Well I got sick of looking at the plastic valance that was all smashed up below my front bumper from the deer that I whacked a few months ago and decided to tear it off.. Upon removing it I saw what years of pennsylvanias road salt had done to the piece of metal that the skid plate bolts on to right in front of the radiator.. Its pretty much rotted out entirely... Has this happened to anyone else? I plan on getting it cut out and a new chunk of probably 2 inch square tube welded in.. Being that it goes from the passenger to driver side frame rails it looks like it MIGHT be important.. plus I cant just bolt this bud built skid plate i plan on buying INTO RUST!!!

 

lets see some pics...

if your front crossmember is rusted through i would replace it

 

That's kind of a critical bit. Repair that one in short order.

 

That's the way mine was. And that's how I fixed it. I used a piece of 2x2x3/8. I found that when you measeure and cut the new crossmember then cut the original crossmember out, you'll not be able to fit the new one in unless you spread the frame a bit. A highlift works great for this...

 

You need to fix that for sure. If you have an automatic (which you don't, but others might), the holes accross the front help cool the lower radiator tank where the tranny cooler is. If you're going to replace it with a solid piece I would add a cooler. I had tranny overheating problems on the freeway when I covered mine with a receiver hitch. After I added a cooler, no more problems.

 

Thank you much fellas! My runner is under construction... First i gotta get that cross member cut out and replaced. Then comes a new TJM front bumper and Bud Built skid plate.. Then the rear is getting new coils and a new bumper as well.. My poor truck looks like hell right now