Mobtown skid plate set install

dude I had one from Schnieder that basically wanted me to completely disassemble an entire cell for it. to bolt down the base support bar...
Fuckin pump truck up onto the pad, slide back with pieces of pipe under it and pinch bar, remove rear panel and reach in and drill.
Took 1 hour. taking the thing apart would've taken a day or two.

Just reading it like what are these idiots thinking? Who has time to do that lol

 

ah man, that is cheap and free shipping!

 

Here's how I did it:

- put the truck on ramps/lifts/whatever
- lay down on a creeper
- drag the skid plate on to your stomach
- roll yourself into position
- lift up the skid plate, brace it with your knees or spare elbow
- attach whatever hardware you can, change your grip/support, attach other hardware

A bit of a pain, but doable.

 

Hmm. I'd like to see pics as to what's left of your front end to verify.

 

Brutal.

- Placed skid on trans jack rolled it into place, raised up and slid onto bolts.
- Stacked 2x6s under front of trans skid
- Placed transfer case skid on jack, raised up and gently slid onto bolts and secured.
- Placed IFS skid onto trans jack and lifted into place, secured all bolts.

 

If you already have the trans jack, that's great. But like @Joe23 said above, there's no way I'm buying one for a once in a lifetime use.

 

What about a normal Piston jack with a piece of wood, you would just balance it and hike it up with the jack. I have a cheap craftsman I used to keep in the truck.

 

That's one way to do it, yeah. Will be tough to balance the skid on the limited surface area of that jack, though.

 

I've had luck balancing the skid on a simple floor jack with a 4" saddle. I can take my IFS off in about 10 minutes and get it back on in about 20. That said I also bought a Harbor Freight low trans jack which was invaluable when installing my 200lb All-Pro dual swing out rear bumper by myself. That $100 jack paid for itself right there.

 

^^^ This! ^^^

 

Haha, you guys are making me laugh. I think the front is super easy. I don't even use a jack. I slide it under the truck, lift just the front of the skid up and hang it from the front most bolts. Only have to get couple threads started. Then I get under the truck from the side, just behind the front tire. I slide myself around until I can lift the back of the skid up. I hold it in place with my knee while I get the back bolts started. Then I painlessly install the middle two. Make sure everything is square then tighten bolts. If you really wish, there is freedom to mod this method to use a floor jack. It's really not that bad and I can do it almost as fast as installing the stock skid.

 

Haha, ok. Just trying to help.

 

basically how I was doing it but without instructions so didn't realize I need to remove the brackets lol. I'm curious if it would be easier to do the front first or not

 

I was thinking of doing it that way as well, by bolting the front first. Should be a lot easier that way. I'll try again this weekend.

 

They're just justifying their jobs....happens here too....large electric energy company....quite laughable really.

 

Engineers don't typically write instructions. We can't relate to people very well.

 

OK installed my front skid today and now understand what the confusion is/was.

It's not real clear looking at the original skid plate and not knowing how it fits. There's 3 parts OEM parts and 10 OEM bolts that get removed.

1 Skid plate
2 braces
6 17MM bolts
4 12MM bolts

Here's a pic of the parts to remove:



Here's the bolts:



We need to re-use 2 12MM bolts - they go in the back to holes in the new skid
We need to re-use 4 17MM bolts they go in the front and middle holes

This install was easier than lubing my truck, which I did right after installing the new skid.

Took me all of 5 minutes to install the new one. Here's how I did it. Got a piece of wood about 12x12 and set it on top of my floor jack. Set the floor jack in front of the skid that was laying flat under the truck on top of a piece of card board..makes sliding the skid real easy.
So the skid is on top of the jack and piece of wood. Eyeball it close to the front holes and jack the skid up to the front holes. Finger tighten the front bolts and install the rear 12mm bolts ... not tight. Then do the middle ones... and crank em down with 1/2 ratchet. I started tightening the middle bolts first then the fronts and then the 12mm rears.

I think the confusion comes in when we remove the skid plate but the 2 cross member supports that really don't have anything to do with the front OEM skid plate, it's not apparent they need to get tossed until I tried to line up the bolt holes on the new skid and those OEM supports were in the way... duh... gotta remove them too.

So for the front skid install you need 2 tools:
12mm socket with extension
17mm socket with extension... can both be 1/2" if you have them I only got my 1/4 ratchet out first cause I thought thats all I needed. The cross members are the larger bolts and need a 17MM socket and 1/2 ratchet cause they are in there tight.

Oh and it's WAY easier to do this with the front wheels up on wheel stands, otherwise you will be making out with a skid plate for a few minutes! Not that tasty.

To lift the new skid into place - a floor jack and a piece of wood about 12x12 worked for me (This is my 10M target board - that's why the holes/lead there ) stray holes are from my wife's shots! :

 

Did you happen to read our instructions first? All of the info you posted is in the instructions. Just curious if you figured it out on your own or if you are clarifying something you thought was confusing in the instructions.

 

Clarifying but didn't read instructions (who does that), I was going with the OPs initial issue and trying to clarify. When I went to view the instructions, the link was dead I guess you were re-doing them?

Like I said, easier than lubing my drive shafts... only little stumble was not realizing we need to remove those 2 extra support brackets and use the larger bolts for the front 4 holes and use the smaller bolts for the rear holes on new plate. Kinda obvious... once the skid is there.... look at skid plate, look at truck frame.... holes to holes..oh there we go! ding... problem solved.