Side rub rails - why keep them?

[dgorila1]

Question regarding the side rub rails on skoolies: are they purely for protective purposes to prevent damage to the body or do they also help stiffen the flat side panels? I'm just wondering if they could be removed for a "cleaner" body look without sacrificing body integrity. Thoughts?

[lornaschinske]

We are keeping ours. I incorporated them into our paint design. They are pretty tough and we want to use them to help protect the body. Given what it took for me to pull some of the "dings" out of the bottom rub rails....oh yeah, I keeping those little gems! I don't know what that bus hit but it took some power to put those dings in it!

[wtd]

My bus, a TransitLiner - non-schoolbus version of a Saf-T-Liner - comes from the factory either way.
Oddly this one horse town I live in has both versions. There's a prison at the other end of town that uses a TransitLiner, just like mine for prisoner transport. It doesn't have rub rails.
I looked it over pretty good one day when I found myself fueling on the other side of the same island as the prison bus. All the riveting is the same, just no rub rails.
So I guess it doesn't have anything to do with body strength, maybe just better crash protection.
I left mine, mostly through laziness - it's easier to paint it than to grind off a coupla hundred rivets and then patch a coupla hundred rivet holes. They worked into the paint scheme pretty well and kept it from looking like a huge Tylenol.