Page created: 25-Nov-03

Re-published: 1-Nov-09

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Fitting Instructions

As the Discovery is the most expensive Land Rover I’d ever bought and I fully intended to use it off-road, underbody protection was high on my list of priorities. A steering guard was an obvious place to start but also some sort of front recovery points seemed like a good idea. Luckily, a friend told me about the guard supplied by Terrain Master (no longer trading) which neatly combines the two as well as providing jacking points for use with a hi-lift jack.

The guard comprises three parts: two brackets, which incorporate the towing and jacking points and the guard plate itself, which fixes to the brackets. The brackets are bolted to the front chassis legs with three bolts each. These utilise the bumper mounting points and the chassis brackets for the lower mounting of the steering box. Although obviously only one steering box is fitted, the mounting points exist on both sides of the chassis to accommodate left and right-hand drive. Five new bolts are supplied with the guard, with the sixth mounting using the existing steering box bolt. Where the guard plate bolts to the mounting brackets, the fixing holes are slotted which allows for the vagaries of Land Rover chassis tolerances.

The modular nature of the Terrain Master guard allows them to offer an aluminium guard plate instead of the steel one as a weight saving alternative. However, the weight saving is only about 8kg and as it isn’t as strong as the steel version, I don’t think this is significant enough to warrant choosing it. The weight of the complete steel guard didn’t make any appreciable difference to the level of the front of my vehicle. The side brackets with the towing and jacking points can also be bought separately if the guard isn’t required.

At the time I bought this guard it was the only one on the market that offered towing and jacking points as an integral part of the design. Others have appeared since that have copied the idea, but most tend to be a one piece welded unit. I believe the Terrain Master version is the only modular one, which makes fitting considerably easier as it allows for the vagaries of Land Rover build tolerances.

In order to improve the approach angle I have removed the front valance and cut down the bumper end caps to match, although this isn’t strictly necessary just to fit the steering guard. I’ve also trimmed slightly the bottom edge of the number plate carrier to provide better access to the jacking points.