3rd Gen ARB Skid Plate Install...

Just wanted to post a little write up and lessons learned from my install of ARB Skids for the 2005+ Tacoma.

I live in Alaska- soooo getting these shipped up here at a reasonable rate took a little shopping around. Actually, about a weeks worth of shopping around. The ARB "distributors" up here are terrible. Mostly just one specifically, but it was like pulling teeth trying to get them to give me a quote to get a set up here. Ended up going with Extreme Terrain. Once I used a small coupon code, shipping only ran me around $55. Pretty damn good considering the box weighed 95+ lbs. Took a solid week to get up here. Once I received the tracking info from UPS- it was evident that they were just being drop shipped to me directly from ARB in Washington. No worries there.

My mechanical ability level is well above average and I own just about every tool you could think of so the install only took me about an hour and a half by myself. Here are some of my notes-

2019 TRD OR DCSB

-Truck prep was easy. Remove the two original skids and crumple them up and throw them away like tin foil. This would also be a good time to clean up any dirt or debris from these locations.

-I read a lot on this forum about how people were concerned with how these were only 3mm thick and may not hold up as well as some of the other fab shop's skids. I don't see how that is justified. These skids are heavy. The are reinforced. They are folded in the right place. They are also double layered in many places. Bottom line- any of my concerns about what others have said are out the window. You would have to drive slowly over a plasma cutter to get these to fail. I just don't see how these would allow any damage underneath to happen. They are that over-engineered.

The front skid plate goes on pretty straight forward. The instructions tell you to "bend" the hook on the drives side that interferes with the plate. Take a dremel and just cut it off. Its a hook-tab thingy that helps hold the stock skid plate in place.

-Impact driver is necessary. It will make things way more easy.

-Pry bar and drift are needed as well. There is a bracket that gets bolted to the transmission cross member. The drift and pry bar are used to re-align the bolt holes as you re-install everything. Do one bolt at a time and you will be fine. Use a floor jack under the cross member to stabilize everything.

-Thin walled sockets are 100% necessary. The skids have laser cuts in the for wrench access where the skids bolt to each other. Standard wall sockets wont fit.

-The 4th skid plate (furthest towards the rear) mounts to the frame via 4 M8 25mm bolts, flat and lock washers, and nut. The instructions state that for "2nd Gen" Tacomas you will need to drill out a second hole on the passenger side to allow mounting of the 4th bolts. I had to do this on my 3rd Gen. There is no hole for it. Fortunately, once you get the other passenger bolt in a tightened, you can use the brace as a guide to drill the last hole.

-Lastly, take a rubber mallet and tap up and down all of the skids once installed. Listen for noises and clanks. This will help you identify what bolts need additional torqueing to make sure that everything is aligned and mounted properly.

Hopefully this helps-

 

I installed the same skid plates last fall. I had a similar experience. I’d recommend getting a tap and running it through all the threads on the plates to clean them out. When they powder coated the plates, they didn’t cover the threads. I did not realize this until it was to late. This is where the impact driver came in handy.

The other issue is the exhaust cross over protection under the transmission hangs lower than it needs to. I have smacked that pretty good a couple times and it has a nice dent. This was on stock suspension. I am lifting the truck a couple inches soon so that should help some. Otherwise they have held up well and done what they are supposed to do.

I agree with your assessment on their strength. If anyone is looking for decent protection but doesn’t want the weight of thick steel plates or the expense of aluminum, they are a great compromise. The full set up comes in at 90lbs. ARB is a reputable company and they are engineered well.

The down side is you do need to remove some of the plates to do an oil change. The bolts as well protected and it should be an easy task, just adds time to your maintenance. As well, like most ARB items, they are expensive. I found mine on sale with free shipping which helped. Bottom line, it’s the shipping that kills you on these heavy aftermarket parts we put on our tacos. Unfortunately the company I got them from doesn’t offer free shipping. They are on Amazon Prime for $779.

 

How long would you say it takes to remove the part necessary to do the oil change using basic hand tools?

 

I’ve done it so many times for oil changes it takes about 10 min now. You have to remove the front two plates. I believe it is 12 bolts. I jack the truck up as high as I can get it on my jack stands to make it easier.