Bud Built Skid Install with All-Pro Bumper (2nd Gen)

Well after beating the crap out of my cross member and other underbelly parts, I figure its time to protect my girls belly…time for more armor! (My ½ ton truck is now pushing several tons with all the armor..haha).

As far as skids go, budbuilt is one of the best, and that is what I chose. These things are beautifully built and fit like a dream. Every hole lined up and there was no issues with the craftsmanship. I did however, run into one problem, and that is going to be the main focus of this write-up: The skids do not play nice with an all-pro bumper.

I know many people are running an all-pro plate bumper like me, and many people have often wondered if the bud built skid kit would fit. The short answer is yes, it does, however, it does require some modification to both the skid and the bumper. So here we go:

First things first, some paint. Because these are skids and I intend to use them as such, I chose standard old flat black rustolium. This is very easy to touch up after scraping the hell out of them on a rocky trip (this is what all my armor is painted with). The skids come VERY clean, I didn’t get a picture, but honesty, it looked like they polished them…they were sexy. Standard paint procedures here though, scuff them up with some sand paper or scotch pad, clean with acetone, and pile on the layers of paint.






Once they are painted, its time to get to work. Start with the forward skid, this is where you will run into issues with the all-pro bumper. The skid utilizes the stock skid supports. Unfortunately, when my allpro bumper is mounted in the correct position, it is tight against the bottom of these supports; therefore there is no clearance for the skid to mount (this is also why a stock skid will not work with the allpro bumper:

(Sorry for the horrible picture):


Luckily, the allpro bumpers bottom two bolts are located on the outside of where the skid mounts, so it is possible to trim the bottom lip off the bumper, but still use the lower two bolts. A quick pass with a plasma, and you are good to go (you can see what I mean below):





Now, this allows for the proper clearance between the bottom of the bumper and the skids, however, the skid itself still needs to be modified. When the skit is mounted, you can see that the front lip is not bent at a 90 deg (does not go up vertically) but instead sticks out forward a bit:



Because the allpro bumper has a vertical support right at this location, the front lip must be trimmed to allow the bumper to mount properly. Once again, a quick pass with a plasma and you are good:



Once this is complete, the bumper and skids bolt right up as they should. The rest of the install on the skids is very strait forward, and once again, because everything is manufactured so well, everything lines up perfectly making it very hassle free. Budbuilt already has a very good write-up on installing the skids so I will not get into all that.

Once they are all bolted up, here is the final product:






How much I cut off:

Well on the bumper, you are limited to how much you can trim becuase there is a reinforment behind the bumper that welds to the bottom lip (right at the bend) and you do not want to cut the welds. Essentially, you need to cut as much as you can without messing up the rest of the bumper. I went out and measured mine, and it is dead nuts at 2.5" that I trimmed off. Use this as a base though, as all bumpers might be a bit different.

For the skid iself, basically I trimmed as much of the front as I could while still leavign teh front bend. This means that the bend itself has a radius on the front lip. I allwed the radius to end, and cut it right there. I beleive it was about 2" off, but again, just try to leave the front radius and trim the rest.

If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up.

 

Great write-up looks bomber, What gauge steel are the Budbuilt skid plates and how much do they weigh? Thanks

 

Thanks, not sure how I missed that on the Budbuilt web page. I am still curious about an approximate weight guess I can order some and see what the shipped weight is.

 

Hmm, nice writeup.

I guess the only question left I have is... why choose the bud's over the AllPro IFS? I'd understand if the Buds were beefier, but they're both 7 Gauge steel (3/16"). At the very least, for front skid it would make more sense.

Not bashing, just curious. I like the Buds too myself.

 

The entire kit including the gas tank skid is right around 200 lbs. Without the tank skid, I think it is about 160-170 lbs

 

Buds is heavier duty and slightly larger (more coverage). In addition, it is a complete kit that makes my entire underbelly one smooth surface. If i was only getting an IFS skid, the allpro would be fine, but I wanted protection all the way down, the budbuilt is essentially one VERY LONG skid once all the pieces are put together.

 

Did install require mods to exhaust?

Looks great. My bank account will soon thank you.

 

x2 the low hanging y pipe?

 

No, the kit comes with a spacer (the 1x3 bar you can see in the first pic) that allows it to work with the stock exhaust. If you do modify your exhaust, you can remove that and gain an extra inch of clearance

 

Very true, it was a toss up between ATO skids or buds. the ATO are VERY nice. the main reason was weight. My girl is getting VERY fat with teh rear bumper, front bumper, sliders, etc. I figured the buds were strong enough for me, while the thicker ATP were just overkill and that much more weight.
Kevin makes some amazing things though, if I didnt have to worry about weight, I would have gone that route

 

dam that's really clean...good job on the modifications and looking really good...

1 question...now that you got everything trimmed up so that it fits perfectly with the All-Pro Bumper...would you mind doing some measurements for us...that way when we (on the forums) for future orders the bud builts we can get them in that length...only reason why I ask is that not all of us have a plasma cutter sitting in our garage...that would be greatly appreciated...

 

I added the measurements to the first post, however, note that it is not an exact trim, you have to play it by ear. You essentially need to work around existing welds that you dont want to cut off, so that will dictate how much you trim.

 

Which allpro bumper is this?