What else did I miss? Stupid mistake

Hi all,

Been wheeling a 2011 regular cab since late last year. I have front/rear bumpers, a 3" lift, winch, 31" mud terrain tires and have a rear e-locker on order. I do not have any skid plates and am now going to pay the price.

After yesterday's wheeling (reasonably aggressive on rocks), I noticed this morning that I have a leak in the rear diff and maybe a leak in the oil pan.

I dropped the truck off today to have that taken care of and will install full steel skid plates when I get it back.

Question; is there anything else I haven't added that I should consider to avoid stupid mistakes?

Thanks all.

 

Rock sliders before you cave your rockers in and destroy your doors.

 

A slower speed so you aren't bashing shit?

 

Says the infamous Rock Lobster.

 

Speed wasn't really a contributing factor. I managed to get myself on an all rock trail with an incline and about 3/4 of the way up it went from rough to not good at all. Lesson learned though, and I'll have some skid plates going forward.

I have the 2.7 auto. How worried do I need to be about the added weight from the skid plates and sliders? I don't need it to be a race car, but I do have to drive it on the turnpike to get to my wheeling spots. It's not a daily driver, so I'm not too torn up about gas mileage.

 

You’ll be ok. The combined weight of a set of steel skids and sliders is maybe 170 lbs and it’s low and spread out over a large area. It’ll be like having another person riding shotgun with you. It’s definitely good to be conscious of armor weight but IMO the benefit to steel armor outweighs (hehe) the cons.

 

I have a full set of skids including the tank and sliders. I didn't notice any changes in performance after the install. Granted I went aluminum, but they take the abuse just fine for me.