Hey everyone, this is my first post and i'd just like to say that this is a great site with a lot of knowledgeable people (or at least it seems that way). But, my question is what thickness of metal do you all think would be appropriate for some skid plates? I ripped one off today and figured that i would just make some new ones. I have a '00 Taco, so if anyone has any advice or words of wisdom, i'd appreciate them. Thanks.

 

Welcome

Ide say dont go less than 1/8". Its plenty strong for some mild abuse and if you want over kill go with 3/16" I use both on my rock crawler

 

wow, that actually seems awful thin, i was thinking around 3/16" with some banding for support running laterally across it. do you think that'd be overkill? and also, would it be extremely hard to bend, or would i just add a little heat and i'd be on my merry way?

 

What skid plate are you building? 1/8" is pretty strong. With some cross banding your talking about the 1/8" should be fine enough but it would never hurt to add a thiker piece in if your really worried or plan on having really hard impacts. My tranny skid I built uses 3/16" and my gas tank skid is 1/8".

 

Honestly I don't think there is such thing as overkill when your talking skids, now of course weight becomes a factor, and since yotas aren't known for frame twisting horse power you would have to take that into consideration. 3/16" should be adequate.

 

remember that 1/4 inch thick plate steel will weigh about 11-12 pounds/square foot. 1/8th inch thick plate steel weighs about 5.5 pounds/square foot. 3/16 will be just under 8.

i would go with engineering over more material, and strategically brace the plate, build in fail points, etc.

the idea of a skid is to protect vital components and to reduce the likelihood of being hung up on something. mine stockers are toast, and this summer will see some carefully designed 1/8 inch thick plates underneath.

 

Mine are 3/16" and they're bent pretty good in places.

With steel prices and availability today, unless you are buying big quantities and have the equipment, I would highly recommend just buying some from an experienced vendor like www.budbuilt.com

 

thanks for the advice guys