Rusty's KJ Diff Guard

Ed · **Posted:** Sun Jan 15, 2006 7:54 pm

Howdy,

I'm after a diff guard for my KJ, and it looks like the Rusty's one is the go for me. Does anyone know if it's possible to contact Rusty's via email? The time difference between them and Australia makes phone-calls a bit awkward! Or maybe you nice folks can answer my questions;

- Does it come with all the necessary fitting hardware (i.e. longer bolts)?
- Is it bare metal, or plated (cadmium? zinc?) and do you reckon it needs painting before installation?
- How far off the diff-cover does it sit? I've got a long range fuel tank and there's not a huge amount of clearance between the diff and the tank.

Are there any 3rd party suppliers of Rusty's products, or are they only available through Rusty's themselves?

Cheers.

Guyute1210 · **Posted:** Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:21 pm

Ed wrote:

Howdy,

I'm after a diff guard for my KJ, and it looks like the Rusty's one is the go for me. Does anyone know if it's possible to contact Rusty's via email? The time difference between them and Australia makes phone-calls a bit awkward! Or maybe you nice folks can answer my questions;

- Does it come with all the necessary fitting hardware (i.e. longer bolts)?
- Is it bare metal, or plated (cadmium? zinc?) and do you reckon it needs painting before installation?
- How far off the diff-cover does it sit? I've got a long range fuel tank and there's not a huge amount of clearance between the diff and the tank.

Are there any 3rd party suppliers of Rusty's products, or are they only available through Rusty's themselves?

Cheers.

I don't know about Rusty's, but I bought Rocky-Roads (It had a ring around the whole diff to protect against peeling , and a nice solid basket to protect the diff) and seemed stronger than Rusty's.

Here is a picture of Rocky Roads. I have been unable to take a picture of it installed since then, but is one heavy piece of material. It comes with all the necessary hardware, Plated (as you can see in the pic), It hugs nicely up near the diff, I have a 20.5 gal tank, and there is plenty of room to get this one in there.

Email: gwbuild@rocky-road.com

ManicMechanicJoe · **Posted:** Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:42 pm

How much bigger is a long range fuel tank (capicity in liters or gallons)? The rusty's ring is available powdercoated (black). A buddy of mine has one on his XJ and it isn't much thicker. I am pretty sure we reused stock bolts when we installed it. It was 3/16" thick maybe 1/4" so it isn't really that much more to worry about. Just jack up your rear axle untill it's fully compressed and measure the gap at the tighest spot, if it's more then 1/2"-you're golden.

Fouros · **Posted:** Mon Jan 16, 2006 6:39 pm

the long range tanks in aus are 125 liters or 33 gallons

Ed · **Posted:** Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:22 pm

Actually, mine's 115L (30.4 U.S. Gallons) and it's from Long Range Automotive. I'm lead to believe that there's another one availlable that's 120L (31.7 U.S. Gallons) but I've never seen one and I don't know who makes it.

There's a couple of inches between the tank and the diff, the Rusty's guard and the Poison Spyder one look like they're quite snug to the diff so they'd be OK. Some of the more "tubey" guards look like they stick out quite a bit more.

Thanks for the info chaps.

Fouros · **Posted:** Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:29 pm

MY bad

sorry for giving you a bum steer guys

Ed · **Posted:** Mon Jan 16, 2006 10:09 pm

Hmmm, now I've changed my mind and I'm thinking the Poison Spyder Rock Ring is a better bet. That's nice and snug to the diff too, so there shouldn't be any clearance issues.

Plus their hood decal is really cool! Might have to get one of them;

ManicMechanicJoe · **Posted:** Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:35 am

Where can I get a long range fuel tank like you Aussie's? I do a lot of road trips and it sure would be nice to go almost twice as far on a tank? About how much do they cost? Did you guys do the install yourselves? If so-how hard was it (I have dropped and replaced fuel tanks before but never gone to a bigger one)?

Fouros · **Posted:** Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:45 am

http://www.longrangeautomotive.com.au/v ... /jeep.html

about 1100 AUD freight would be a bugger though

Ed · **Posted:** Tue Jan 17, 2006 8:46 am

I certainly didn't do the install myself, fitting a skid plate and some extra lights is pretty much the limits of my mechanical expertise!

Mine was $1006 fitted, but yeah, freight to the US would be a touch pricey I fear.

One thing to note is that with the tank fitted your standard rear recovery point won't fit. If you've already got a tow hitch then you're laughing. I didn't so I had to pay for the tank and a tow hitch, just so I could have a recovery point at the back. A pretty expensive operation all in all!

uvalax236 · **Posted:** Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:48 am

For the US Folks: I did a conversion of 1100 AUD and that comes out to $830.00 + Shipping. Anyone know how much it weighs and the demensions?

Spike6901 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:51 pm

I have Rusty's guard...comes with all you need...fits perfect...works like a charm.

Ed · **Posted:** Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:20 pm

...and just to give an idea of how expensive it would be to ship a 30kg (I'm guessing) fuel tank; Poison Spyder reckon UPS will charge me $134 just to ship one of their Rock Rings. Yikes!

ManicMechanicJoe · **Posted:** Thu Jan 19, 2006 12:28 am

$134???? holy cow I would have geussed $50 tops. Yikes. I pitty you guys.

Rusty's KJ Diff Guard

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