CBI Baja Front Bumper and RCI Skid Plate compatibility

Thinking of getting the CBI Baja Bumper. It looks like this:


I also need skid plates. Was highly considering the ones from RCI. Would these two products even be compatible with each other AND would they look good together? Upon closer inspection, the RCI and CBI skid plates have different designs.


Would there be a clash at the point the two meet?

 

Not the best photo. But that was my old setup.

 

That looks like a fun trail

 

I got curious with your build and decided to take a look. Lets just say I thoroughly enjoyed watching your journey!

 

Thank you sir!

it’s a fun truck

 

I really like my CBI skid plates - and looking at the comparison photo, the CBI has more side protection than the RCI. Both make it way easier to change the oil and filter vs. the factory skidplate which you have to drop to access things. I place some copper anti-sieze compound on the threads of the screws that hold the access plates in - helps them come out easier. I do not think the RCI skidplate would be in the way of a CBI bumper as you can only fit so big a piece in that area, so you should be ok there. Without seeing the RCI in person, I think I would like the CBI-style access plate under the oil drain so I have more space to put my hand up and grab the oil pan plug. With CBI you can get aluminum or steel - I went aluminum as I was looking for good (not heavy duty rock slamming) protection with an easier way to access the oil filter and drain. And being a skidplate, a steel one would get get the powdercoating rubbed off and would start rusting so I opted to go the aluminum route and see how it did. So far so good, and I do a bit of trail running.

On my 4Runner I have the CBI baja bumper, rear swingarm bumper, skidplates, rock sliders... CBI makes some real good stuff. Their powdercoating leaves a lot to be desired, so unless they've changed how they've done it in the past few years, then the single shot coat you can order from them isn't worth the extra cost (I had to get bumpers blasted and re-powdercoated on my Tundra as they rusted after one winter with the CBI factory powdercoat). The black powdercoat material CBI used is Cardinal BK-59 in case someone wants to know.

For what it's worth, I sold my 3rd gen Tacoma recently, and I still have a brand-new CBI setup (front Baja bumper, high clearance dual swingarm rear bumper, rock sliders with kickouts, front skidplate) I was going to put on it, but swapped to a 4Runner prior to the install, and sold the Tacoma to someone who didn't want the CBI metalwork. If someone is on the west coast and wants to drive and pickup the entire setup for their rig, leave this thread alone and shoot me a PM.

 

Will fit no problem. Im running a cbi bumper with rci aluminum skids. Should be home from work this weekend ill get some pics.

 

Having just installed the CBI Baja bumper I can say that either plate will play fine with the bumper. If you are settled on the bumper, there are a ton of skidplate options available that would work outside of just RCI and CBI. If shopping around, I would suggest when choosing the plate to try and avoid ones that flip up past the front crossmember (like Greenlane for example) and/or go much wider than the front crossmember plate mounting bolts. Since I was in a similar situation to you when I was pulling the trigger and couldn't find a good picture of that area, here is a picture of that zone so you can visualize where the two come together. I went with the OKExpedition plate because I wanted an aluminum one, I liked the internal bracing, and I liked it's side coverage (somewhat similar to CBI) and the fact that the sides were split and welded to create more structural triangulation than what I was seeing on the CBI one. Had I not stumbled upon that OKExpedition one I would have just pulled the trigger on a CBI skidplate but this one won out after seeing a video of how the CBI plate bends at the second set of mounting holes (has to do with how the offset mounts are bent up, transverse to the truck) and this one seemed to have them running 90* phase off of that (longitudinal to the truck) in a way that would likely mitigate the issue.


Overall happy with how it all came out and good luck: