I bought a $17 piece of 3/16" steel plate last week and mounted it up yesterday. If necessary I may add some reinforcemnt, but I think 3/16" should hold up just fine. We'll see . . .

 

Good deal... just watch those bolts don't round off as you drag 'em across rocks. Could make getting that skid off a bit of a chore.

 

Yup. Nothing a vise-grip can't handle though.

 

Thanks for putting the dimensions in your photo. Nice job!

 

Torch it off or drill it out, no biggy at all. Great idea unfortunently my metal is a couple of inches short, guess i need to take a trip to the steel shop

 

Nice idea!!

 

Lets see $300 TC plate .... Or $17 transalper plate?

Thanks for the idea man.
Quick question though, are the mounting points already there? So basically I would just drill the holes in the metal sheet, and screw them in, right?

When I put mine up, I'll engrave Transalper into it

 

Thanks man, but it's just a plate.

The mounting points use existing holes in the cross members, so all you have to do is drill four holes in the plate and bolt 'er up.

I'll be testing it out in Moab in two weeks, so we see how it holds up without any reinforcement.

 

What size bolts did you buy?

 

I used 3" long 3/8" bolts for the front crossmember and 2.5" long 3/8" bolts for the rear crossmember. I plan to swap these out for metric grade 8 bolts eventually, but I had a bunch of 3/8" bolts lying around.

 

Sweet mod, man! I'm planning to do something similar, but will be reinforced on the edges with DOM tubing, and then two cross tubes on either side of the transfer case from left to right, to really guard that puppy. I've already bent up my balancer and light weight stock guard.

Chris

 

Make sure you post pics of your finished t-case armor.

If I decide to reinforce it, I'll probably notch out the four courners and have the sides bent up a little bit.

 

Whats DOM tubing?

 

DOM = Drawn Over Mandrel

Peace.
G

 

and for us non-engineer types that translates into?

 

I'll do it!

Chris

 

DOM (Drawn Over Mandrel) Pipe is made from strip bar stock that is rolled, welded, and pulled through circular dies. The result is a straight, stiff, economical pipe. It's beefy and strong.

G

 

jay,

ah yes, one of those "now why didn't i think of that?!!?!"

ingenuity at its best. great mod! by the way, how much does that nice piece o' metal weigh? approximate is good too.

and if i do this mod, it'll be branded as the "transalper".

bob

 

Ok thanks for the clarification. This doesn't sound like something I'll be able to do on my own. I'll just have to stick with the plain plate

 

What he said. I meant to say something about the mod, but spaced because I was answering someone's question.

Good job, dude!
G