Questions about aftermarket front skid plate designs
 

Hello, I've been looking into replacing my front skid plate since I dinged up my OEM plate pretty good a few weeks ago. When looking at the different options, I notice some designs only attach at the very front and rear of the plate (using as few as 4 bolts total on one design). Maybe I'm overthinking things but is so few attachment points sufficient for the potential impact/sheering forces applied to these plates?

Also, thinking along the same lines, I'm wondering how important it is to have a support in the middle of the plate as shown below? It seems some of the plate designs don't have anything like that.

Opinion here:

The most important location to support is up under the front of the engine there - that is going to take the biggest hits. The front skid crossmember (in front of the radiator) is pretty weak - you might also consider picking up the two tow/tie-down points out on the frame rails. Its a bit more work, but ties into a stronger part of the frame.

-Charlie

That's the part that immediatly bent on my other skid. I replaced them with a set of Savage skids. The other area I see lacking on a lot of designs is the Radiator Protection. Savage and DOC Offroad cover the entire radiator, while many of the others leave the corner exposed for some reason.

That's a good point about the front crossmember. Unfortunately, my aftermarket bumper is already making use of those connection points but maybe I can still figure something out.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who thought that support point was important. I was really surprised to see that some designs completely omit it.

Just to clarify, are you saying your older plate bent because its mid section wasn't supported?

Looking at pics of the Savage skids, they look really nice but it looks like they closed up shop. Also looked up DOC Offroad but didn't seem to find anything. Did they also close down? **EDIT** Never mind, I found them on Instagram... kinda weird that they don't have an online website/storefront.

Yeah, I did notice some of the plate designs leave the radiator corners exposed. I actually asked one of the companies why they designed it that way and after speaking with the engineers, the sales person confirmed it was an old design and no one knew why it was like that lol. My only guess is that maybe they wanted to leave some extra clearance to work with the stock recovery point and tie-down brackets.

My Schrockworks (also closed!) skids fully box the radiator - the challenge is clearance. My aftermarket Denso radiator is just a smidge wider and touches on both sides... definitely not ideal since the rad is mounted to the body and the skid is mounted to the frame, so there is a fair amount of movement there. I actually removed the front crossmember, since the bumper and skid stiffen that area enough already (Shrockworks bumper has a large stiffener and mount that bolts to the front of the frame rails).

Longer bolts will solve the issue - I run OEM hooks on both sides using the longer OEM bolts for plenty of thread engagement - I have the bumper support, skid and hooks all bolted up to those two holes. It is a bit of a pain to align 40 lbs of steel, but there you go...

Here's a pic before the front plate and bolt was added to my bumper/skid setup:
https://i.imgur.com/DGmcLf1.jpg

The little dents in the frame edges are for crash crumple zones, so keep that in mind for strength. There is an extension to the bumper bracket that goes all the way to the bolt you can see about a foot back on the frame on the inside to stiffen that area up.

-Charlie

Oh wow, that looks like a great way to stiffen up the front. I guessing I'd probably need to do some kind of custom skid plate to make it tie into the frame rails?

I'm also thinking that any new crossmember support would need to sandwich my bumper connection points between it and the frame rails.

So after scouring the internet, I've found the following list of manufacturers who are currently offering skid plates for the 3rd gen 4runner. If anyone knows of any others that I've somehow missed, I'd greatly appreciate feedback.

RCI
Victory
RA
Talon
CBI
Skid Row
True North
Doc Offroad
Budbuilt

**EDIT** (to add more manufactures)
Coastal Offroad
4xInnovations

Looks like you missed 4XInnovation. I have a full set including TC and they are almost overkill-thick and mount to existing frame holes at almost too many points.. Skid Plates

The trans and tcase skids look beefy as anything else, but the Radiator protection is a miss for me.

Thanks for the reminder! I did look at their plates early on and my initial thought was that 1/4" steel might be overkill for my needs considering the additional weight. I do like how they make use of all the stock mounting points though.

Maybe it's just the angle in that pic but I believe the front face of the plate extends wide enough to cover the full width of the radiator (where many other designs don't for some reason). Or are you concerned about something striking the radiator from the sides? If full side coverage really is important then I think only Doc Offroad currently makes a skid plate like that.

Exactly why I went with DOC Offroad for my new set.

I run trails that I honestly have no business running in a stock rig with 31s... but i've got almost all the armor you can add, so I've been able to do some pretty serious buggy type trails.

My Savage skids have taken a beating in exactly that area. Even the OEM skidplate has full coverage for that area. I just can't figure why all the others are designed that way.

I guess I could see a lucky piece of lumber impaling the radiator corner, but it would take a special piece of stone to do so (EDIT - on the trails I do, anyway). I wasn't really thinking too deeply about it when I got the 4XIs. A few years in, I would love to have a few dozen small holes drilled in these heavy mofos for uh, 'drainage' (weight loss).

Good to know it's feasible for that area to take some abuse.

As for why so many designs leave those corners exposed, I'm guessing many customers don't realize at the time of purchase and many probably never do hardcore off-road trails so it never becomes an issue. I imagine it also saves the manufacturer cost/complexity and there is probably some weight savings which the customer may notice when shopping the options.

I've noticed there is some variance in how much the radiator ends are exposed in the different designs so even though they're not fully enclosed, the exposure is so small on some designs that risk of damage might be close negligible (requiring the perfect shaped obstacle coming at just the right angle to slip though the gap). However, the catastrophic damage that would occur in such an instance probably makes full enclosure a priority for anyone who does serious off-road trails.

On another note, does anyone know how much the stock plates weigh? I think I saw the heavier OEM front piece comes in a 12-13 lbs so I'm guessing both pieces together total something like 20 lbs?