Let's see your custom skids

[AssBurns]

I suppose my gas tank skid not looking that means I aint wheelin it hard enough right?

Maybe you are just wheeling smarter not harder haha. I've taken mine through some stuff I probably shouldn't have and taken bad lines because not listening to my spotter or letting drunk friends be my spotters. Wheeling smarter takes more skill than wheeling harder. Sometimes wheeling harder is a little more fun though when ego and skinny pedal kick in.

 

[Black798]

[MENTION=118730]AssBurns[/MENTION] that is my favorite part of rock crawling, trying to get through areas like this without ever dragging on anything.
IMG_3169 by Phoenix Black, on FlickrIMG_2853 by Phoenix Black, on Flickr I also think I am a bit timid on the lines my rig is capable of doing just because its my daily driver and I am a little afraid to really romp on it for fear of breaking stuff where as if I had a trailer queen I really wouldn't care. Having better skids would probably change that

 

[AssBurns]

Full skids is going to be really nice forsure. Just an example of doing things I shouldn't have done. I made it up this obstacle the trip before but the whole was much smaller in front. Broke my rear ring and pinion. I made one too many attempts.

https://youtu.be/vN7sZbovQlA

 

[AssBurns]

Sneak peek of my new gas tank skid. It might look a little different than all the gas tank skids y’all are used to but, you’ll have to wait until everything else is done to see the rest...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[marmot]

I've had a few generations of custom skids. Originally I had a set of 1/8" steel skidplates built by Rockstomper that were in two sections, which covered from below the radiator to just in front of the gas tank. The problem with 1/8" steel was they morphed themselves every time I went off-road. That is, they re-curved themselves so they were really a pain to put back on after you take them off. Plus they were mounted to the frame crossmember that's directly in front of the bottom of the radiator. Eventually the steel curved enough that I cracked the plastic bottom of my stock radiator.

So next I redesigned them myself and had some steel against the same front crossmember with a lot more space between it and the radiator. The complex part was welded with steel. But then I bolted that to 1/4" thick aluminum plates (6061 in front and 2024 in the rear section). That actually worked pretty well. The aluminum was thick enough to use countersunk bolts (except that I used hex bolts in the front anyway). The 2024 aluminum resisted gouging better than 6061 but the 2024 can't be bent in a press brake as far as 6061.

A few years after that, I decided to not rely at all on the frame crossmember that's close to the radiator. I'm glad to see other people have figured that out too. It's much better to make your own frame crossmember to mount the front of the skids to. Then it was even easier to mount 2024 aluminum plates to that steel piece. I also replaced the transfer case skid section with 3/8" thick 2024 aluminum to resist bending against the transfer case. (Aluminum is 1/3 the density of steel so that section is the same weight as if it was built out of 1/8" steel, but it's many times stronger to resist bending).

I also have a custom steel skidplate for the fuel tank that was built by Off-Road Solutions. I don't think that's available "off the shelf". It was built in their shop.

Pics only show my latest version of skids.

 

[DesertCanyons]

Skids

Marmot,
Nice set of skids. I like that front bar addition. Is that tube steel with flat end plates? Any photos of just the front bar?

 

[johnsoma73]

Custom skid plates

Hi guys,
For you that made the custom skid plates, when you did flush bolts, how did you tighten the top nut when you can’t secure the other side of the bolt because it is a flat carriage bolt?
Won’t it just spin the carriage bolt when you get to a certain tightness?
Thank you,
Mike