Aftermarket Skid Plates for 1st Gens

[RATTFINK]

Post Up Your After Market Skid Plates.
This will be a place for those who do not have them yet, to better help them make a decision in what they are after.

Cost:
Producer:
Style/Options:
Full Coverage:
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[TJTJ]

I had a set of Skid-Row plates, front, engine, t-case, gas tank, from about 2002 - 2008 or so, by which time, they were so beat to crap, I had to put them out to pasture.

The gas skid was intact enough to keep though.

I replaced them with Shrockworks skid plates, as the Shrock plates protected more of the underbelly, especially the t-bar areas.

Mounting of both was about the same, almost bolt for bolt...and both used high quality steel, and super tough powder coating.

Quality-wise, I'd say they were about equal.

Performance-wise, the Shrocks worked better in the t-bar areas, and about identically elsewhere. I was concerned about the t-bar areas though, as some buddies had scored the bars on rocks, and then had fatigue failures of the scored bars....and I wanted MY bars to be protected.

They cost about the same back at the times I got them...You'd need to go their respective web-sites, etc, to compare for current pricing.


New Skid-Row Plates:

Old Skid-Row Plates:

 

[Ricel]

Rocking the skid row frint and engine. Saved my butt way too many ways to count. Specially in murky water crossings. Would have liked the tbars covered though. One flaw is the placement of the front bottom bolt heads. Prob not much more you can do to fix them, but rounded one dragging it over a rock, fun gettingthat one out.

 

[TJTJ]

Rocking the skid row frint and engine. Saved my butt way too many ways to count. Specially in murky water crossings. Would have liked the tbars covered though. One flaw is the placement of the front bottom bolt heads. Prob not much more you can do to fix them, but rounded one dragging it over a rock, fun gettingthat one out.

Use a flat bottomed U-Bolt (Nuts up over the skid) to attach there, and help avoid the bolt heads being rock shaved off.

There are also rock washers, essentially thicker washers that have a berm surrounding the bolt head to protect them, etc.

 

[Ricel]

Thanks tj but the front skiddoesnt take u bolts. Sems from your pic you var ripped them off as well

 

[TJTJ]

Thanks tj but the front skiddoesnt take u bolts. Sems from your pic you var ripped them off as well

I know...I don't even have those skids any more.

I had days where by the time I got back to the p lot at RC, etc, all that's holding the plates on are zip ties and baked mud.

You'd need to drill it out and use U-bolts instead of the original bolt points...its tougher.

 

[Ricel]

Hmmm i think that might happen. As alwats thanks for the info.

 

[TKDx00]

I'm not sure from reading this thread. Can the GEN1 TB's be protected by Skids in someway?

 

[xearth]

I'm not sure from reading this thread. Can the GEN1 TB's be protected by Skids in someway?

Yes

This is the shrock engine/trans skid and I were to have the transfer case skid it would protect the rest of the t bars

 

[TKDx00]

Thank you sir...that's what I needed to hear/read.

 

[NMTerras]

I have the skid row skids, and as you can see in this pic of the engine and tcase skids, my sway bars are exposed. However, the skids are lower than the tbars, so it would take a direct targeted hit to miss the skids and nail the sway bars. Still, food for thought when choosing and/or designing skids...

The insertion points/adjusters are protected tho

 

[TKDx00]

I've got new TB's to put in and wanted to protect them someway. It looks like I'll be trying to get a close up view of the Shrock versions to see the bend/weld positions and possible measurements.

 

[NMTerras]

Rocking the skid row frint and engine. Saved my butt way too many ways to count. Specially in murky water crossings. Would have liked the tbars covered though. One flaw is the placement of the front bottom bolt heads. Prob not much more you can do to fix them, but rounded one dragging it over a rock, fun gettingthat one out.

I replaced the hex bolts with button caps, trying to avoid just that. But...I asked for stainless but did not get them and any rock rubbing on the button caps and they become a pia to get out.

 

[RacerXXL]

I've got new TB's to put in and wanted to protect them someway. It looks like I'll be trying to get a close up view of the Shrock versions to see the bend/weld positions and possible measurements.

Of all the TB failures you have had or read about how many were the anchor or adjuster failing vs the actual TB itself? With the Shrock I believe you will have to pull the plate to effect a repair where with the Skidrow you can still access everything to make a repair.

I have the Skidrow plates and my TB have yet to have a mark on them where the plates have plenty.

 

[NMTerras]

Of all the TB failures you have had or read about how many were the anchor or adjuster failing vs the actual TB itself? With the Shrock I believe you will have to pull the plate to effect a repair where with the Skidrow you can still access everything to make a repair.

I have the Skidrow plates and my TB have yet to have a mark on them where the plates have plenty.

^^^same here.

 

[Silver dude]

Of all the TB failures you have had or read about how many were the anchor or adjuster failing vs the actual TB itself? With the Shrock I believe you will have to pull the plate to effect a repair where with the Skidrow you can still access everything to make a repair.

I have the Skidrow plates and my TB have yet to have a mark on them where the plates have plenty.

Agreed and the same goes for skid plates in general. You have to weigh the protection vs. the use. On most trails if you wheel civilly and take the proper line you'll likely see minimal if any contact. So say it does make contact. What are the chances that damage will actually occur from this brush? Its quite small and the majority the under carriage is protected by the frame rails. I myself wouldn't bother with shielding the torsion bars. To me spring steel is pretty resilient and can take a impact and load. Not that they would have to take impact because if you impacting rocks into the bottom of the truck with force. Lets face it your driving wrong. The frame rails offer enough protection as is to the torsion bars. I just don't feel a huge heavy full coverage skid is of any real enhancement unless you use it to its fullest by roaming over boulders more then once a month. Additional weight, harder to service, blocked flow of cooling air are all things one should consider. If you wheel on the boulder path everyday or weekend then yes full skids are worthy as evident from the pictures in this thread. But, if you wheel once or twice a year then well maybe the skid plate money would be better spent elsewhere.

Also but correct me if I'm wrong but the shrock skid is designed with the two cat converters protection in mind. The fact that it covers the torsion bars is just a bonus.