The solution to keeping the underside intact is to fit underbody protection -otherwise known as bash plates- underneath the vehicle.

These plates are designed to be far stronger that the light factory panels, protecting the vital components under the vehicle from reasonable severe offroad impacts.

All plates are not created equal though, and there are several factors to consider when you're selecting underbody protection:

Strength: The protection system needs to be strong enough to prevent damage from a decent impact from what is a heavy vehicle. But it shouldn't be so strong that it risks damage to the mounting points rather than sustaining some damage itself.

Quality: As with most accessories these days, quality of design and manufacture varies greatly between the Australian manufacturers and the imported knockoffs. You get what you pay for.

Coverage: It needs to cover as many of the vital underbody components as possible.

Weight: For practicality and efficiency, you don't want a system that adds too much weight to the vehicle. This not only reduces useful load capacity by eating into the GVM, but also wastes fuel because you're lugging around excess weight.

Taking the above into consideration, I've chosen a 3-piece set from Custom Offroad Accessories in Sumner Park, QLD. The set replaces the factory sheet metal and plastic guards under the engine and front differential, plus the tube/sheet metal guard under the sump of the transmission. If you're happy to retain the factory transmission guard, you can just get the front 2-piece kit, but I recommend going with all three. At the time of writing, the 3-piece set costs around $530.00, and the 2-piece set costs around $400. The transmission guard is also available separately for around $200.

All kit components are made in Australia from folded 4mm stainless steel, which provides sufficient strength to protect the vehicle from impact, while only adding around 30-35kg of weight.