Bolt on rear diff armor/guard/skid?

Hello Guys and Gals,

I was wondering if anyone made an easy to install (bolt on) rear diff guard for the 2nd gen? My truck is bone stock, but I wanted to protect what might be at higher risk.

Most of what I have seen is weld on, i.e. All-Pro ones. The truck is only a week old for me, and I'm not up for welding anything on just yet.

Any suggestions would be very much apprecaited.

Thanks

 

Due to the design of these rear axles, it is hard to make a bolt on style diff cover skid/guard since the bolts are all on the front face of the axle. Unfortunately I think anything you find will be weld on for these trucks.

 

thats true mine is a lease and i weleded......

 

Honestly? The way the toyota diffs are built (no diff cover), you shouldn't have any problems with denting or dinging the rear diff because its solid material.

On a Jeep (or any differential with a diff cover), the problem lies with scraping the bottom of the diff to the point of peeling the diff cover out (causing leaks) at the bottom. AND there's potential for putting dents in the diff cover itself. I had problems on my jeep with the diff cover peeling out and I tried searching for a bolt on myself.... but couldn't find one that didn't bolt to the diff cover bolts themselves. There is one that I remember seeing but it was very expensive and why I never bought it.
I don't have time now...but let me see if I can find it. It would need tweaking to make it fit a toy diff. It actually bolted to the front of the diff and on the axle tubes.

 

Thanks for the reply. I know I'm a noob and all, searching for a bolt on proved very difficult.

In what way is it reversible? I'd imagine just grinding down the welds?

My only concern was possibly voiding any kind of warranty with welding on sliders, diff skid, etc. However with it possibly being reversible, it might be okay.

can anyone confirm this?


Thanks again.

 

Technically, your warranty can't be legally voided unless Toyota can prove that the modification you did led directly to the problem with the vehicle.

That said, adding any modification may make it a pain in the ass to get warranty work approved, to the point where you have to drag ToMoCo to small claims to get it approved and taken care of.

The better solution, especially if you plan to start wheeling, is to just learn to fix/repair the truck yourself. Make the warranty irrelevant. You'll save money on labor, offroad use is a grey-area when it comes to warranty anyway, and if you continue wheeling you'll be breaking shit long after the warranty expires.

 

Perfect, just the answer I was looking for.
Guess I'll go for the welded ones then. Just gotta make sure I go with a reputable welder to mount them.

I plan to go with an All-Pro Transfercase skid first, since I've already got some weak sidesteps that I don't mind breaking. Money is tight as well. lol

Does anyone aside from All-Pro make a rear diff skid?

 

Might wanna check this out.....

http://www.boztec.us.com/reardiffskidplate.html

 

Will do. Thanks
I'm trying to mild upgrades slowly, so I want to go with the most useful ones first. The transfer case armor is most important right now. Along with the rear diff. I only plan to level the truck and stick to that height for a while. So skids/armor will be put to use right away.

Will it work on the Tacoma? It looks different

 

If you want the MOST useful stuff first, start with sliders, and go from there.

Wheel position can keep your undercarriage and diff out of almost any trouble....and put your rocker panels in it.

 

Really? I can't just run the useless running boards until they break off?

I've been looking at all sorts of sliders, can't decide.

 

my only problem with the ATO skid is having to reroute the exhaust. I am trying to keep stock parts unmodified as much as possible.

 

Mudman, I have been researching for a rear diff skid plate for sometime. I had front and rear diff skids on my 82 toy truck. Back in the day, Go Rhino made them, about a $100 bucks ea. back then. They were secured by brackets, two on each side of the diff with the diff skid in the center of the combination axle truss/diff skid plate. I found a shop that can make one but he wants $500 bucks steep.

 

Went on sky offroad website. Only saw rear axle housing truss not rear diff skidplate.

 

Same here.

I may look into the exhaust move down the road. I don't plan on doing any serious offroading anytime soon. Just some light trails, and maybe a little bit of climbing here and there. Gotta concentrate on car payments first, before upgrades.

 

I'm in the same boat as you Mudman. I hate the exhaust crossover but don't want to hack the factory pipe. The only choice that I have found is the URD Y pipe. This would allow you to drop the Toyota pipe and bolt this one in its place. It is a bit expensive thou. I just need to grow a set and just hack the original. I think I was quoted $70 to hack and reroute.

You can also look at the BudBuilt skids. His allow you to run factory exhaust with a spacer on the skid or flat with rerouted.

 

Seems like the hack method will be more practical financially. I can't imagine the small chop giving the truck any smog test issues.

I'm trying to be smart with my mods. Don't want to do something I may regret later, that might be difficult to reverse. Sliders, I'm not so worried about. My goal is to keep the truck forever (in theory).

This is a daily driven vehicle, so I don't want any major things done to it. Just a fun weekend offroader.