2010 assault tunnel protectors needed?

[XCaSSAULT]

Doing track alignment and heard a bad rattle noise. Looked up in my tunnel and seen the front bracket that holds the plastic protectors up came un-rivited.

Are these needed? Was this on from factory or did previous owner put it on?

It looks like it's interfering with the 2" comp track and should be removed anyway. Be a pain in the *** to fix. I don't plan on ever using studs. The rubber paddles won't rub through the coolant guards right? Or are these coolant guards?

Any thought would be appreciated

 

[XCaSSAULT]

Anyone? Going to u.p. this weekend need to get it back together

 

[TrailRebel]

It looks like something that the previous owner added on.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[XCaSSAULT]

I think so too. I just cut it off in front of the last good hanger. U can see black marks from the track under the protector so I'm sure someone wanted to run a studded track on this thing. I just wanted to be sure since I'm not very fimiliar with these iq chassis. I'm sure there's no way the rubber track is gonna eat through the aluminum.

I also wonder if the coolant goes through a seperate tube under the aluminum notch or if that aluminum notch down thing is the coolant channel...?