Skid Material, Steel, Al, 1/8, 3/16, 1/4 how do they all compare?

As i am in the market for skids Al skids are attractive because rust belt and I am looking for accidental protection, not intentional sliding/rock crawling.

From some posts, its anecdotally reported that 1/4" al is still too weak and 3/16" steel would be way stronger. Well, by how much is the question that still exists. It was time to take this to simulation land. I modeled up what is an approximate RCI front skid, and used the bolt posts as anchor points in the CAD. I am missing bracing that would be provided by the plate sitting on the rear cross member but wasn't panning out in the simulation set-up. Again, this is just a relative comparison between material and thickness. The load applied to the skid is centered in the bottom square on a 1/2" spot and it is easily seen how much stiffness the front bend provides. 2 magnitudes of force were applied, 6000lbs and 3000lbs.

I tested 6000 and 7000 series AL and the differences were minimal. The steel is cold rolled and again sits between hot rolled and carbon steel, again, minimal difference for this purpose of comparison.

Now for the data!! Here is the summary and the displacement plots.
Summary:


Aluminum 1/4" - 3000lbs


Aluminum 1/4" - 6000lbs


Aluminum 3/16" - 3000lbs


Aluminum 3/16" - 6000lbs


Aluminum 1/8" - 3000lbs


Aluminum 1/8" - 6000lbs


Cold Rolled Steel 1/4" - 3000lbs


Cold Rolled Steel 1/4" - 6000lbs


Cold Rolled Steel 3/16" - 3000lbs


Cold Rolled Steel 3/16" - 6000lbs


Cold Rolled Steel 1/8" - 3000lbs


Cold Rolled Steel 1/8" - 6000lbs