MetalCloak

So Today, I'm going to talk to you about the Metal Cloak Under Cloak Armor System that Installed and have been running on my 2023 Jeep Groupicon 392 Extreme Recon Edition. I'm going to tell you what I Let's get started. So let me start by telling you that Metal Cloak is a sponsor of t It'somet However, there are things that I do not And what I love about Metal Cloak is that they wouldn't have it any other way. So let's take a look at my 392. I put about 7000 miles on it so far and many, many, many of those miles have been off road and some of them on pretty dang tough trails. You can see by looking at my wheels and my fenders that I'm not babying t And if we get down here to look under the frame and everyt And if we get even lower here inside underneath the Jeep, you'll see some significant dings on the armor. I love seeing those dings. Every scratch, dent or whatever on the undercloak system is one that didn't So overall, I'm really happy I have t But let me dive into my full review. The installation on t Now I'm lucky enough to have a friend Nathan over at Outdoor Auto who has a beautiful shop with a very nice lift that I could put my Jeep on for t But it could 100% be done without a lift. It would just be a little bit harder. You'll need some basic tools, mostly an impact driver in my case. And metalcloak gives you all the hardware you need to put the system together. You start by removing the old skids, w They are a total joke. Don't Once you take them off, you realize just how crappy they really are. They're lightweight, terrible coverage, catch points everywhere. So it's just bad. The undercloak system goes on in sections and the sections overlap. So there are no edges that might catch rocks w Even the bolts metalcloak gives you are countersunk to prevent catc The transmission cover was pretty straightforward to install, but the motor mount brackets for the motor skid were difficult. Now t It's the 392. The engine is so big in t I approached them from underneath, but my friend and Patreon supporter, Le Engine bay. In any case, somet I made the mistake of So be careful if you have a 392. I don't Putting the gas tank skid on was pretty straightforward as well. There are a few mounting bolts you have to attach, but it's not complicated. The muffler skid gave me a little bit of heartburn, but that's probably because I had to mount it at home and didn't have a lift. It has four brackets that attach to the main skid. It's pretty straightforward, just a little tight in some spots. So that's my experience with the install process. You can definitely DIY it. Just takes a little bit of muscle, a little bit of fighting bolts and stuff Now the first t Now t It's not very extreme. It's out in the O'ai Were also testing out my best friend's new metal cloak game changer suspension, but you can see that review in a separate video. So let me tell you a bit about how it performed after the install. As much as I tried, I didn't really encounter any areas where rock scraped the underside of my Jeep. But I will say then I took it on some harder rock landing trails in the central Idaho mountains, and t Let me be clear, I am not a rock crawler. I'm an overlander who also does some rock landing. So the use case I'm about to show you is relevant to both rock crawlers and overlanders, I t First, I took it to Was And along the way, there was a particularly gnarly creek crossing where I took a bad line going up and a bad line going down, where I But the undercloak took the No catc The next day, we took it to Boulder Basin, w One stretch of the trail, the rocks were so loose and the creek was so wet that my tires sunk down and I got The undercloak took it no problem. And you can see here, when I finally did get traction to move forward, I No damage. Later on that trail, we I didn't Now, t Something that happens a lot, especially if you don't rock crawl very much My last example is from our recent trip on the Nevada BDR. We took both our rigs on t What we encountered on these washouts were constant. And even with 35s on my Jeep, it scraped a fair amount. There was one section where we had to crawl over a washed out creek bed and I was very glad to have the undercloak then. Our gladiator scraped even more than a 392 and it doesn't have an undercloak system on it. So we had to stop multiple times to check on all the dragging parts to make sure everyt So what do I t Well, first of all, I they put a lot of R&D into the design of the system and the materials are top notch. It fit nicely into my Jeep and it works exactly as advertised. It's not perfect though. No product is perfect. So I have a couple the first is weight. Steel skids are heavy. The metal cloak skids are not as heavy as others but it'still heavy. It's adding weight to your build. The weight is low, w So this is why some overlanders prefer al And when I asked Metal Cloak about t Well, al So you can say weight with al So that's what Metal Cloak says and I t And the second t When you're driving on overgrown roads, which overlanders often do, the skids kind of chop the weeds that are sticking up and they stuff them next to really hot things in your rig, And it kind of packs it in there, w Now, t It's a skid plate issue. I can't comment on whether or not Metal Cloak skids do that more or less than other brands. But if you're out there in the fields overgrown weeds, stop every now and then and clean out the debris. I had a smoking Jeep a few times on the Nevada BDR, w The bottom line is that without the under cloak system on my Jeep, it would most definitely be in the shop right now getting somet There's no doubt in my mind. T If you're doing 35s or lower, put skids on your rig. You will not regret it. And if you're putting skids on your rig, I t I have a link in the description of t Also, if you're watc We're trying to reach 50,000 subscribers. It doesn't cost you anyt So thank you in advance. Until next time, I'm Will from Venture to Rome. There he is. Yeah, buddy!