skid plate

[hankd]

hi all
so i was offroading my 4th gen v8 quite a bit the last few years and the first thing to fall off it was the factory skid plate. the guys i was running with said it was pretty useless so i left it off. i believe this advice was from the perspective of banging the ski plate off things, not protecting the engine from water. over the last two years i've had a shop replace the alternator, ac compressor, ps pump and idler pully due to mud and water getting in the bearings. i toasted the rad pretty good too but i managed to replace that on my own thanks to some great writeups on here.

i still drive the vehicle off road quite a bit, but i typically stay out of mud and other things that could get me in trouble although it does find me sometimes. i've actually become pretty paranoid about it. anyway i do wonder if i had the skid plate if i could have saved replacing those parts and i don't want to replace em again. i am considering buying a used oem skid plate. just wondering what your thoughts are on this - i do not ever expect to bang the skid plate off anything, just to protect from splashing and getting muck into the accessories. i can't afford any of the aftermarket stuff. thanks as always

 

[BackOff]

Yes.
Skids will help deflect water and mud and snow.

The rubber splash guards in the wheel well really helps too.
Full cover ones work even better that OEM.

The OEM skids bend and deflect untill they are stoped by things like your front diff.
With the gas tank its a plastic gas tank under there that eventually stops the skid from going any further.

That thin sheet metal OEM skids are made of are not really made for the stuff folks put then through.