Let's talk armor

So the thought of putting on armor onto my 2nd gen 5lug has been crossing my mind a lot lately. My question is will most armor traditionally put on a v6 bolt straight on without mods? How would we combat the added weight? I can tell you from my experience the aal's only do so much in the rear especially with a shell and drawers in the back. How about the front suspension as well? Any recommendations on tried and true armor for the 5lug. I looked through the search and Google with not much in regards to info being found. Look forward to see what everyone else has come up with.

--pyrotaco

Edit-
I know there's gonna be several saying why armor on a 5lug. Simple... Protection. When you use your truck as a truck and are in the field it's nice to have that extra little bit of coverage for anything you may encounter. This truck isn't used as a mall crawler.

 

As long as the armour doesn't bolt into where the skid plate would bolt in it will fit. The only difference is the frame, so if its designed to be bolted into that specific hole, drilling would be needed. Everything should bolt right in. It would handle the weight the same a 6lug would (not the greatest)

 

As far as aftermarket bumpers/armor - any designed for the 6 lugs, should fit onto the 5 lugs - the mount points are the same on both trucks - the front suspension/frame stub. The one (aesthetic) factor, is that most aftermarket bumpers are wider than the 5-lugs fender's, due to the 6 lugs use of factory fender flares.

I've had my ARB for about 4 years now. From time of install, it has not moved or shifted. My suspension is still holding strong under the increased loading with the Bilstein 4600's and the front spacers in place. With the Bilstein's/spacer, i had about 3/4" of additional suspension sag over what would be expected without a bumper. This differential has not increased with time.

The trade-off, is that the front suspension is stiff, bordering on harsh, depending on depth of potholes/number of VW beetles already in the pot holes. As such, it does track stiff and flat, in cornering.

It's saved my front end a few times now, from more significant damage caused by inadvertent bumps against other immovable objects.. no regrets about this upgrade path.

 

Thank you so much for the knowledge everyone. Sounds like I have a planned upgrade path now. I think for the rear I'm going to go with the Firestone bags to help with the current and proposed loads in the future. Eventually I'll look into a custom leaf pack when money is more available.

Any more insight or suggestions, please bring them on.

-Pyrotaco