Skid Plate Install

I didn't have a skid plate on my truck when I bought it and now I can't tell where it mounts.

Is this where the slots in the back go?


And does the front go in A or B or neither?

 

Nobody? When I align the back slots up with hole in the first picture and the corresponding hole on the other side then the front of the skid plate is not straight with the front bumper. Something under my truck is not where it supposed to be I guess.

 

These look like the mounting points for the original skid plate, Correct?

 

That is where mine mounts, I was always wondering if there is a second skid plate under there that my truck didn't have when I bought it .

 

its been a long time since i have had the oem skids but i think the front two are correct and the rears are more on the frame than those brackets. Anyways when you line the two up and up it should be very obvious. When you go aftermarket you ditch those wimpy bolted braces. The secondary skids that you find on off roads i think mount on those tabs in the rear you indicated.

 

But the new white skid plate doesn't bolt up the same from what I can tell. The rear is the same but the front bolts on the new white skid plate are closer together.

 

if you are talking about the trd skid plate, nothing has changed in terms of mounting holes or locations. the tacoma has not changed these things since 05-15 and maybe even the newer 16 since they are by frame virtually the same. I had the aluminum trd skids back when i initially bought the truck and they just bolt right over the stock ones.

 

I never had the stock one, thats why I'm asking. Things aren't lining up like I thought they would. If I slide the rear into the bolts that are there then the front is skewed to where it will not mount. My truck has been wrecked so something under the front is not original which won't allow me to mount it. I am going to make a support bracket to mount the front on.

 

the front trd bolts mount right into the existing stock skid, some people run the trd skid in addition with the stocker but some run it without. If its not lining up, something could be mounted wrong - like those two support pieces. The trd skid if i recall mounts up the frames' support. I can take a look at those pieces i have stashed somewhere to see if yours are similar when i get home.

 

Thats just it, I don't have the existing skid nor its mounting brackets or anything for reference. What would be nice is if someone could post a picture of their front end and show me where the front mounts but like I said, I think something has been changed/modded on my front end.

 

image from google, looks like the oem mounts to frame. or the two washers on the tabs pointed inward. if that, swap the sides....they might have mounted them on wrong sides.

 

Are you hanging it off of the little tabs ?

 

No, the white TRD skid plate doesn't use the hangers. I think inesshell is correct, the one in his picture goes in the hangers and mounts to the cross member frame. When I set mine new one under there, they don't line up with any holes in that cross member. I believe I can make a bracket at work from SS to fit. If you look at my last picture in message #3, I think I can fab a bracket from the 2 circled holes at the front and run it all the way across and then mount the skid plate to it.

 

looking again at your original pics here is what i am guessing is wrong. the end with the two big holes should be installed on the right side and the other vice versa

 

of if you can mount the trd skid without the two supports i would get rid of them, they dont add any real protection, just serve to provide mount points for the oem skids

 

I'll check that out Thanks!

 

this is what i mean about orientation.

 

Oh, Ok, they should be swapped. That is probably the problem. Thanks

 

I ran into this problem when I bought a skid plate and tried to install it. What causes this, is I tighted one side before screwing the other side on, which shifted the skid plate. So the solution after hours and hours of being dumbfounded, screw in all 4 screws evenly and it installed no problem.