TRD Pro Skid Plate Install Question

Wished these fit 2015 tacomas

 

I tried to install my skid plate on my sport tonight and had to give up. The two previous unused back holes were in rough shape. Felt almost like they were about to get cross threaded, which would be hard to do as these bolts have long centring pins. But if those weld nuts get damaged I’m fucked big time. I’m grabbing a tap tomorrow at work. Way too much of a risk here to try to power through all that dirt and rust. Even a bit of WD-40 didn’t help much.

 

Update: I ran a 5mm tap through the weld nuts and couldn’t believe how much shit it took out of there! Finally got it on! Here’s a tip, use a box or something to balance the back of the skid plate when installing it. I watched 3 YouTube videos and everyone of them had some dude trying to balance it on their feet.

 

I'm either stronger than I thought, or my truck is lifted the perfect amount, but I was able to hold the skid plate on my left hand with my elbow straight towards the ground and run the screws in with my right hand. I was stunned it worked with 0 issues lol.

 

Haven’t read through the full five pages.... but these points can be considered:

1. Good idea to raise the front of the truck another 8 inches or so with a ramp
2. Use a friend
3. Use a wheeled car jack with a section of 2x4 on the rounded part to hoist the skid plate up into place
4. A friend is helpful!
5. Use an impact to remove the existing bolts

The longer 17mm bolts are in the middle.
The shorter ones are for the front.
12 mm in the rear.

 

I have a 22 Limited and installed my TRD skid plate today successfully thanks to the advice in this thread and the plentiful videos on YouTube!

The part that confused me the most during my install was that all of the videos and instructions I’m seeing online showed TWO factory skid plate pieces that needed to be removed.. I located and took off the front one just fine and crawled under my truck for a long time trying to find the back one, but it wasn’t there!

After realizing that I don’t have a 2nd piece to remove; I went ahead and installed the new skid plate and everything screwed in fine.

But I’m still wondering why my truck didn’t have the rear plate originally?

 

Interesting. You did get the limited... maybe that was one of the parts they... limited?



I'll be jamming mine up there tomorrow. Gonna do the one arm balance cuz I don't like reading instructions. Don't tell me how to live my life!

 

LOL. You do you!
If you care for any advice- All of the bolts should fit without any issues as long as they are aligned properly. I did torque the 17mm (33 ft⋅lb) and 12mm (21 ft⋅lb) bolts according to the instruction card.
Good luck with the install!

 

lol yea, I was jk. I read the instructions and I plan on putting something underneath to hold it up while I work. Thanks for the help! Btw, looks great!

 

Only TRD offroad model has both plates. That feature is supposed to make them more offroad worthy. 

 

Yeah my Limited didn't have the 2nd skid plate either.

 

Good review/history of the TRD skid plate.

I’ve installed mine and it’s married to Talon CAT plate.

E
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I did not know that lol. I'm surprised that I never came across this info during my install research.
Not too surprising I suppose since Limiteds are likely not commonly modded vs the TRD models.