Wow!
That's a lot of questions
You might want to break them up into the sections of the site.
I can help with one.
Have a look at
http://www.soxc.org
We also have a message board:
http://www.soxc.org/forum
I would be careful with your brush guard choice.
It may cause you more grief than protection if you take the X off road.
You will just have to be a bit more careful not to bump (hit) anything and it may bend into the body causing more damage than if you did not have it mounted.