I am no where near as hardcore at offroading as some of the members on here, but i do have a set on mine, I got a set of Shrocks, used for 250 bucks a little over a year ago. So, why did I get them, well, as you said, should I be in the situation, it is nice knowing they are there to protect, also, I figured in the event of maybe a mild t-bone type accident, where if somone should run into the side of my X, they should help prevent some damage there as well.

take your time and look around, you may find a used set for sale at a decent price, you just might have to buy your own grade 8 hardware to install them with. Can you build your own, hell yeah, lots of people have done that, I would have if I had access to the needed tools, plus I have never done any kind of welding either.