Has anyone successfully installed the RCI transfer case skid?

I bought the transmission skid and transfer case skid recently. Decided on @RCI-Offroad because their website said it fits with a TRD Pro front skid (which it does with their $5 longer bolts package.)

The problem is that the transfer case cross member does not fit properly. I'm hoping they sent the wrong one so I can actually use it, but if not then the design was wrong for my 2019 Sport access cab truck and I will need to return it (ugh, shipping...)

First of all the instructions are horrible and need much more detail. That aside, the design seems bad. It looks like they use one small bolt on each side of the crossmember to hold it up against the frame, and then they give you three fat hefty bolts to put into the frame sides, with no instruction of which side gets two bolts.

Next, there are no holes on the side of the frame large enough for those beefy bolts to fit through. Not a problem, I have titanium bits and can drill new holes or enlarge existing ones. BUT the little wings on the sides of the crossmember are so small that it gives no room to mount the "upwards" bolts.

Toyota welded another piece of frame at an angle to the main frame member. The location where the "upwards" crossmember bolts need to go through the frame (there is no existing holes there) would come out nearly directly under the side of the welded-on piece of the frame. There is no way to move the crossmember since it has to fit properly to allow the skid plate to attach to it.

Hopefully the pictures show the problem, it is hard to take pics of *inside* the frame beams themselves...

Driver side with jack supporting crossmember looking at the brake line attachment point. The plastic protector cover has been removed from behind the lines since I would have needed to get my hand in there to put the washer and nut on...


Looking above the frame member inside the driver's side where the brake lines attach. You can see the "Vee" where the two frame pieces had been welded together. The bolt hole would have to be drilled where that inside "Vee" wall sits.


Same image as before just a different focus point. This image is probably not very useful.


Looking up at the bottom of the crossmember. Note the tiny "wing" where they drilled the bolt hole. Had they made that piece of wing steel wider, i would have room inside the frame member to drill a new hole and put on the washer and nut. As it is, it looks like a very poor design for attaching a weight bearing unit with just a single upwards bolt on each side. Why is that piece of wing metal so small?? You can see how the frame looks "thicker" to the right of the crossmember than to the left. That is because of the extra frame piece the factory welded onto the existing frame, and is why there is that "wall" inside the frame member where the bolt hole would need to go.


So all of this is to show how it was either not designed for the 3rd gen TRD Sport access cab truck correctly, OR they sent me a wrong crossmember piece. I will email them shortly, but wondering if anyone else bought this transfer case skid kit and if this was the same for them or not, and if so, how did you fix the problem?

 

It all seems good to me, mine bolted up fine no issues. You have to use the lower bolt holes, the upper ones do not reach. Lots of other guys here also running it with no issues. The bolts are just more so a place holder for the cross member. The "wing" that you referred to as is what supports all the load so as long as it has a good connection to the frame and the bolts are snug, you are good to go.

I honestly can't speak on the two bolt holes on the bottom, maybe RCI had plans to include instructions to utilize them then realized it isn't really needed. Mine has it as well but never really paid any attention to them. I ordered the option for the exhaust re-route modification but the cross is the same for both. Hope this helps.

Edit: The wing or tabs under the frame might be that size because that is adequate to support the load. Extending that tab out more would not necessarily distribute the weight more effectively. Just past the 90 degree section of the tab is where most of the stress is concentrated. Again the bolts are nothing structural here, just to hold the member in place.

 

I like your second picture which shows better than mine the extra frame piece the factory welded onto the existing frame member.

Okay, I understand what you mean by "lower bolt hole" and "upper bolt hole" from your first image, the one that holds the brake lines. That upper hole is the one that holds the plastic "junk catcher" which you probably tossed long ago lol. I'm actually shocked that you literally only have a single bolt holding the driver's side skid crossmember on?!

I also see you ignored the bottom holes, which are in what I referred to as the "wings". If those had been made longer to fit more completely under the entire frame then the hole would be useful. But where that hole is, if you put your hand inside the frame member, you would feel a vertical wall preventing a bolt from going through even if there was a hole drilled there.

I would like to keep my plastic junk catchers installed but the crossmember edge pushes them up a bit too far, perhaps a Dremel can fix that...

Can you provide a pic of the passenger side attachment point also please? You probably removed the dust catcher from that side as well I bet...

 

Yes the plastic frame caps had to be removed, I am sure you could get them to fit with a dremel though. I thought I read somewhere the earlier 3rd gens did not even have the plastic frame caps but I could be thinking of something else. Here is the passenger side.

 

I believe you're right, I remember reading that earlier gens did not have a plastic catcher there. Which means the factory decided it was worth the expense to put them on for some reason, hence why I want to keep them on.
I would not feel as comfortable using only a single bolt on each side of the crossmember to hold the skid plate on. This feels like a design that could have been done better...

 

I installed mine a month ago, and was baffled that there was not passenger side frame hole. I found there was a sticker that was painted over. Punched the sticker through and good to go!

 

Got them installed finally! Not real happy that only one bolt on each side holds the entire transfer case slider AND cross member up, but they are J.10 bolts, over 121k PSI shear strength, so probably will be fine...pics are hard to orient but from crawling under truck from the front and pointing up:

 

Nice looks good none the less!

 

I'm kinda curious as to why you're so worried about holding the mount UP. If you hit hit the skid it's just going to be pushed UP harder against the frame and it's bolted to the cross member/transmission mount so it can't move backwards.

 

My initial supposition:

Kinetic energy is Force times Distance, assuming just gravity and no external force adding to the drop rate. If I'm rock crawling and drop down to a boulder just two feet, it should be noted that most boulders don't compress very much as they lack padding. So let's say I hit the rock and sink into it a tenth of an inch (24in divided by 0.1in). Plus I weighed my truck and it is 4700 pounds with me in it. Since the rear tires are still on the ground and we can assume one front tire also, that means about 1175lbs dropping 24in to an almost immediate stop equals 282,000 pounds of force at the moment of impact (24/0.1*1175).

Since each of the two J.10 bolts is only rated at 121,000lbs of shear strength, and 242,000 is less than 282,000, that means either the steel will deform and transmit the force up into the bottom of the transfer case housing (since I don't know the force absorption rate for their steel skid plates), or one or both mounting bolts will shear off (still transferring some amount of force into the transfer case).

Please correct me if I'm wrong with the calculations, as I said I'm no expert in this stuff. Perhaps the two foot drop on one wheel is unrealistic in the real world? If we bump it up to a two wheel drop, the impact force increases to 564,000lbs.

All of this is why I initially questioned having just one bolt on each side of the cross member holding up the transfer case skid plate. HOWEVER, more thinking has showed me that the cross member itself has two little wings welded on which slide under the frame, which (as you correctly pointed out) will be the place where all upward force gets focused into the truck frame. Thus my force calculations are moot because the bolts themselves will have very little shear force applied to them. So perhaps all of my fears were unfounded.

Good grief, I'm always overthinking things...

 

You are over thinking this. Your skids were designed for your truck and they fit perfectly. Those bolts will hold. I have their skids along with thousands of others. I’ve seen guys drop their skids on ginormous boulders and have no issues. It’s what they were designed for.

 

I have RCI on a 4runner. I like the skids but the crossmember didn’t meet my expectations. I have welders and such so I chopped off the ends and welded on a more substantial attachment and raised it as well. I believe the 4Runner frame is different in that area. A boxed frame.
If you or a buddy have a welder it’s an option.

 

The nice thing about the search function is finding someone with the exact same issues!

Finally getting around to installing my Black Friday pandemic delayed full skid set and having a similar-ish issue with the t-case cross member.

I used a bottle jack to push it snug against the frame and tightened the two bolts pretty damn tight (careful to not strip the driver side captive nut).

When removing the jack the cross member will droop down at the rear.

I know the skids are designed for hits/upward force but won’t it potentially droop down with everyday driving and vibration?


I’m considering adding another bolt to hold it in place.

Mine won’t stay tight Like this.

 

A few months ago I mounted up their aluminum transmission and t-case skids without much effort.

 

Did the cross member fit tight?
The OP’s title is a bit nonsensical but what he described is a bit of what I’m running into.

I guess there’s a few oddball installs where it is funky.

 

Yes.
The only hick-up was a sticker, passenger side frame rail, that was coated over and took me a few minutes to "find it".

 

Yeah those can be tricky especially if it’s under coated, luckily not the case for socal!
I went through that when installing the sliders, used an awl to poke through.

Funny to, because now I’m finding a lot of yt vids with people showing how messed up the aluminum can get, some breaking at the welds.
I’m just going to be light wheeling so I should me ok.

 

I had a bottle jack under the cross member and cranked the fk on the two frame bolts and it was snug to the frame but dropping the jack the damn thing drooped down a bit.

The only way I can see to keep it tight is to add another bolt.

For now I’m done with it, not the end of the world.

Side view



Rear view driver



Rear view passenger

 

That is really odd. Should be snug. Then again every truck and every skid plate isn’t going to be the same. My cross member is tucked right up tight on my 2020

 

You need to remove the plastic frame caps in order to get a flush fit or at least trim yours to clear, it looks like you just forced your cross member to push up on the plastic caps. The gap between your frame an cross member is too much, it should be flush. If you look at my pictures in post #2 & #4 you will see those frame caps removed and its a nice flush fit.