It seems to have every access available so removal would be unnecessary. Cleaning may be a challenge.
Yamaha Wolverine Steel Skid Plate
Yamaha said in one of their videos that the Wolverine sports a steel welded skid plate that cover the full underside of the machine. In my mind, I think this welded skid plate could hinder maintenance, modifications and aftermarket options. Does anyone else feel like they would rather have a removable skid plate on their machine?
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Yeah cleaning would be a pain, plus to me it's more susceptible to dents and dings that aren't removable. A vehicle with a removable skid plate can be swapped out for a new one or an aftermarket one that provides better protect and better sliding surface in rough terrain.
A trade off either way. Steel makes a good skid plate and being welded in adds tremendous strength to the frame. It is just heavy. But like you said it could make some things a lot more work to fix or modify. Hopefully Yamaha put a lot of thought into accessibility when they made the decision to weld it.
It will be hard to straighten after some big rock hits but its easy to make a tool to straighten it. Some areas will be easy to straighten from the top.
It's Yamaha's version of a counter weight, lol.
Very nice upgrade. I have Trail Armor on my Cat.
many people upgrade the skids, no need to with Wolverine
This will save you about 600 dollars. Very nice
I like it. Yamaha will have hopefully designed a good way to pull the plastics for top access. The bottom is designed to take a hit and slide off. However any major impacts should probably be looked at. As far as weight is concerned I'm happy the mass is placed down low. Means the CG will be too to compensate for the seat hight.
Rhino has a metal skid plate, there are ways to access what you need to on them.
There has to be. Some technician somewhere has to work on it. Yamaha doesn't want to pay for extra man hours due to poor design.
Yes it could be removed, but I wouldn't.
Beings the skid is permanent, yamaha will have made it easy to acessable from the top
The welded plate tends to make me concerned. I would prefer being able to remove it. However with a skid plate that big it would be heavy and hard to handle.
Rhino's are like that. it's what Yamaha prefers.
Honestly i prefer the full welded skid. No bolts to break off when it takes the inevitable pounding I'll be giving it. I love where Yamaha has gone with this rig. It's looking rather burly in all the right places.
Yamaha offers an aluminum skid plate accessory to supplement the steel, personally I'll not be adding the aluminum.
Aluminum to reinforce steel, interesting........
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