Skid plate: steel vs aluminum

Are most people with aluminum leaving them raw? I am concerned with the east coast salt.

 

You can't leave aluminum "raw" because:

4Al+ 3O2 = 2Al2O3

Just give it a nice coating of oxygen containing air. The best way to do that, I think, is to drink a beer in your recliner.

 

Pelfreybilt cold steel.

 

For my needs, I went pilfreybilt aluminum.

 

I tow a trailer and go rockhounding in the desert, and on short weekends just use an RTT or just a ground tent if I know how soft the camp will be. A lot of the roads and trails I go on are rocky, so I decided on forgoing the weight of plate bumpers for the weight of steel skids by @Mobtown Offroad and sliders by @Shmellmopwho.

 

You mixed those up Anthony

 

oops, fixed!

 

Haha all good in the hood

 

I like aluMinum, Bro.

 

I do too- the weight vs gouge factor was my main concern given my driving situations. I will be curious about how towing my trailer goes when my steel skids arrive and I install them. Cant wait to use them as I get pretty paranoid on a few roads after I hit and dented my pie tin a few times already!

 

Aluminium for me since I don't do any crazy rock crawling.

 

Mmm, chemistry.

 

Is that like aluminum skid+rock impact= Cracks?

 

You will know when you connect with something after installing an aluminum skidplate! It won't slide on rocks like steel and the effect can be quite jarring since the skid is attached directly to the frame/crossmembers.

 

Good read. I bought an entire set of RCI steel skids and after picking them up recently I've been wondering about all the extra added weight vs off road value. I live in CO, so I'm sure it's worth it for me to have the steel. I've only put on the gas tank and rear diff skids and can tell a difference when driving. I'm waiting to put the rest on until I get the new suspension in. Hopefully that will be before summer.

edit: errr...stubled into the 3rd gen thread. I have a 2nd gen, but close enough.

 

Is anyone making aluminum skids from 6061-t6? Because that would be superior to steel in almost every way at the same thickness (it would crack with an impact that would tear steel). Seems the ones I can find online are all 5052, which is not even close to 6061 in strength, and won’t take an impact nearly as well either.

The downside to 6061 is the skids would cost twice as much, and the ones online only cost a little more. May just make up some of my own.

 

Everybody I have heard about is 5052. It doesnt seem that the manufacturers generally even spec out the heat treat T or work hardened H condition on the raw material. Even though welding will kill the work hardening or heat treat at the Heat Affected Zone HAZ, it would still be nice to start with higher strength base material. I assume it may be partly cost driven, but the welding cracking issues have to be a bit of a driver too I assume as well as easy break forming. I don't remember the cost being that much different 6061 vs 5052, but I really dont purchase those alloys much, so i may be mistaken.

(We can discuss alot on what the criteria would be for 'superior'. But I still don't think 6061 will be 'superior' to steel at the same thickness in general. At the same weight, generally agree 6061 will blow any steel out of the water for most attributes.)

Made some plots comparing different materials by weight on titanium discussion, just for fun.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/why-no-titanium-skids.575684/page-5#post-19053198

[Edit, forgot to mention that reinforcments is probably a more important discussion on this... doing some FEM runs would be interesting for a nominal standard skid design]

 

The amount of force required to "tear" our steel skid plates would have to be so great that you would likely be in the process of destroying the whole vehicle. Putting a significant dent in a steel skid would give any driver pause.

So why would anyone ever want to spend twice as much on a product that is not twice as good?

If we compare costs, steel is superior than any other metal available.

 

Then why not use thinner but higher quality aluminum and save a lot of weight?

 

Going to say it as
"Weight has value"