. The front bumper install was a no-brainer with no explanation required.

Image is everything.

I definitely liked the way the two skid plates gave my quad the "Tuff Guy" look. Unfortunately, I did not

The DG front bumper is built to last.

get the same feeling with the front bumper, at least when I first installed it. It is much bigger than the stocker and it looked bulky and out of place. Now that it has been on the 400 for a while I must admit that it is growing on me. It has also proved it's usefulness, more on that later. As far as the skid plates go, they are just what the doctor ordered. Perfect!

Put Up or Shut Up!

Time to test the goods. As our annual Presidents Day trip to Dumont Dunes was upon us I figured this would be a good place to test the ruggedness of the new skid plates. "Dunes, nothing to worry about there, just a bunch of sand", you say? Well that's true, but between the dunes are the flats and anyone who has been to the dunes knows that the flats are rocky. Very rocky! On the trip before this one I did not have a swing arm skid plate on the 400 so I had to be very careful not to hit anything with my unprotected rear sprocket or brake

The sprocket and the rear disk
are fully protected now!

disk. Ask anyone who knows me, I hate to be careful as well as conservative when I ride. I am not saying that I have a disregard for safety, in fact just the opposite, I just want to ride balls to the wall if I so desire and I don't want to worry about tearing up my ride in the process. Well true to myself I went ripping across the dunes and the flats without a worry. I picked some of the roughest terrain I could find on purpose just to see how the plates would hold up. Held up is an understatement. I beat these plates to death and they gave not so much as a whimper. Some things are simple but effective. I have a whole new confidence in my 400 and no longer worry about rough terrain.

Hey, what's the deal with that?

Remember the front bumper that I mentioned earlier and how I did not care for it? Well it proved its weight

This view shows the machined clamp
assembly that holds the chassis
plate to the quad.
Yes that's sand in the background,
but hey why waste time cleaning
when you could ride!

in gold. "How", you say? Well I will tell ya. Our trip to Dumont was blessed with rainy conditions sporadically throughout the weekend leaving the sand with an unusual consistency. It was some of the most "liquid" sand I have ever seen. If you stopped moving while on the top or the side of a dune you would sink to your rear axle almost every time. So, what does this have to do with a bumper? In this case, everything! Hey when you get mired up in high desert quick sand and you have to reposition you quad manually nothin' beats a nice big bumper to grab on to! The larger size of the DG unit was a God send. Moving your quad while your not on it sucks no doubt but the DG bumper makes it a little more bearable. As far as I am concerned, the bumper stays!

Final Thoughts

Those of you who have read my stuff in the past know that I can go on and on about the correct way to

The bottom view of the chassis plate
showing the oil drain hole.

tighten a nut. The reality is there is only so much you can say about skid plates! They either make the grade or they don't. I guess I could have offered information on the alloy content of the aluminum (6061, by the way) and tell you that it is some of the strongest weldable plate currently available. Maybe I should have mentioned that they are made on a high dollar, state of the art, computer controlled, earth shattering

HEY! I said the bumper stays!
You got a problem with that?

sheet metal punch press. Maybe little facts like they had enough foresight to, at least in the case of the 400ex, put a hole in the correct place so you can easily drain your oil would have been of interest to you. I did not even see a reason to mention the high quality hardware that was supplied with the skid plates. I guess I was just being lazy. Nonetheless, the bottom line is these high quality skid plates get the job done. The bumper ain't too bad either!
End of story.

Reach out and touch someone.

If your lower end is running unprotected or if the protection you do have is not getting the job done give the boys at DG a call and they will hook you up! Their number is 800.854.9134 or in CA its 714.630.5471. You can also cruise over to their site @ www.dgperf.comand have a look around. Next Month I will review the DG exhaust system for the 400ex. Stay Tuned....

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