shackle protection?

as a fabricator wannabe™, i'm designing my own custom rear bumper...

was thinking about incorporating some kind of protection for the shackles, but i've never seen this done before--
is that because:

A) they don't need it (let the gas tank skid take the hit)
2) it would adversely affect the departure angle
third) fill-in-the-blank ??

thanks in advance.

They don't need the protection. The leaf spring steel is strong enough to not worry about, and the bottoms of the shackles usually don't stick any lower than the springs, so the spring would take the hit. If they do stick low enough to worry about then they're aftermarket and should be thick enough steel to not worry about them. I think mine are made from 3/8" steel which is a lot thicker than you'd want to make something to protect them. It would also get in the way or make your departure angle worse.

also - any type of protection that would do anything to help them would more than likely inhibit their free motion... and if it is far enough back not to inhibit, then the rock or whatever can get in there and hit it anyway...

it sounds like a great place to pack extra mud though...

-Ranger

thanks for the replies...

i was thinking more along the lines of having something (perhaps even a D-ring mount) *next to* but a tad lower than the shackles...
therefore if you came down off a ledge, you'd hit that instead, yet the shackles could still go through their enire range of motion.

not worried so much about the shackles themselves, but rather ripping them from the mount.

...but maybe that isn't very likely, or at least not enough to be of concern ?? :dunno:

i'm sure it will help once i've got a bumper on there, but right now w/ no bumper and the recent rear-quarter chop, those suckers
just look so vulnerable hanging back there!

if you are concerned about the mount just box it with a little angle. i wouldn't integrate it into the bumper though