In 2019 we purchased our 20.6 Zone RV - Offroad Limited Edition - ZN328 in preparation for starting our caravan adventures around Australia. 

At that time, Zone RV didn’t offer or have a solution to protect the suspension or plumbing from rocks or stone damage while travelling on dirt roads.

Seeing the need to protect our investment from damage that could potentially delay or at worse cancel our trip plans, I decided to set about designing and manufacturing our own “Underbody Stone Protection System” (USPS) that could provide this protection needed when travelling down any dirt road.

Having spent most of my working life in our Engineering and Manufacturing family business with the available high-tech machinery, it wasn’t hard to come up with a very ingenious design that was not restrained to but working with, off-the-shelf products that could produce a similar concept and complement the high level of quality build that we all chose above all other caravan manufacturers.

After designing, developing, manufacturing and testing our USPS on our own van and being so impressed with the protection and performance, I wanted to share our experience with other Zoners. 

I then decided to forward my information to the various Facebook Zone pages for a solution to a problem that had not been considered before, apart from a hand full of Zoners doing the best they could with what was available, from off the shelf components and various hardware.

It has been 4 years now, and the product has grown from strength to strength with every Zone owner that has invested in our USPS and seeing firsthand the results from the protection it has given the underneath side of their Zone RV.

These days the new Zone RV comes with two mudflaps attached to the underside of your van, which will span inside the main chassis rails measuring around 150cm wide. These mudflaps are also attached to the cross member, making them too high off the ground to stop any rocks or stones from travelling through.

The average wheel track of a four-wheel drive towing a Zone RV today is between 169cm to 191cm. Our USPS covers the wheel of a vehicle track up to 210cm, providing 40% more protection, particularly in the area that needs it the most. 

This is all possible through our specially designed mounting rail that attaches to the chassis cross member, which also allows the mudflaps to be dropped 13cm lower into the path of the rocks/stones, significantly reducing the possibility of damage to suspension and plumbing.