Gas Tank Skid

Removed mine to paint it, and found there is not much good steel left. Does anyone make one? I checked all the usual sources, either nobody has'em, or 05+

 

I'll second that....just out of curiosity though, i'm going to just have to fire up the welder and come up with something better than the junk tin they put on our trucks.

 

Just plate the bottom. It's fairly easy and works great.

Mine:

 

^ Good ideer...but I have no solid meat to weld to

 

I had one of the clips bust a year ago. I went through a pot hole filled with water. Apparently a chunk of asphalt came up right and busted the clip. It cost $60 to replace the clip. That was the most annoying sound driving home from Utah.

 

Grab a skid off of a junk yard truck, then plate it.

 

yeah, looks like the yards are my only option. Did you ever punch in some drainage holes in yours?

 

So, plating a stock skid is way better than just running a stock skid. But, I'd suggest going one step further. I made my own gas tank skid, using the stocker as a template. The process is really similar, and you end up with a stronger product. The main reason I say this is because of the mounting locations. If you only plate the bottom, those stock (and weak) standoffs may bend, letting your beefy skid push up against your tank.

What I did was:

1. Remove the stock skid
2. Trace the footprint of the skid over plate steel
3. Cut along the lines
4. Trim and fit 2" stock against the edges of your bottom plate. Angle them slightly outboard of vertical, using the stock skid (placed over your new bottom plate) as your guide.
5. Tack weld
6. Using a floor jack lift your new assembly up to the tank.
7. Fit your new mounts into position and tack weld
8. Remove and drill drain holes and mounting bolt holes (again use the stock skid as your guide)
9. Bolt back up to vehicle and CAREFULLY reinforce your mounting welds
10. Remove, final weld, paint and reinstall.

Here's how mine turned out (the gas tank skid is the one on the right):





Pictures of the how the skid mounts:

 

Those skids look beefy. Need to plate my stock gas tank skid or have another one made in the future

 

Nope. If I start having a problem with it catching a bunch of stuff then I'll go back and poke some holes in it.

I started to do this but got pressed for time so I just plated mine. I will probably go back later on and simply plate the mounting points to give them some more strength without having to start all over again.

 

Yeah, it will be easy to go back and do that. Actually, that's kind of what I did. I started to build a plate and then some side protection. At that point, I thought "why stop now" and just fabbed up the mounting points. Post up pics if/when you do it!