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Box Rocket IFS front skidplate

25K views 40 replies 13 participants last post by  Box Rocket 
#1 ·
Built my new front skidplate last night and finished it up this morning. 3/16th plate and 3/16th angle for the mounting brackets. Turned out ok and will definitely be better than the stock skids. Next up is the trans and belly skid this next week.







 
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#3 ·
Yep 3/16ths. If it's strong enough for BudBuilts, I'm sure it will be just fine. The design is basically the same as the Bud Builts. Front attachment (3 bolts) at the frame crossmember and rear attachment to the two large bolts for the rack and pinion.

The trans skid I'll be building will attach to the rear of the front skid and then to the t-case crossmember. The belly skid will attach at the t-case crossmember and have a custom crossmember at the rear for support. I will add some bracing to the belly skid since those tend to bend first.
 
#4 ·
How about some pics during the fab process?

looks good!
 
#10 ·
Made the bends myself. They're "whiskey bends", I cut the plate most of the way through with my cutting wheel so I could bend the plate then welded the seam and ground it smooth. Wish I had a press brake to do bends but I've got pretty basic tools so I make do with what I have.
 
#12 ·
Awesome. Do you do the scoring on the outside of the bend or the inside? Could you please post another picture of the rear mounting spots?
 
#13 ·
looks good. i used the cut and bend method on my skids. i cut on the inside
 
#16 ·
I cut on the outside of the bends. I'll try to get a couple better pics of the brackets where it attaches to the steering rack. Took quite a bit of custom shaping to get those to fit right.
Interesting.... I wonder which method (cutting on the inside, or outside) is stronger? Or if there's a difference? You'd oubviously want it to be able to withstand heavy impacts on the outside corner....

And thanks, man. :) Pictures of those brackets would be lovely.
 
#19 ·
How's the t-case and belly skids coming along, man? Are you going to make you're own crossmember, or are you buying one?
 
#20 ·
Haven't been able to start on them yet. I'm at soccer games all day with my boys and going out tonight with my wife so they might have to wait until next week. As for the crossmember, I'm building my own using some crossmember mounts from Ruffstuff.
 
#23 ·
Built the trans skid last night and used the same 'whiskey bend' method as I did on the front skid. I had several people ask about how I did that so here are a few pics.

using a cutting wheel I cut almost all the way through the plate ( on the outside of the bend) and bent the plate. The gap is then fully welded and ground smooth.





Couple pics of the trans skid. Like I said, it still needs paint and a couple holes drilled so I can bolt it to the back of my IFS skid (the slanted peice will attach to the front skid) and there are a couple custom brackets welded to my stock crossmember where it will attach on the back.



It covers just the tranny pan. The upright peices are notched to clear the tube going into the pan on the passenger side, and the driverside is clearanced a bit more for the driveshaft. I could have made the skid wider but I chose not to in an effort to keep the weight down as much as I could. It still covers what I need it too. It's tucked up pretty high and I think it will be pretty rare that I actually drag it on stuff. The t-case skid will get more abuse.

Bottom side


Lastly, some had asked to see better pics of the brackets on the rear of the front skid where it attaches to the steering rack. I had to custom shape these to fit around the steering rack but they're solid and should work well.









 
#30 · (Edited)
Hey Mr. Rocket,

I have a man trans, I am assuming your DC has an auto with the "taller" radiator (trans fluid cooler in the bottom). My question is how much clearance, more or less, is there between your skid and the bottom of your radiator and what is the approx "hang down" of your skid from the front mount. I ask because Showstop, I think, once posted that all Toyota service replacement radiators now come with the provision for the trans cooler. I want to build with a slant back from the front mount along the lines of these drawings

http://www.mikeharan.net/temp/skidplate1.pdf
http://www.mikeharan.net/temp/skidplate2.pdf

The above will clear the man trans radiator BUT should I need to replace the radiator in the future it would be nice to know about fitment issues.

Thanks in advance.
EDIT I made up an accurate cardboard mock up using the above drawings. It does fit (man trans radiator) more or less. For anyone going this route, consider the drawings as a starting point for a quick template that will bolt right up. Then you can adjust/customize pretty quickly from there. I will be tweaking just about everything to one degree or another.
 
#31 ·
Hey Mr. Rocket,

I have a man trans, I am assuming your DC has an auto with the "taller" radiator (trans fluid cooler in the bottom). My question is how much clearance, more or less, is there between your skid and the bottom of your radiator and what is the approx "hang down" of your skid from the front mount. I ask because Showstop, I think, once posted that all Toyota service replacement radiators now come with the provision for the trans cooler. I want to build with a slant back from the front mount along the lines of these drawings

http://www.mikeharan.net/temp/skidplate1.pdf
http://www.mikeharan.net/temp/skidplate2.pdf

The above will clear the man trans radiator BUT should I need to replace the radiator in the future it would be nice to know about fitment issues.

Thanks in advance.
There is about 1/2" clearance below the radiator.
 
#32 ·
finished up the transmission skid last night. My guess is that it won't take too many hits so it's attached to the IFS skid with a single bolt for now. I'll add more front attachment later if needed.

At the back I welded a heavy angle bracket to the factory crossmember that the skid bolts to. The belly skid will attach the same way to the back of the crossmember so nothing will be lower than the factory crossmember. Used a couple carriage bolts so they'll slide over the rocks better than regular bolts.

Here's the bracket welded to the crossmember


from this side you can see how the side is clearanced for the driveshaft.




On the passenger side you can see how the side is notched for the trans fill tube.




I got started building the belly skid last night. I'm using one of the super beefy brackets from Ruffstuff for the rear belly skid crossmember. A pair of these will be welded to the frame behind the tcase. Another heavy angle bracket will be welded to the back side of the factory crossmember for the front attachment of the belly skid. Nothing will cover the holes in the factory crossmember so that I can get to the tranny mount bolts easily if I need to.
 
#35 ·
That's pretty much what i'm doing. I'll be using 2" square tubing between those bushing mounts. I just don't want to weld in another permanent crossmember to be hanging down. With the Ruffstuff mounts I can ulbolt the whole things much easier and not have to deal more tubing hanging down to get hung up on stuff if the skid isn't on.
 
#37 ·
Skids are all done. Finished up the belly skid today. Pleased with how it turned out. Pretty beefy 2" crossmember at the back mounted to the frame with the Ruffstuff brackets. 3/16" plate, with a couple reinforcement ribs in the middle. Sides are at about a 60* angle instead of 90* to help protect the cat a little better and hopefully help to slide off rocks a bit better.

There is about 1/2" of clearance under the tcase. Should be enough room to not make contact but about as high and tight as I dared. Nothing is lower than the factory crossmember. Stoked to have fully protection now with the exception of the gas tank.

From the side you can see that it's all flush with the factory crossmember with carriage bolts on the tranny and tcase skid to slide over rocks better.




From the rear. Angled the rear of the skid up to help slide in reverse rather than get hung up on the new crossmember. You can see the Ruffstuff brackets on the frame in this shot. They are beefy!


Shot of the full skids from the back.
 
#39 ·
That looks great. I couldn't quite picture how you were incorporating the ruff stuff brackets but with the pics it makes sense. I like it a lot.

I'm not too far from making a T-case skid. I just gotta figure out how to tie into my existing SkidRow skids.
 
#40 ·
welp... I was fairly complimentary in your expedition build thread...
but looking again, at the T-case skid, in this thread...
I saw something that doesn't appeal to me too much.

Why did you leave the bottom side of the oem cross member unprotected and vulnerable ?

sorry for being such a stickler, it's just muh nature
 
#41 ·
I'm not worried about the oem crossmember. I'm sure it can take a bump or two.

Not sure why I would need to but I intentionally left it open to access the tranny mounting bolts. If it turns out that it need better protection, I can easily add a small plate to the front of the t-case skid to cover it.
 
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