Are skid plates a good idea for a stock Liberty?

I know they offer protection, but they also decrease the clearance.

I can't afford to modify anything, so it's either skid plates or no skid plates.

What u think?

....say, what does the front skid actually protect? I never paid attention, just know it gets hit more than any other skid.

This is why I chose this as my first skid plate. All that banging makes sense given that the front of your vehicle meets obstacle before the rest of the vehicle. One exception, I guess, is if you're crawling over rocks or logs, and a tire slips, causing the vehicle to come down on top of an obstacle the front has already cleared. (That's when you want to protect the transmission and transfer case.)

The engine skid can serve as a plow or undercarriage cowcatcher and move smaller obstacles out of the way. I guess it offers some shielding for the front differential, inner CV boots, and bottom of the enging.

Now that I have the Rustys front springs, I find that the tranny skid gets hit most. Prior to this past trip to Livingston with the Midwest guys, I painted my engine skid and it didnt get a scratch. The tranny and gas tank skid took some good hits though. The tcase skid didnt really get hit.

If you didnt have a skid on the tcase, you would really need to work hard to hurt it. Its kind protected by the tranny cross member. Maybe if you were backing up a rock could catch it.

I would not go offroad without a tranny skid.

I am also considering the mopar skids. I'm curios how much the skids weigh. I'm wondering if they will affect acceleration, gas mileage, etc..