The big day has arrived....two prototypes will be bent this weekend...test fitting will be completed and we will be offering these skidplates within a month or two. These skidplates will be direct bolt on with no drilling on your part. Price for these plates will be $300 and will come powder coated black. If you are interested in securing one of these, we will be taking pre-orders, however, a $50.00 deposit will be required. We will have pictures available this weekend for you. Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns!!

Regards,

Mike

 

That is awesome news, Mike! Finally!

What is the thickness, 1,8", 1/4", neither?

Will they accomodate the dropped diff mod?

How far back do they extend?

More ?'s later!

Thanks

 

Mike, that is great news.
Is that Maniac doing the work?

Any chance of them doing a 2nd gen also?

The only ones out there are the Downey, NWOR, & Pro Comp, and I don't care for those.

 

In no way am I trying to put down your product, but how much does the powder coating cost? I talked to someone that did that to his skidplate, and he said that as soon as he hit a rock the powder coating started to come off. If you can get them powder coated for cheap, then no problem, but if it adds to the price then maybe you could have powder coating an option??? Hope you don't take this the wrong way.

 

~any chance I could save the powder coating and get it polished instead?

 

OK kids, in the words of Lili VonShtupp, “it’s twooo, it’s twooo!”

Here’s the details. The basic shape is near the same as the Rockstomper, but has some added room for the diff drop and a handful of other changes. Here is a CAD model of the basic shape:



Structural details:
1. 4130 11 gauge (.109 thick) steel.
2. Precision bends made on a hydraulic sheet brake.
3. All mounts will be fabbed at the initial fit up.
4. The skid will come complete, bolt up, hardware included.

As Mike said, the first two sheets are in prototype and are at the shop being brake bent as we speak. The shop doing the prototype forming, welding, etc. is an aerospace shop here in Phoenix. They shall remain nameless because they are not a custom fab shop to the general public and they are close friends of mine, so please, don’t ask. I asked Mike to keep this quiet until I was sure I had the design the way I think it should be and had the manufacturing lined up. I am, it is, and we will be figuring out the mounts this weekend. After the prototypes are soundly mounted and “bash” tested, we will begin production. This should commence in the next few weeks.

I understand there are some questions regarding other applications. All I need is a willing donor. I will not BS anyone here, my design and prototyping takes time because I am an incredibly anal retentive, nit picky bastard for stuff that has my name on it. If you can live with that, it can be done.

Mike will be the exclusive dealer for this product. I am an engineer, I don’t have the time or inclination to deal with a bunch of sales stuff. I do what I do best and Mike does what he does best.

Also, thanks to Schaeffer for allowing me access to critical measurements on his skid.

Stay tuned!

Mike

 

I'm more than happy to help you guys if you need anything donor'd from my 'runner ~ and I'm local too

 

Paleaze Mr. engineer, make a 2nd gen one too

That is a nice looking piece of work.
Corey

 

Polishing won't work here, it's made of pure 'merican steel. I suppose you could have it electroless nickel plated. I wouldn't chrome plate a part with structural welds myself due to potential hydrogen embrittlement.

Custom orders, I assume without asking him, could be worked out with Mike.

2nd Gen., Tacos, Trucks? As I say, all I need is a donor and some time, I'm sure it can be done.

Mike

 

1. 4130 11 gauge (.109 thick) steel.

That sounds about the same thickness as the stock plate, are there any plans for a thicker one?

Thanks,
Milan

 

Stock plate is roughly 22 ga (.076mm or about .029) hydra-formed steel. It has many areas that are "thinned" by the forming process. So, this design is roughly 3.5 times thicker than the OEM and has flat surfaces that are easier to slide across obstacles (rocks) when clearance runs out as opposed to the OEM corrugated design.

Mike

 

Hey Mike and Mike,
Thats real exciting to find that you two are taking on this project. Can't wait for the test results.

I was planning on getting a skidplate custom made, but it looks like I'll be holding off till your testing is complete.

Now I need to get a hold of Shaeffer and get the front diff drop kit as your skid plate will work with it.

Keep us posted.

Mike

P.S
Theres no such thing as too many Mike's in the world. he he

 

What about sending it just as plain steel? Have all the mounting and stuff but not powder coated. Would It be less? If it would be, then I'd just spray it and not worry about the paint. If you ding it up the powder coating will start to fall off and that would be a pain.

 

This is something that Mike and I have been talking about. Impact on price is negligible but, it is something that can be considered. This is a full on custom part, mass production, like in the thousands, is not really possible. The main cost is in the quality of materials / fabrication and that is an area not to be skimped on.

Test fitting begins Saturday night or Sunday, dependent on when the raw stock gets out of the shop. Pics to follow.

Mike

 

So, you folks have had one of those days when it starts out pretty bad, you don’t feel like going to work, school, etc. and then things go along pretty good. That was mine. No whining, no details, so on with it. Here are the pics of one of two skids that I picked up from my friends today.

You can see in this pic a sort of isometric view. Note how friggin straight those bends are!


I’m pointing to one of the bends to indicate how smooth and straight this thing turned out. Thinning at the bend is at a minimum, we’re talking in the 1 to 3 % range!


This is a bottom view. I left the trailer tongue and ice chest in the picture so that you all could get a sense of scale.


Semi-profile view.


I took pics of the SETUP piece. The second piece, after setting all the parameters and angle settings on the CNC brake (yes, we are automated for production!!!), turned out dead on to the bend drawing.

All the bends passed FPI with no cracking or tearing. Tomorrow evening after I finish setting tile in the master bath, I’m tearing off the OEM skid and getting after the front and rear bolt hole locations and the initial fitup. More pics then.

Mike

 

It looks like a piece of art to this old mans eyes

Looks very nice.
Corey

 

Thanks!

We're all pretty proud of it at this point. The mid-point mounts are the next hurdle, so until then, pride needs to be an afterthought... Best served to the offroad community to have some modesty until it's a proven piece.

We'll get 'ya covered on the 2nd Gen. soon after this one!

Mike

 

Oh boy, I'm not going to lie to you guys. I've been pissing my pants all night worrying about whether or not it will fit up. I dropped the skids off at the other house this afternoon because that's where all of my tools are right now. All the seeds of doubt began to creep in, worry, concern, will it fit?!?!?!?!? Dammit, another Depend's moment (for those of you that are not old, you'll know when you get there)...

So, without further freaking out, I ran over there and grabbed one. Here it is:



As you can see, I did not spend a whole lot of time leveling it out for this shot, but it will fit beautifully. Don't tell Shamrock Dairy I have one of their crates (OK, more than one).

Mike

 

OK. Im getting all gitty inside!
Can't wait to see it mounted!!

 

Stainless would be so nice....