Kinda funny how you take this stand then come back and say you dented your tank down to the same 17 gallons mine holds?
oh and then you go and hide behind this is a overlanding site.
yes you are just stirring the pot and looking like a idiot doing it.
Sticks and stones, baby cakes
There are hundreds of thousands of miles of roads in the US alone, in the dirt, that absolutely will not require the use of a fuel-tank skid to go see. Say what you want but I stand by this conviction. I would also guess that the vast majority of those miles could be seen from behind the wheel of a VW Beetle, but that's another thread. Back in Roverland, if one happens to come down wrong on a rock or a ledge and does land on one's fuel tank and it makes an ugly thud and gets a big ole owwie, it is
not likely to burst open and set flame to your truck and somehow mysteriously alert the EPA that there's been a disturbance in the Gaia.
The comment is not to detract from LWG, the product, nor the need for said product but to just point out some facts, since we're pointing them out. I think he makes an excellent product, is excellent to do business with, and has been an extremely dedicated member of the Rover community since getting his first truck and I relish any opportunity to send folks either to him or any number of fine vendors we're blessed with in Rover land.
Having said that: the pot stirring is born directly from a very deep and longstanding contempt I've held for this idea that you need to throw 20k and a parts catalog at your choice of vehicle to take off and see some countryside. I meet folks who are new to off-roading all the time and have this idea that if their truck isn't mimicking the one that most
looks the part in whatever club / group / meetup they happen to be at, that somehow their vehicle isn't up to task. Most of them are afraid to even head out on something as benign as a christmas-tree run in the snow, much less a few days of camping.
Well, I think that is wrong and I think that propagating that mentality here is wrong. I think the reality of a need for a particular product should be pointed out to people so they can come to their own conclusions. Nothing more, nothing less. Those experiences are not always black and white.
My fuel-tank experience doesn't sound much different than yours: did it get some dents? yeah. did it rupture? no. did it leak? no. Is a skid a good idea? probably. is it an absolute requirement? depends.
cheers,
-ike
