Adding a keel guard is an important mod to do. Like most people, I got the eight foot version. It could almost use a nine footer, but for some reason, that extra foot is significantly more so not worth it. The kit comes with a stainless steel bow guard, so I fabricated that into a skid guard at the aft-most point to greater protect that bottom-most tip. That also gave some needed overall length, so I could protect a few more inched up front. Adding a keel guard is not hard, but I've also added one to my boat, and can tell you it's a lot easier to add it at this point, than when you'd have to crawl underneath it to do it.