Hi,

whilst doing 85 mph I ran over part of the leaf spring off a truck...the roads here in Saudi are just insane...
photos to follow tomorrow...
It destroyed my fuel tank and put a few dings in the chassis...but if it can taken out one of my front tyres I'd have probably bought the farm..
So off to the scapyard I go and the first thing I notice is that the other D's have a skid plate under their fuel tanks.
I have a 99 2WD 5.9l D...and it doesn't have a skid plate...whether the 2WD just weren't fitted with one is a question I'd like answering...
Also are the fuel tanks the same for 2WD and 4WD and has the design changed over the years...??

I'm trying to look at this from a "pint glass half full" and not "half empty"...I'm alive to debate these issues...

Chris

 

First of all, we are all glad you are still in one piece and unscathed. But to answer your question, the skid plates are normally seen on 4WD D's only because you expect to play rough on rough surfaces, you normally do not expect its 2WD sister to do the same. I am sure when a person buy a 2WD model, they can buy the skid plates as an option. The gas tank should be the same on the 2WD and 4WD providing you have the same year model. You can problaby just buy that tank with skid plates from the salvage yard, might as well also get the rest of the skid plates to provide you with additional shielding as you are driving in Saudi, I guess there is alot of what you call off-road terrain type surfaces there!