Above: The winch bumper from Rival is incredibly strong and could almost be called discreet. It’s certainly slimline compared to some of the monstrosities you see. There’s a a 20” Wilderness Solo LED bar mounted up top – and beneath it is a Tabor 10s winch from Warn Below: ARB’s Summit rear bumper is quite a discreet looking thing, too – but if you try running into it, you’ll soon learn that it’s nothing if not solid. With such a long overhang, protecting the back bodywork on a pick-up will always be a priority – this thing could ride its way down a rock ledge and the only evidence would be a sadder looking rock ledge
Pick-ups are known for many things, among them a terrible breakover angle. Even with plenty of ground clearance, you don’t need to go far off-road for stuff to start feeling pretty vulnerable under there. The answer is… well, to be careful. First with the way you drive, and second with the way you prep the vehicle. A full set of heavy-duty underbody plates from Rival definitely counts as the latter, protecting the front axle, sump, transmission and fuel tank as well as providing a load-bearing skid that helps the vehicle off-road by preventing it from getting hung up on things like rocks and tree stumps would come out on top in a head-on stack with an incoming meteorite, but how many gnarly off-road weapons do you see that come on strong with all that gear but, a few years down the line, end up looking crustier than a crab’s carapace? That won’t happen here. Job one was to give the vehicle a comprehensive Dinitrol wax job underneath: there’s not many better ways of stopping old rust in its tracks, not indeed of stopping new rust from happening in the first place. Sticking with the protection theme, the L200 has also received a full exterior Raptor treatment, using the company’s tintable paint – complete with decals, which go on using a technique Paul developed himself. If you want it to look just like this, you go to PB Customs. And there’s yet more protection to talk about, though this time it’s made of metal so that’s okay. Underneath, there’s a full set of Rival bash plates protecting the front axle, sump, transmission and
36 | FEBRUARY 2020
4pp PB L200.indd 36
4x4 17/12/2019 23:16