Yamaha makes a neat alum. rear differentail protector to replace the sheet metal one. I cracked my rear differential housing yesterday with the optional plate during some rock hounding. The alum. plate bolts into the rear differential and the force will transmit through this rigid plate into the housing. The alum. skidplate needs a mounting point near the trailer hitch area to be effective. I'm going to modify mine, but unless you're ready to modify the optional plate, don't buy this item.

 

I have the rear aluminum differential cover on mine. I may consider putting the old one back on. The new one looks good but maybe it's too strong where the old one would give a bit.

 

Thanks for the info on this. Tell me something though. If the aluminum one bolts directly to the differential then it doesnt have the rubber block between it then. Is that correct? If so then can you measure the ground clearance for me? Be sure and let me know what kind of tires you have and how much psi is in them.

Thanks guys.

Tim

 

With stock tires set at 3.5 psi, I have 7 inchs of clearance with the alum. skid plate. I fabricated a steel bracket that bolts to the 2 bolts going into the trailer hitch and eliminated the bolt going into the differential housing. You need to do something like this since the differential cover is on backorder from Yamaha with a release date of 6/12 if I'm lucky. I was lucky enough to have the cover welded and will use it until the new one comes in. By the way, the alum plate does have rubber bumpers between the plate and the differential, but these do no good if you hit the skid plate from the left side as I must of done. The alum. plate will work with a hit from the right or directly from the bottom, but don't hit it from the left. Good luck guys. Just another note--to remove the broken housing, you must remove the axel, both wheels, brakes, etc. It's a lot easire to remount the plate.