Plastic Skids

Boiler · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:20 am

Lets assume a skid plate was designed out of some sort of high strength plastic / resin type material. The manufacturer backs up it's design with material specs, 3D stress simulations, a picture of a KJ resting on a boulder, etc. It weighs 1/4 that of steel, is as strong as mild steel, and costs about 1.5 times as much. Finally, it is more slippery on rocks than any metal would be.

An example is shown here. This is a picture I was shown, and this has nothing to do with them, its just an example of a plastic skid.

Would you:

A) buy it if you thought it was a good value
B) look for a steel skid
C) not bother shopping for skids, you have some...

Guest · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:23 am

Delrin would be a fantastic material for skidplates.

Boiler · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:29 am

I have some materials on my list, factoring in cost, tensile and impact strength, temperature ranges, moisture absorption, chemical resitances, etc. I just figured I wouldn't get into that too much here.

JL Rockies · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 2:16 am

We used to make subwoofer enclosures from roto-molded polyethylene. You could drive over them with the vehicle and there wouldn't be a ding. The problem was the tooling was $15K and you had to account for shrinkage so it took some skill to make a plug that would not fit the vehicle but the end product would. Polyethylene is also used as bullet-proof armor.

dirt pig · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 2:42 am

I've been throwing the idea of Carbon-Fibre around.

Guest · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 2:55 am

CF is way too brittle to be used in an application where there are sharp impacts.

It's structurally sound for even loading, but in a skidplate application, it would fail.

ihatemybike · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 7:54 am

I like the idea of them and have been looking into this option for Grumpy.

Boiler · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 8:34 am

I'm leaning toward Garolite G-10/FR4. It is high strength and impact resistant, good environmental properties, and is cost effective. Its gobs stronger than just about anything but carbon fiber, and from what I can tell its about 1/3 the cost of CF.

I'm thinking of picking a plastic, aluminum, and steel plate, having them waterjetted to shape, and just let people pick whatever they feel most comfortable with. Each will have tube backing frames to bolt to. They'd be removable / replaceable sheets with frames that bolt onto different areas of our undercarriage.

greatoppressor · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:12 am

I think the only way it would be viable is if the replacement skids (minus the leave-on frame you mentioned) were relatively inexpensive. Low weight and low friction are both good features to have, but in the general consumer market, plastics are usually desirable for the primary reason that they are often less expensive than their metal counterparts.

Of course, another nice thing about the plastic skids would be that you don't have to worry about them rusting after they've been gouged. No painting necessary!

-SR-

JJsTJ · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 11:19 am

I voted in the yes category.

I'll also toss in a write in vote for aluminum skids too. (remember my pm?)
There is a company in the process of creating quite a few al. armor accesories and testing is showing them to work great. i think there is going to be a good market for lighter weight armor on Jeeps. Wheelers are starting to realize that lighter is better when it comes to overall vehicle performance and parts longevity. One of my future mods will be to swap my current belly pan for an al. version...now to find the pros that know how to work w/ al. for that type of application.

Drassis · **Joined:** Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:31 pm **Posts:** 182

Ya thats the problem we had in the middle east, how much armor to apply before we loose to much vehicle performance. With extra shields we saved our lives but we lost performance when it mattered. when we really needed to move and move quick the hum v was to dam slow with it weighted down 6000lbs in armor.

Not saying to use plastic in combat lol but just an analogy. The lighter the vehicle is the better performance you can get. I would definatly buy a plastic shield for my Jeep

ribbon · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 12:29 pm

id be interested. Also would be interested in aluminum skids like asfir makes. I would buy them but they don't like to respond to emails or calls.

durangotang · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 12:37 pm

I would definitely support something like this....

...one product to look into for those that can't afford a full new set of skids: plastic "covers" for the factory mopar skids to beef them up a little and slow wear. Then if you just so happened to offer plastic bottoms to protect everyone's expensive rocker guards we all bought.... that would be sweet too

Just some thoughts

jsc7002 · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 12:38 pm

Id be interested in some or aluminum, I was actually planning on trying to do some for my CJ and my next Jeep project.

Boiler · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 12:55 pm

durangotang wrote:

I would definitely support something like this....

...one product to look into for those that can't afford a full new set of skids: plastic "covers" for the factory mopar skids to beef them up a little and slow wear. Then if you just so happened to offer plastic bottoms to protect everyone's expensive rocker guards we all bought.... that would be sweet too

Just some thoughts

You want me to design skids to protect your skids bought elsewhere? Wow, that's really saying something.... :lol:

Inc · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:01 pm

You know I am all for it.

durangotang · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:13 pm

Boiler wrote:

durangotang wrote:

I would definitely support something like this....

...one product to look into for those that can't afford a full new set of skids: plastic "covers" for the factory mopar skids to beef them up a little and slow wear. Then if you just so happened to offer plastic bottoms to protect everyone's expensive rocker guards we all bought.... that would be sweet too

Just some thoughts

You want me to design skids to protect your skids bought elsewhere? Wow, that's really saying something.... :lol:

Well the folks who have factory Mopar skids may want a little extra... if the price was right that could hold them over until they could afford replacements.

And I don't see anything wrong with using my ginormous skids as a structural base and covering them with a replaceable surface to take all the impacts

Boiler · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 3:30 pm

No I'm sure that would be great. It might be tough making form fitting ones to go over them though.

durangotang · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 3:32 pm

Boiler wrote:

It might be tough making form fitting ones to go over them though.

That's why I'm letting you do it :lol:

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 3:47 pm

I voted NO for myself because I have the full set of ASFIR Aluminum Skids.

I think the "platics" would work with some kind of subframe for support on longer spans.

Plastic Skids

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