Long Travel BS Thread

Notching the frame for the shock is the best way for sure, especially once you put 37s on.

The body is welded to the cage, so it's just a really solid body ground

 

Well, the cage is a ginormous grounding bar essentially. Considering mine is tied to the frame and body a big ground wire to the cage essentially guarantees a rock solid ground on any single piece of metal on the truck.

 

Can he move the top shock mount out away from the frame?

 

Notching is possible... but already added on the fishplates to the frame, so would have to notch those... May not need that much of a notching I guess.

Makes sense, I like it... guess I may as well look into doing that with my cage...

He is going to work on it more on Sunday when it gets back from Katemcy. Didn't want to move it out away from the frame to much because then it wouldn't clear the tire even more.

 

Anyone done UHMW skids? It's been a while since I've worked with the stuff, but I love how easy it was to work with and how well it performed. Trying to figure out support spacing for 1/2" UHMW. Going to run a steel skid from the bumper down to take impacts, but UHMW on the whole flat belly after I build a higher clearance trans crossmember.

 

I used it for my lower and upper bumper skids, worked really good until it got chewed up from rocks, its not going to take impacts like steel would, ideally i wanna run some thinner ar500 behind some uhmw and just replace the uhmw every so often.

 

100% treating it as a consumable item. Love how well it slides on rocks. I'm just getting numbers all over the place on how to figure out support intervals. Don't want to under do it a crack it, or overdo it and end up with the same weight as steel skits because of all the tubing.

 

In the rock crawling world there are mixed opinions. I think it comes down to what type of rock you are dealing with. I think there is a trend away from UHMW to a very hard steel. Some will use the UHMW to just soften the impact that they will feel.

 

IMO you can’t beat 1/4” aluminum for skids.

By the time you brace everything for UHMW you have something heavier than a properly built aluminum skid.

 

I used .250 7075 plate for my front skid. It’s actually stronger than mild steel at like half the weight.

 

1/4" Aluminum here for 10-years with heavy hits in the desert. I also have down tubes and a cross tube where the transition bend is.

 

In the desert definitely 100%, but not for rock crawling. It gouges too easy, and then you get super stuck because it grips on the rocks. I've gouged holes straight through my original aluminum .25 skids and they were so bent. Though they were bought from a brand, and weren't built as strong as your likely are or how I would build my own now.

 

Yeah, aluminum on the underside is a no go for me.

Quick math says that with 12" Max side to side spacing and slightly longer front to back spacing, I'm still lighter than a 3/16 mild steel plate. I haven't used an AR steel before, but I've used mild, aluminum, and UHMW. I'm pretty much sold on the UHMW, just trying to nail the design on the first try

 

Was it 7075 though. Because 7075 has retard strength. Like shits on mild steel strength.

Numerous crawling tailored companies out there doing full aluminum skids, arms etc. I guess they’re all wrong?

 

It depends.

Aluminum skids are great if you can treat them as disposable - if you're only running them for one race, if you have sponsorship deals to afford multiple sets, etc.

If you're building skids for a rock crawler that is going to take multiple hits and you don't want to be replacing skids each time you go out, then yes, stick with steel.
You're not going to get the same resiliency out of aluminum - even if it's 3/16" 7075-T6.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/1096/1/012042/pdf

If repeatedly bashing on skid plates, stick with steel.

 

Just going to put this out there…if you don’t absolutely need belly skids don’t do it. It sends your trans temp through the roof when you take away that air flow. When i had my belly skids drinks in my center console would melt rapidly …and my entire floor has dynamat X

edit - it traps all of your exhaust heat under there

 

This is something that I have had concerns with if I do build skids. Wondering if not running the inner fender shields would help to increase airflow into trans tunnel.

 

I gotta ask cause @YotaFAB has me feeling like a dork…
Who is watching solo leveling?

 

My gas tank skid is the Trail toys uhmw skid and it’s good

 

I know you know what I’m talking about when I say this.. you remember when they showed a few years ago how the armored suburbans still maintained airflow with that big ass motor?
Maybe you could use a similar design for adding air holes and at an angle that didn’t allow for rocks to penetrate. make a whole Swiss cheese skid plate set