Are TRD skidplates all this ugly??

I was at the dealership today picking up some seals, and noticed how bad these welds are. Are they all like this??

 

Correct you are sir. Butt ugly welds for sure. Mine isn't quite that bad, but it's still nasty.

I will say that welding aluminum ain't like welding steel. That shit is runny AF

 

That ones abnormally bad.. but yea they’re uglier welds

 

Might be just a defect on display, that one is much worse than others.

 

Hahahah! Thats pure ass. Mine looks nothing like that. Maybe machines DONT weld those. Your welder must have been hung over the day they made it.

 

Don't make excuses for Toyota . You can stack dimes on aluminum just like anything else. Toyota can do better.

 

Agree it is possible. I'm going to bet Toyota went cheap and probably hired a "welder" in China who's day job is snapping together iPhones. Not exactly AWS 1.2 certified if you know what I mean

 

Must be a welder by trade with that lingo.

 

If you think that's ugly, try using one like an actual skidplate for protection from rocks and report back.

 

Mine has worked pretty well TBH. I've gotten mine high centered on a few rocks now and it has yet to be damaged to the point where I need to replace it. As an engineer I personally like the idea of aluminum yielding before my frame steel but there aren't any numbers behind that idea of mine haha.

I'll probably upgrade to steel at some point but for the money it's held up pretty well to me banging it up on rocks when I'm out hunting. $0.02 of anecdotal evidence of course

 

I bent my aluminum TRD skid up pretty quickly. Even bent the 3/16 steel skid I'm running now and I'm certain that the shot it took would have been more than the aluminum skid could have protected my oil pan from and I probably would have damaged the subframe.

 

3/16” steel plate isn’t much of a skid bud. If you’re banging up your skid like that you should probably get something a bit thicker. I just use my skid as an audible warning to tell me to pick a better line lol.

Pretty sure there’s a shop here who fabs up a plate with reinforced ribs. Might be worth looking into. I don’t recall the name of the shop but they’re a vendor on here

 

Mine was pretty ugly by the time I got real skids. But, it wasn't because of the welds.

 

Nothing that a grinder and some paint can't fix.

 

3/16 is pretty standard and plenty stout. I think there are a few who offer 1/4 steel but at a point weight plays into the decision on how much beef you want. I banged this one up trying to get to flat ground after a sidewall puncture in the rocks...you lose a bit of ground clearance running on the rim.

That dent is the shape of the rock I landed on and unless it hit directly on a rib I don't think the result would have been any different.

 

My RCI is 3/16" and it's stout as fuck. I don't even think twice about sticking a jack under it or running it into anything

 

Agreed. I've never had an issue sliding a floor jack under mine but dented it wheeling. I think the forces are a bit different with those two activities

I still trust the 3/16 to do what it needs to and prevent a long hike.

 

My point was it will easily hold the weight of the vehicle, aluminum would not consider that for a second. Saying 3/16 isn't strong enough is just silly

 

BAMF makes the 1/4 skids. He prototyped the first one for me because I was tired of damaging skids back when I used to wheel really rowdy. They are pure beef, and use the physical frame crossmembers themselves to mount to. Even the fasteners are big boys as well designed with nothing but strength in mind the way they run all the way through the crossmembers using thick sandwich plates to tie mounting points together. If you bend those, you definitely bent your frame with them.

That being said. If memory serves me correct, they weigh about 80 lbs. for the front skid alone. So do you want weight but pure beef, or do you want some protection at the expense of potential damage down the road. Tradeoffs.

 

Ya to be clear, I'm not saying 3/16" isn't good enough for most folks. It's what I plan on upgrading to down the road. Just a friendly suggestion for the dude out rock crawling on his rims to size up his skid lol

Another advantage to steel vs aluminum is the fact steel tends to be a bit more "slick" on the rocks than aluminum. The TRD aluminum skid ends up stuck on rocks whereas the steel skids I welded up for my old mud wheeler slid off the rocks a little easier