I thought I might expand on that skid plate.
The stock plastic drinks tray that was supplied to protect the underside of the Z-Force was getting torn to bits and wasn't protecting the underside from our bony BC back trails, worth a darn. (Though to be fair, it seemed no worse than stock skid plates on other various ORV's I have seen and owned) I
With less than 1000 Km on it the frame and under parts were taking a beating. There were broken and split parts on the plate, a big chunk was torn right off, and the undercarriage baskets and brackets were taking a beating.
I had been impressed by the Iron Baltic 10 MM thick HDPE skid plate set I bought for my Suzuki King Quad, but IB doesn't make a set for the Trail Z-Force. According to Nils Laur they can't get an example of a Z-Force Trail to measure. The main plates would fit of course, but the A-arm guards would not. No other A-arm guards IB make appeared to be compatible either.
But I found that Ricochet does make a full skid plate set for the Z-Force Trail!
So I ordered a set for the pumpkin.
They are all aluminum (IB supplies aluminum sides and a 10 MM plastic center) and the Ricochet set is available with or without an additional 1/4" HDPE skin over aluminum for the center plates, and I got those. Also they will colour anodize the visible aluminum parts for another $50.00, so what the hell, I had that done too.
The set comes in two boxes containing a bunch of plastic wrapped and paper cushioned plate parts and a big bag of fasteners and clips, and instructions. An online video is available but I didn't watch it.
Installation was pretty straightforward and the fitment is very good. Ricochet supplies all new #30 and #40 Torx fasteners and countersunk washers. Your old 10 MM head 6.0 bolts and washers go in the parts bin.
One little wrinkle was that they mistakenly punched the engine oil drain hole that's in the rear HDPE skin and meant to line up with the hole in the aluminum plate, on the wrong side of the plastic skin.
I could have laid out and hole sawed a hole on the proper side for oil draining but it wouldn't have been perfect and to be truthful, I got attitude and thought 'I just spent $1100 and it should be properly made' and all that, so I contacted Ricochet about it. To their great credit they apologized, admitted the guys on the floor are working with a new product and screwed up, and they immediately shipped me a properly made rear plastic skin, post-paid right to me here in Canada. Well done.
After a month or so of testing, this 9 piece skid plate set passes with flying colours. They're not cheap to buy but I don't think I could have done better. I highly recommend.