No worries- I've done It twice.. And the ring gear didn't get damaged, but the ring gear cuts through the cover and spits out all your gear oil. Both times were in rock garden sections of trail when I got a little overwhelmed and lost track of where each rock was. Here's a pic of each section of trail on the day each happened on.
"Tsf crushers". If you zoom in, even the small rocks have scrapes on them... That's because they are all big enough to hit your diff..
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And "quack attack"
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But if you guys think you can keep track of all those rocks, and don't feel like you need to protect something that will leave you high and "dry" if damaged, then by all means- go for it. Just carry spare gear oil, a hammer, and some jb weld.