Dual case t-case skid - Big Thanks to BAMF

Just wanted to post something that Jerry and I at BAMF put together yesterday. Huge thanks to Jerry - great guy and awesome work!! Anyone wondering about the quality of his work - don't worry, his products are solid and very well built.

A couple years ago Wyatt and I put in a FJ t-case (twin stick) and a marlin crawler (4.7 gears). While this setup has worked out great (probably the best thing i've done to any truck. I was concerned that my t-case was exposed cause it sat 8" farther back and no one makes a dual case crossmember or skid plate to protect the t-case on a dual case setup.

After talking with Jerry a few times we finally put a date together to bust this out. At first I was looking for just a skid to the t-case (since I had made a mount already for the crawler) but once there we decided it would be nice to run the skid up to the crossmember and incorporate the marlin crawler mount to the skid.

a couple hours later on the computer and we had a design ready to cut on his CNC plasma. We decided on 1/4" - yes its over kill but going 3/16th wouldn't be that much lights and 1/4" makes it bomb proof. I think 3/16" is about 20-25% lighter so for this skid were only talking 10lbs heavier going to 1/4"

We made a plate that bolted to the back face of the crossmember and welded that to the skid. We ran the skid from the front of the crossmember back behind the t-case. There we used square tubing to bolt to the skid and then to the frame for support. We angled the sides up 90* for strength and made the rear come out at an angle to slide of rocks easy. We made two cuts so you can access the crawl box mount bolts and welded the mount to the skid for the rubber crawl box mount bolts to that.

here is the finished product. I will be taking it off to primer and paint, I will take pics of it off but here are a few i took today with it on.

 

Damn that looks good. Any chance Jerry will make skids for regular tacos?

 

Thanks. I think that's a Jerry question. My guess would be yes, but in the future. I'll let him comment on it though

 

Painted it yesterday.

 

Turned out very nice. And you did all the right things. You supported the crawler box and protected both the crawler and the t case with out bolting anything to the t case. So now, not only will you have a protected drive train, but you wont have to worry about any leaks occuring because of stress coming from pressure put on the t case from mounts and such. Very nice

 

Thanks Wyatt - glad to hear you approve since you were heavily involved in helping me put in the crawl box and FJ twin stick case - still my favorite mod to date!

Leaving the t-case exposed has been on my mind ever since doing this and I can finally rest easy on the trails knowing I wont be popping my t-case on any rock and doing any JB weld trail fixes like you and Dan had to this past weekend on Ray's t-case after popping it on a rock.

With more and more 2nd gens finally doing marlin boxes - it will be good to see people more mass produce a marlin case/t-case skid plate that incorporates the mount like we did (and like the do for the 2004 and belows)

 

OT: You haven't had any issues with your front axles with all that torque from the 4.56 gears and crawl box?

 

Wow, that's nice, love Jerry's work

 

Awesome set up...Just awesome!!

 

NO. Actually you save parts because everything is moving so slow. Now if it gets bound up then yes your going to have issue's but in most case's the lower gearing allows you far more control over the vehicle which in turns protects parts better.

 

No. I carry two spare CV shafts with me. Never broke one. This is on 35" tires and a locker.

As Wyatt said you move so slow and methodically you are never on the gas to break stuff. If you feel yourself getting bound you just pop it in neutral.

 

Glad to have helped it was a fun little project on a Sunday to work on and that thing is a beast just under 1/4 4'x8' sheet of 1/4" plate we will have to hit the trail this spring to give it some real world testing

 

Thanks again, looking forward to beating it up!

 

You just wanted to show off your marlin crawler

 

technically i am hiding it now with the skid haha

 

Bud Built does not make a dual case mount/t-case skid for 2nd gen tacomas - I spoke with bud about it. they do for earlier models though. They only have a skid for someone with dual cases. - its important to support the crawl box with a mount.

 

Not really odd, its just a long skid plate - but no mount like this (I guess you could modify it and put one one) thats why I spoke with bud and he told me they dont have a true dual case mount/skid like they do for the early models ( https://www.budbuilt.com/new/dual_cross_members.html )

I think as we see more people putting crawl boxes in, people will start making them soon - until then it will need to be more of a one off/custom job.

I nice ideal setup would be to remove the factory crossmember and build the dual cross member and skid like the one buds does for early trucks linked above.

For now I was just looking for a skid to protect my t-case but also have it incorporate a mount for the crawler (I had just a simple mount int here before but removed it since the skid incorporates it now)