Snapping Auminum Skids

Who has ruined Aluminum skids?Hear lots of people posting up that aluminum sliders are for mall crawlers. Not going to do a lot of rock crawling specifically, but looking for lighter protection when clearing obstacles in the trail.

Have some All Pro Apex sliders, considering a set of pelfreybilt aluminum skids.

 

@Mobtown Offroad

 

Not looking to hear who is best, looking for examples of people that are actually breaking aluminum skids.

 

I know.

 

I have them. Hit them a few times on rocks. Fine

 

I haven't seen any pics of broken skids I think most that buy steel will be using them hard and didn't want to take a chance. People that get aluminum are DD wanting some extra protection on light trail use. Comes down to what you plan to do I believe in overkill if you're upgrading something

 

@Subway4X4 managed to

 

Didn't snap my 1/4" aluminum skids, but managed to bend them big time. The concave surface turned into the perfect spot for the truck to ALWAYS sit onto ANY rock or stump and get me stuck.

And those aluminum skids tend not to really "skid" or "slide" across rocks. Instead, they tend to "grab" the rocks and leave bits and scrapings on the trail.

I sold those aluminum skids and replaced them with Mobtown's reinforced steel skids.

 

My pefreys arent broken, yet. They are well bashed though. Ill go steel next time.

 

To just touch on the material itself and not taking the mounting system into account. We feel that 1/4" aluminum is quite strong for impacts, the only real negative we have found is that aluminum galls when dragged over rocks. So it comes down to your driving style, if you usually impact an obstacle, then reassess the trail and take a better line, aluminum could be a very good choice. If your style is to impact an obstacle and continue on that path, dragging over things, because the trails are tight, and typically don't allow for many alternative lines, steel might be more the material for you.

We are going to be running a mix of stainless steel and aluminum skid plates on one of our trucks, really just to see what happens when pushed hard while rock crawling. We are more of hard core rock crawlers, but have used aluminum on our more overland oriented trucks as well as swing arms/tire carries, just figured we needed to really see where the limits are.

 

How does your lite steel option hold up vs aluminum? What front bumpers does the set work well with?

 

Our Lite steel is 1/8" (3.175mm), for reference ARB under vehicle protection is 3mm also (so not bad stuff), and that is kind of how we feel about it. It is good for general protection, but up against rocks, it has tendency to dent more. Aluminum is a little better in the "denting" department, but lite steel is about as good as aluminum once dragged over sharp rocks.

For how our skids integrate into the frame and working with other aftermarket bumpers. We haven't seen any real conflicts out there. But, so you know, on the front crossmember (radiator crossmember), our front skid protects the bottom and front of that crossmember, so if an aftermarket bumper requires that crossmember to support itself, there will be a conflict. If an aftermarket bumper uses that crossmember to hold a "fill plate" or a thin, non-load bearing piece of steel, then the most that would need is to make sure there are holes that match up to the existing captive nuts. There is no drilling with our skids, so more likely there isn't an issue. What bumper are you thinking of?

 

Possibly Pelfreybilt, long ways off. Just spent too much on rear Harrop and new gears.

 

I hear yeah, but gears and a locker are pretty great, I don't think we can make it past a week before we regear and lock up!

We haven't had a Pelfreybilt bumper in the shop to know for sure, but it looks like they run their bumper to the front of the radiator crossmember. Since our skids integrate into the front of that crossmember, I really cannot tell if they will be compatible. Pelfrey skid plates only cover the bottom of that crossmember, so the most conflict would be just the front. That said, it really all depends on how much clearance there is between the radiator crossmember and the bumper.

We have heard of people with a Pelfreybilt bumper and BudBuilt skids, just haven't been able to see if there was any cutting or drilling involved.

 

I just installed a PB aluminum front bumber and a PB aluminum skid. Had no issues attaching the skid to the radiator crossmember as the bumber hangs down in front of the member and the skidplate attaches to the bottom.

 

This, but I went all steel, we like to play on the rocks.

 

To me the cost of aluminum is enough to deter me over steel. At the same time, I don't always have the best finesse as others and am welcome to the home plate slide if its needed. As others noted I don't think you will snap aluminum, but you might take away the "sliding" feature due to inconsistent deformations through out its course if you flirt with obstacles a lot.