Finally! A Tacoma Flat Belly Kit

Looks very clean, how’d the exhaust reroute go?

 

After seeing how easy it was for the muffler shop I went to, I now say do it first thing if you drive off road at all. No reason to be hanging there other than saving a $ for less metal pipe length.

 

Sub’d

 

Hi, saw this on Overland Outfitters. Been interested since March. I'd love to have a rigid reinforced transmission skid to slide over the rocks once the front wheels drop

 

I would like to take a better look. Where on Overland Outfitters was this seen? I’ve looked at their website and Youtube site.

 

Follow Braeden's original link for pre-order access.

 

Got it! Thanks.

 

just made a video about the flat belly kit! Pretty excited about this product, not gunna lie. It's crazy how much difference it makes in the rocks.

 

I think I convinced a couple guys in the northeast on these. Every tacoma that went through this spot got caught up on that transmission crossmember and had to winch out

 

That's sick! Thanks man. They would probably drive that barely touching belly with this kit. It's basically like doing a 4" bigger tire.

 

The post-mortem from my attempt on that section, definitely thinking this sooner than later when I can afford it

 

@WormSquirts Will this temporarily fit with the stock exhaust setup or does it need to be cut to fit the crossmember.

Just talking about the crossmember here.

 

No, the exhaust has to be cut to install. It's pretty easy to do the exhaust though, just buy a couple elbows and straight chunks and weld them in
We add a flange as well

 

@WormSquirts, when will this be available in the us? Your website says we will fulfill the item as soon as it becomes available

 

Its available for preorder currently, I'm just making them as ordered! We just shipped one to the states. I plan to get ahead of the orders, but haven't had the time yet to put into making extras.

 

I was watching your video closely and was wondering exactly what the final prototype actually looks like. I took a couple screenshots from your video and in one section it looks like the two skids are joined together by two bolts side by side but then later in the video it looks like only one bolt. I would prefer only one bolt but I would also prefer lag bolts so if and when you do drag those bolts on rocks they're more protected.

Do you have any pics of what the other side of the skids look like? Is there any extra gusseting for strength? Is there room for it? Or is it just tucked up so tight that there's not a lot of room?
I have BAMF skids and and they are built with strength in mind. They hold their shape way better than the RCI garbage in this video.
What about room for a dual T case like the Eco crawler from Northwest fab?

I'm really intrigued by this product. Every time I stare under my truck I hate how low my mid and T case skid are to the ground. I actually lose ground clearance by putting them on but without them I will destroy the components they are protecting. This kit looks really cool.

One bolt

2 bolts

What does the bottom of skid look like? Room for more gusseting?

 

Put you behind 2 more. Not sure when install will be

 

I would recommend against using lag bolts in steel.

And I don't think even more gusseting is going to be helpful for these. IMO the way OP has the material bent and welded should be sufficient for vast majority of users. More than that and you're adding weight for minimal gain.

 

Im guessing he meant carriage bolts

 

I was wondering if anybody would notice that haha. So what happened is I had to design and build the Tcase skid during that video, and we ran out of time to shoot it because the truck had to get out of the shop. So I actually shot the tcase skid part on a different truck. The first truck is an auto, and the second is a manual. The manual is just sliiiightly different, so we had to move things around a little bit, that's why there are two bolts there. I need to redesign the skids just slightly for the manual transmission, but they will all be single set of bolts there though.

The smashed up skids in the video aren't RCI, which are definitely not good. They are CBI, so they do have substance to them compared to the RCI.

Right now the back of the transmission skid only has two stringers, one on each side. It's too tight to the trans to be comfortable putting another one. That said, it's very uncommon to hit that part of the skid once it's tucked up like that because of the breakover angle. All the trucks we've done the kit on, when they come back, have almost no scratches or marks there. The part that hits is at or behind the trans crossmember, because the breakover angle has changed. The Tcase skid has 3 stringers and is a much shorter span between the two crossmembers, so it is quite robust. We've taken this kit through a ton of tough trails locally, as well as in Moab, and had a lot of success with it.

as for the dual case setup, I don't plan to make a kit for that. It's too difficult to hit every niche variation. That said, you can buy the crossmember on it's own and make your own skids.