Never hit it, but I have the ironman plates and they do a good job of protecting that. They have taken are fair few hits and paid for themselves I would say by protecting expensive bits from damage.

The plates are solid, although one thing I have been wondering is how much heat they trap by blocking/reducing circulation - car has run a bit hotter since installing - although I think I might have a cooling system issue - was in some soft sand the other week and the coolant temp got up to 116 degrees before I noped out of that adventure.