RedTacoma88's 2012 Build

One of my favorite builds, very nice!

 

Thanks man!

 

What up cracka! Gotta sub to this shit. Hopin to see this beast turn into the turd it's destined to be!! Haha still not a fan of red but those BF bumpers make it look badass. Love it man.

 

Haha good shit! Oh don't worry more wheeling will make it that way. I'm still gonna try to convince you to try and put up a build page and I promise I'll ask plenty of questions! Haha

 

People been trying for some years now. Almost worth just making a "allmotorrex's not a build thread, just ask questions about pics from other threads" thread. Haha

 

Haha seems like it could work! Okay so Skid plates, all I have is ifs skid.. I want to make more trips to Windrock, aop, roush creek, ect this summer... all full of rocks. What all is needed? LCA skids? Transmission Skid? Tcase? Diff skid? Gas tank skid? Or just fuck it and get them all

 

Doooo iiiiiiit! !!!! All the cool kids are

 

I made a great post in the TN thread a lil while ago about this. It was after returning from AOP, which from trail head to the farthest point in the park is the rockiest park I've been to. I painted all the armor I have before going: front bumper, rear bumper, sliders, ifs skid and lca skids is what I got. When I got home I took pics of all the armor that exists and pics of places where the armor does not exist.

Places with armor:

Front bumper: scratched and dented. Rear bumper: barely scratched.
Sliders: badly scratched and dented.
Ifs skid: badly scratched and dented.
Lca skids: badly scratched and one was ripped off the arm.

Places without armor:

Mid skid (where trans cross member is): barely touched, looked like it was scratched by sand particles.
T-case skid: the stock skid that's made out of sheet metal was barely scratched, best looking armor on the truck.
Gas tank skid: hangers barely scratched
Rear diff skid: bottom of housing badly scratched, front bottom of pumpkin badly scratched, back center of housing badly scratched and dented.

Of the armor I don't have ....

Mid skid: seemingly useless but may help with peace of mind
T-case skid: seemingly useless but may help with piece of mind
Gas tank skid: seemingly useless but may help with piece of mind
Rear diff skid: not "needed" for the bottom housing (already thick metal) or front of pumpkin but would def help with longevity of both. Would prove beneficial for backside of housing as metal is thinner there.

My take away is I have all the armor I need except I'd like a plate around the back of the rear axle housing.

If I can find that post then I'll post it in here for you

 

My experience is just opposite for the belly skids. My IFS was minorly touched but my mid skid looked like this

The scrapes are deeper than they look in the pic. Only had this skid on for a few wheeling trips last summer too (got it in August). Sliders definitely took the most hits and this came second. Didn't have a rear skid, diff or gas tank skid (hit the diff once and haven't hit the gas tank yet).
I do think LCA skids are important too though for sure.

 

Yeah I'm def not gonna dispute the fact that if you put a skid plate on the belly of your truck, it will get scratched and dented. If you're hitting it then it's taking the full weight of your truck. But that's like building a flat belly then being surprised you scratched and dented it. I don't want anyone to misconstrue my points.

Without the mid skid this is what you have .......





..... a trans support beam that is the only point on the belly that hangs lower then the frame rails. This is a pic of mine after dragging my truck through countless rock gardens and endless miles of rocky trails. I've never repainted it or touched it up. Now yes, I hit it all the time and consequently it is scratched but I have yet to find any reason to cover it up with a weaker flat piece of lower hanging metal. My trans has never been touched (visually inspecting it) and my front driveshaft has never been touched (visually inspecting it). I've also never been hung up on it. All of these reasons leave me with the question "what's the skid plate actually for?" Now I can come up with a dozen great sounding answers but at the end of the self argument I still ask the same question.

The tcase skid seems even more irrelevant. With no aftermarket skid plate, I am left with this ......





..... a tiny little cute piece of sheet metal that boldly stands strong with no fear of being penetrated. I've never repainted it or touched it up. I've never even removed it from the tcase before. And it looks fantastic!! Now if this little sweet guy can protect my tcase then why would I add a lower hanging flat piece of metal to cover it up? I once again am left with the question "what's the skid plate actually for?"

 

Guys thank you for all the info. I think I'm gonna say diff skid and LCA skids next! Eventually like Gid said I'll add the transmission, t case skid, and gas tank skid for peace of mind but Based on all this info I'm not gonna let the fact that Ill be missing the transmission and t case skid for a while stop me from hitting harder trails. I guess it's the mentaliy I don't want to buy something unless I have been in a situation where I would have benefited for it. The only reason I bought a aftermarket front and rear bumper was after cracking the front and smashing the back Offroad.

 

Yeah I'm the same. I like things to function and be able to prove they function. I'm not at all saying Brian is wrong or dumb for having a mid skid, I'm just showing you my proof of never feeling the "need" for one. Any preventative maintenance is never a bad idea, that doesn't mean it's necessary though. I'm gonna be building a driveshaft skid soon because, although I've hit it before, I finally fucked up my shaft enough to where I have to get it re-tubed. Only took 8 years. Haha

 

My mid and transfer case skids have been leaning in my shed since AOP

If I had them installed I might have tried to cross that log in our path though. Probably wouldnt have made it over but it would have been a good time either way

 

Ahh you dont need them!! I'm happy to take them off your hands

 

Agreed. Is a driveshaft skid even a thing? I've always thought that was a weak spot that just says exposed and gets replaced when it is damaged.

 

Not sure what he's doing but I'm doing a traction bar that will follow the same profile as my drive shaft and hopefully maintain its straight virgin alignment.

 

I'm going to hold on to them for now lol, just in case of zombies. Theit intestines hang on anything and everything when you run them down. Might save me some time during clean up

 

It's a weak spot but really only exposed when climbing something and laying your belly on the edge of the top. That's leaves your driveshaft to pull over it until your back tires begin to bring the back of your truck up. Example A: all driveshaft

https://youtu.be/n60o_b7lEBI

Yeah it will serve as a trac bar as well. I have a vision of 1 attachment point at the top using a swing shackle as the mount and a heim on the end of the bar attaching to it so it has forward and backwards motion when drooping/compressing the axle and side to side movement when articulating. Running that tube down to an attachment point at the bottom of the housing on a truss then attaching a bar a foot or so up the trac bar to an attachment point on a truss on the top of the axle, creating a triangle at the axle.

 

Love the build! Do you happen to remember what size tires you had on before the 295's?