Mobtown Aluminum Skid

Careful, Mob.

This guy here is a complainer, he will look for any ol’ reason to throw your product under the bus. If he were the OP, he’d be trashing instead of complimenting.

Isnt that right, MOC?

 

But just the aluminum skid plate by itself is already 32 lbs? I am trying to see how much weight does the reinforcements add.

 

I can’t recall. I’ll weigh one tomorrow.

 

Been wondering what alloy you are using, I couldn't decide between 3003 and 5052 from the look of the plate. Do you know if it is 5052 H32 (before welding of course)?

 

I do not know. It’s an outsourced part and all I spec to the vendor is 5052.

 

My 3rd gen aluminum Mobtown front plate weighs 28.4 lb (by uncalibrated bathroom scale) without attachment hardware with access door installed and all welded reinforcements. (Mine is a little older and does not have the Mobtown text cutout).

The reinforcements add small weight, while increasing general overall bending stiffness many times (just first order guess, as the reinforcements are narrow, but stiffness increases by thickness^3, or thickness*thickness*thickness.)
Each stiffener 1" tall is equivalent to like 16" of plate width in stiffness for bending.

First order weight estimate (calculated) for reinforcing (not including tubular standoffs) is 142" long total* 1" wide *0.25" thick * 0.1 lb/in^3= 3.5 lb

 

Do you think reinforced aluminum is just as strong or not as strong as steel without reinforcements?

 

Need ALOT more info to do comparison, including
type of loading? (point load to center of plate?)
similar attachment points on the steel? (or do they skip the middle bolts?)
type of steel? (1025 mild steel vs 4130 CroMoly etc)
thickness of steel?

and what do you mean by 'strong'
do you really mean stiffness (how much deflection per load), or strength as in amount of load carried before yielding, or amount of load carried before breaking, without concern for deflection... Or a combination. Probably most people want yield strength, unless deflection critical to a close piece of structure.

Short answer,
No it wont be if steel is 0.25
Toss up if steel is 0.190, probably steel will still be stronger depending on alloy, depending on reinforcement size and placement.
If steel is 0.125, I will strongly ESTIMATE that the aluminum will be stronger and stiffer.

But aluminum will be less gouge resistant than a reasonably thick steel.

Remember steel is ~3 times as heavy, so aluminum will almost undoubtedly be stronger for the same weight steel, for a flat plate design, (not necessarily true for a reinforced design.)

If you wanted a reasonable weight and gouge resistance, aluminum with an abrasion layer of something like HDPE or steel would be the lightest strongest solution, (and most expensive)

But what is REQUIRED...

 

So.... I've bought a bunch of bolts and I've still not got it right. Not sure what is going on, but the pocket mounting points do not use the same diameter bolt as the ones I took out of the factory skid. Are these using different holes? I'm pretty sure all the bolts I removed from the stock skid were all the same size, but they are too small for the holes I'm threading into... by alot.

So can anyone tell me what the actual size is for the center bolts used on the Mob Town skid?

Thanks

 

Send me pics of what you’re referring to

 

Should be using one if these. Have you loosened the other 4 and used a floor jack with a piece of wood in the center? For me it got it close enough to start both bolts

 

Well there's my problem right there... LOL.
Thanks. I have those, I just only remember pulling those out of the front. And looking up into the holes from the ground they don't look nearly that big. Just put them in. HUGE thanks!

 

So you got it? Those are from the cross bars you took out.

 

Yup. Thank you sir.

 

Whats the lead time on a full set for the 3rd gen?

 

4 weeks, most likely less.

 

One of the few advantages to living in Baltimore is being able to pick up your gear from them with no shipping. Love their sliders.

 

Not sure where this is coming from, I didn't know what the shipping rates would be and the OP quickly answered that question in a PM. Anyway, these are awesome products that I may purchase for my rig in the future since the factory skids are a joke lol.

Sorry OP if a completely unrelated "argument" clogged up this thread.

Cheers

 

That looks beefy as hell. I bet after you remove all the factory junk that the weight difference isn't that much at all.

 

I’m 3 ish hours away now that I’ve consulted a map