Just a heads up..
Yesterday on Holcomb Creek Trail out of a group of 7 4Runners, the only one who had a problem crawling over the rocks was the one with this skid plate.
Cracked the transfer case! Lost all the oil.
Simply by sliding VERY gently over a rock, the ridgeness of this skid cover transferred all the weight onto the bolts and cracked the casing.
I believe that if the stock skid (which is still crappy) was on there, the stock skid would have just bent and we would not have had this incident.
Eventually used JP weld to seal up the crack and refilled the transfer case and moved on (3hrs later!).
I would seriously consider this skid as unsuitable. If you need one (and you do if you rock crawl) you need a more substantial skid that is bolted to the frame, not the case itself.
Remember the transfer case is only aluminium so putting that super strong skid on and relying on the bolts it attaches to, to protect your case is IMO, not justifiable.
I can guarantee you that this incident was NOT due to a hard slam or aggressive sliding on a rock. I was within feet of the truck and watching it when it happened and there was no indication there was any problem - until we saw oil pouring out the bottom!
The driver was an experienced offroader and was following the line of the trucks that were directly in front.
Just a heads up and your experience might vary.
Cheers
Mark
