TRD Skid Plate Install

There is no alignment procedure, it’s more a don’t cross thread the bolts and it will align itself.

If the plate is not bent, the spacers are in correct locations and you have a ratchet with 17 & 12mm sockets you’re 99% done.

I had my wife support the rear portion of plate, I started(by hand)the front 2, then the rear(by hand)2(12mm) it will hang loose on its own at this point. Now the center two bolts are up and recessed so I pushed up the plate and started them by hand. Torque them out, front/rear/center(same order as I began with).

If you have something in the way(I can’t imagine what)then you either have the incorrect plate or have chosen the wrong holes to bolt into.

 

From these pics it looks like you’re too high on the DS (missing a spacer or wrong spacer). Hopefully you get it sorted out. Here’s another pic for reference.

 

I think this may be right. I originally thought the passenger side was cross-threaded/not secured, but looking closer it does look like the driver side is drawn too far up. Not sure how, but I'd see if you're missing a spacer.

 

I loosely threaded all 6 bolts into place to hold it up so I could remove the jack. I then just went a little bit at a time to see if it was going to hit/bind up anywhere. I just tried to keep it all pretty much even until I was sure it wasn't going to get caught. Once I was sure it wasn't going to hit anything I had everything just snuged up, then I torqued from the middle bolts and then the fronts and then the rears.

I agree with the others, your driver side looks as though it's too high, which is why I suspected the spacers were swapped front to middle or side to side causing the awkward tilt. The passenger side looks like it's at about the right height, the driver side appears to be wonky.

How you tighten the bolts (in what order) has little to no impact on the horizontal alignment of the skid. The reason you're leaving them loose at the start and hand tightening them up as you go is to allow for lateral movement of the bolts/skid plate to align the holes in the skid plate and the truck for all 6 bolts.

 

Just looked under, can this be the problem? That is the bolt for the front passenger side. That’s how the bolt looks, and it’s tightened all the way. I also checked to make sure the spacers were all in the proper spots, and they are.

 

100%

That bolt is jammed against something, not in the hole it’s supposed to be in.

 

I just unscrewed the bolt and screwed it back in. Same placement, only one whole on that side.

 

@djayflor

Holy Toledo!

That skid is bent if you have the correct spacers on the front.

It should look like this...

 

From your first picture in the thread it looks like the front passenger bolt is not in right. It looks to me like it is at an angle, maybe cross threaded.

 

Using the wrong spacers or bolts being n wrong will cause this.

 

That's what I was thinking. If you have the spacers in right then I'd check the bolt length to make sure you have the right bolts in the right places, there are two long and two medium length bolts.

The large bolts (longer length bolts) go with the large spacers for the middle holes. The medium bolts (medium length) go with the small spacers in the front. Small spacers and a long bolt could leave you with a bolt that bottoms out before it's tightened all the way down. Have you pulled out both front bolts and compared them side by side?

 

How about dropping the skid plate completely and laying it on a known level surface. Then put a level across the front edge. Wouldn't that tell you if it is bent or not???? Seems like a simple/logical solution.

 

Most likely cross-threaded and bottoming out.

 

You need to confirm the 6 bolts and spacers are in the correct orientation on the plate. If they aren’t, that is the issue

 

From the pic the op posted of the bolt that plate has to be used. Anyway if the bolts are over tightened the alloy spacers can crush, but not enough to misalign the plate that drastically.

This is all I have for the op(pics of my spacers)since this is becoming wayyy more complicated than it should.

 

Yep, something went wrong. Having butchered many such jobs in my misspent youth what I would do at this point is totally remove the skid plate and look it over to make sure it's not bent and double check the bolt threads and spacers. Then I would check each hole in the truck with the original bolts you removed to make sure all the threads are good. If any threads are buggered I would go buy a tap to repair them.

With the skid plate held loosely in it's correct position you will be able to start all the bolts into their correct holes with your fingers. If not fingers at the very least turning them in by hand with a socket. Then give it a look to insure it's where it's supposed to be. Good luck, you'll get it!

 

Checking back in on this one. Any luck?

 

So OP, what was wrong?

 

Can I ask a silly question, knowing what the answer is likely to be?

Toyota wants 1 hr labor ($160-ish) to install. Someone said "5 minutes to install". I gather the large disparity is the "standard hour" businesses charge as a CYA of labor overages. Or am I just going all tin-foil-hat?

 

If you are doing it by yourself on the ground it probably takes about an hour, if the dealer had the truck on a lift and more than one person then 5 minutes.