Well I had to make a deal with my wife is she would let me spend money on these skid plates. She is now allowed to drive my truck off-road. Now I didn’t say where off-road I would let her drive.

 

I paid. But, I was bumped from the list the other day.

 

Darren (and others),

I can answer these for you first hand. The 3rd gen pictures posted by Andy are from my 4Runner.

3) I had the same concerns about rigidity after seeing how many supports were used on the AZ skids made by Schaefer and Nevit and that Buds design had none. However, I recently returned from a trip to AZ that conquered some of the hardest trails out there. These trails took a toll on the 4Runner. Damage included bending both TJM mounts, bent rear lower control arm, mushroomed rear control arm mount, minor deformation of the frame where the sliders are mounted. I'm trying to paint a picture that this is not just a "beefy" comment. Here are some pics of the skid plate afterward. There is very, very slight deformation of the skid in places that took extremely hard hits with the full weight of the truck. Nothing that posed a danger to any of the components that you are trying to protect with a skid. Also, nothing that will keep the bolts from aligning when taking it on and off. I would expect similar even if there were supports.





One feature that I like that adds a lot of structural support to the skid is the bend that goes up between the lower A arms. This one:



4) Yes and no. The clearance on the bottom is definately as tight as possible. I'm actually considering making some spacers for the rear two bolts to give the steering rack a little more room. Right now it makes slight contact with the skid and I'm concerned it might transfer too much of the force of a hit to that component. In the front of the skid (which doesn't affect ground clearance) there is quite a bit of room and it could be tighter. But since it doesn't hinder approach angle it isn't an issue.

5) There are 5 mounting points: 3 in the front and 2 in the rear. The front 3 reuse the bolts from the stock skid plate. The two rear are supplied and are recessed allen head bolts.

 

I've met your wife.

Better start shopping for an exo.

 

i need a xmember for my dual case.. how does this work?

 

thanks for the comments brad. i'll check mine first, but an easy fix to the rear clearance issues w/ the steering rack would be solved by tacking a couple washers on the top side of the holes to drop the plate down a touch.

as of right now, darren's plan is to send his skid to me and let me weld in some 1"x3/16" angle along the front on the inside for ribs and then add some on the bottom between the lower arms to beef that up a touch. then when i'm done, i forward them on to him. so you don't see any need for any extra support? even around the XF case on the belly pan?

 

THIS GROUP BUY CLOSES AT
5PM EST ON THURSDAY, APRIL 13TH
- NO EXCEPTIONS -


To participate, copy the list, paste it in the reply box at the bottom of this thread and add your name, product description, and price to it. After you do that, you have until 5PM on Thursday, April 13th to call Bud with your Credit Card info and Shipping Address. He will give you a shipping estimate and total amount when you call. The SOONER YOU DO THIS, THE BETTER!

He will be holding all orders until we get 10 pieces paid for. To pay, you MUST call in with the CC info and shipping address. When he get's the required 10 pieces paid for, then AND ONLY THEN will he begin to process the payments and ship the skids. This is what I offered to him as protection against people backing out and he agreed that this is the way that he'd like to do it.

 

Brad, thanks for the pics.. can i see the mushroomed rear control arm mount?

 

i was thinking the same thing...

 

I'm on the phone with Bud right now. (I made the mistake of getting him talking...)LOL

He says THANKS! February was his best month ever, then March was even better, and with this group buy, April will be even better than March!

As a matter of fact, business has him pretty swamped. He is going to work on getting everything together and out this weekend, but it may take into next week to handle all the orders. If you need something especially quick, give him a call.

Everything is in stock except belly pans which should be in tomorrow and rear trusses for Tacomas, which is what he's working on.

You can put me down paid for a skid and crossmember.

 

i cant wait till the 13th to get my order shipped, if i call today will it be shipped tomarrow or on the 13th?

 

Read my post above - Bud is going to try and get them out this weekend. If you need it sooner, let him know when you place the order.

 

For the front skid I don't see the need for extra support. The thing is heavy enough as is. Some give is ok since it absorbs the force of the impact. The problem would be if the skid was not rigid enough to protect the covered components from such an impact. I don't see this being a problem with the exception of the rear spacing issue mentioned previously.

As far as the belly pan is concerned, I have no experience with it. It has a lot larger flat surface and fewer bends than the front skid. I also don't know how much clearance there is between it and the xfer case.

 

I took some pictures, but they don't show it real well:





Basically, the steel in the mount folded and mashed together. Fortunately it doesn't appear to have affected the alignment of the control arm and there's about 1/32nd of clearance between the arm and the mount so they are not rubbing.

 

those things are in such a poor position.. i bent one of my arms already and i havent done much id consider near "hardcore"

 

well i can place the order today but i just want to get it shipped so itll b here next week and i can get all my ds's fabbed up

 

Brad, thank you for the information. That definitely helps.

 

the AZRAIN skid plates were 11 guage. thats ~ 1/8" right? 3/16" is pretty thick stuff...

 

3/16" is what i built the main beam of my bumper out of! it's THICK

 

me too. very thick.