3rd Gen Skid Plate Recommendations

I managed to unintentionally "customize" my exhaust the other day. As a result, I have renewed my search for the right skid plates for my 3rd Gen. Below is my current thought process and I was looking to get some input from the community. This is a bit lengthy so apologies in advance.

Relevant Info: I have no intentions of taking my truck rock crawling and beating the crap out of it. I don't plan on running any trails harder than say Pennsylvania Gulch here in Colorado. The skid plates are intended to be more of an insurance policy. My truck does have an exhaust reroute now and I would like to take advantage of it. Finally, weight is a major consideration for me.


My initial thought when I bought the truck was to go with the skids from ARB. They produce products of outstanding quality with engineering the is unmatched by any company stateside (my opinion). The fact that they are only made of 3mm steel seems to worry some but that is the stand across all the major manufactures in Australia, including TJM and Brown Davis. What has shied me away from these recently is the fact that I will not be able to take advantage of my reroute and therefore loose some clearance.

The other obvious options are manufactures like RCI, CBI, Mobtown etc. However, I do have some concerns about their designs that I hope can be addressed. From what I have seen, these manufactures use sheet stock that is cut and then folded. My worry is that a flat sheet (whether steel or aluminum) has very little resistance to bending. This is very apparent in numerous photos on this forum. The big concern with this being, if the skid yielded, then it is possible the frame cross-members yielded as well. Are there any manufactures that have made an effort to account for this?

Additionally, from what I can tell, these skids require the removal of braces on the front of the truck that connect the core support to the first cross-member. I would assume those two braces are there for a reason as they are retained with the OEM TRD skid from my understanding. The two braces further back that are also removed, from what I have read, appear to just be guards for the cats and are not present on the 2nd Gens. Therefore, it appears they are not much of a concern.

With all that said, my current thought is to go with a TRD skid plate in the front with aluminum RCI trans and transfer case skids. I would love to hear what input you guys have.

Thanks!

 

I'm a big fan of BAMF since I've bought their 3 skids, front bumper braces, rear hangers and shackles which are all 1/4" steel. Their steel skids are not going to bend, see pics below and they gusset and cross brace the backside. Their front skids have two 1.5" risers to the frame which are also 1/4" steel. The total weight is equal to having another person in your truck. I bought bare metal skids and primered and painted for less than $20.

They're 20% off total all 3 skids for $620 (plus shipping) which is a steal (pun intended) until end of October.

https://bayareametalfab.3dcartstores.com/2005-2020-Toyota-Tacoma-Skid-Trilogy-_p_71.html

 

IMO the popular shops' skids that you mentioned are fine for your expected use. they are also working fine for people who are crawling and beating the crap out of it which you say you wont. if the $ to weight benefit is worth it to you go for aluminum.

fwiw i am running full RCI skids with the reroute. lots of hard hits, no issues.

 

Saw your post and orders the set myself. $635 before shipping!

 

I’m late to the party... The concern about the front frame braces and the cat protection braces has been discussed on here before. What was your conclusion? What did you go with?