Quote:
Originally Posted by scshack
I'm in the process of pricing out skid plates/body armor for my 3rd gen. I'm finding out that various companies make various armor that covers different parts of the undercarriage. Tough to find a "full kit" if there is such a thing. From my research, these are the vulnerable and skid plate/armored areas:
1) Skid plate for engine
2) For transfer case
3) For transmission
4) For both lower control arms (in the front)
5) For the gas tank
6) Skid plate for the rear differential (the pumpkin)
Brands
RCI - 1, 2, 3, 4
Bud Built - 1, 2 & 3 (belly pan), 6
Shrockworks - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
CBI - 1, 2 & 3 (rear skid)
There are of course more brands but most are coverage for 1, 2, and 3.
My budget is around $1000 and I would like to have the most coverage I can have for body armor. I don't do any hard wheeling, but ride on a lot of boulders and rocks and want to have some extra assurance, as well as push further down harder trails and lines. Also, I don't mind painting the skid plates if needed.
What are others riding with? What is overkill and what is essential? Thanks in advance.
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Couple other options I’ll throw out there for you. 4xinnovations has good skids, although theirs only covers 1&3 (I bought an RCI transfercase skid alone and had to do a very small modification to get it to work). Eimkeiths LCA reinforcements are IMO the way to go. I had the RCI’s (bought when I got the transfer skid) and they are ok. I had to do a ton of cutting with the grinder to get them to not hit the frame where the LCA cam tabs are. Maybe they revised them but I doubt it.. You don’t necessarily have to protect the entire diff like budbuilts (you loose a tiny bit of ground clearance). I have the ruffstuff diff armor, Marlin crawler also makes one and I think trail gear might too. These all have to be welded on though but are significantly less expensive than the bud built one. Last recommendation is lil skips gas tank skid I’ve heard is the go to..
Edit: I also have the above mentioned lotus skids and they work fine, eimkieth also has a welded on option for that as well.