Chassis underside getting badly scratched

[echelon6]

After owning my nitro onroad rs4 for about a gallon of fuel now, I've noticed the underside of the chassis is getting quite badly scratched from me bashing on imperfect ground.

Just wondering, is this normal and expected? Are chassis's designed to be scratched like this and can they withstand this sort of punishment ?

Anything I can do to mitigate this? Also just wondering, what shock oil should I use (to stiffen my stock shocks) when I get around to replacing the shock oil? Or should I just get new shocks which are stiffer? I run a hpi rs4 evo 3+

 

[robmob]

Raise your ride height by adjusting the pre-load on the springs and trying different shock mounting positions.. You may need to go to stiffer springs as well.

Not that when you do this, you may also need to adjust the camber on your wheels to accommodate the higher height or the handling may suffer.

 

[echelon6]

Hmm not sure whether my rs4 can do that, I'll search around.

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

Yeah, it's normal. My MTX-3 bottom scratched also, and no performance lost. It's just ground scratches. If you want to prevent it, look around and see if they sell under covers made of lexan or plexiglass, that's what lots of guys with a carbon fiber chassis use to not ruin the nice carbon fiber.

 

[echelon6]

Just worried that the chassis will eventually wear down so much screws can't be taken out anymore

I just searched Tower and couldn't find anything along the lines of undercovers, could you pls show me an example somewhere of what's available?

 

[RevoAxial28RR]

dude don't wory about the scratches, when you hit a bump the car is bottoming out and just running over rocks. even if you raise the ride height the shock from most bumps can still cause this. its nothing to worry about. my r40 has atleast 8+ gal through it and no problems. but if your really concerned for the cool purple color, go to lowes and find a thin sheet of lexan, cut it to the shape of your chassis, and find a way to attach it to the underside of your car.

 

[echelon6]

Gotta love the cool purple color, but what I'm concerned about is at the corner where the mill is located, that part is much more scratched than the other side, and all other parts of the chassis, indicating the weight of the mill is having a huge impact on the frequency of the chassis bottoming out to the side a bit...

The area under the mill is now so scratched that I can see it is noticeably thinner. All my shocks are purely stock everything

 

[Scrogg]

DE Racing makes skidplates, they sell them on E-Bay for 8 bucks for 3 plates.
It is just a small thin piece of plastic that bolts to the chassis via the diff screws. No mods necessary. They offer them for a lot of popular off road vehicles, I do not know if they make them for your car. You could easliy make some from from scrap plastic.