Skid plate essentials?

Hood297 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:01 pm

I am in the market for some skid plates. The only thing i have so far for protection is a Diff. guard and .45, I am on a budget.

The wheeling i do is mostly woods, or mud. Ive never done any rock crawling, or even mountainous trails. I want to know what the essential skids are.

what areas of the kj need heavy duty protection? which skids are suggested (kilby, RL, rustys, mopar)?

Are mopar skids worth it?

dirtykj · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:29 pm

Gas tank skid plate, definitely. You can get by with OEM gas tank skid, I'm using it right now. It's got dents and all, but hey, cheap. If someday someone should drop a bucket of money on my head I know what I want to spend it on, but MOPAR skids do me fine right now.

You already have a front diff skid right? You might want transmission skid, but that's getting expensive. I still don't have mine, and I've done rocky trails in Big Bear and Moab ...

jason thompson · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:34 pm

Hood297 wrote:

I am in the market for some skid plates. The only thing i have so far for protection is a Diff. guard and .45, I am on a budget.

The wheeling i do is mostly woods, or mud. Ive never done any rock crawling, or even mountainous trails. I want to know what the essential skids are.

what areas of the kj need heavy duty protection? which skids are suggested (kilby, RL, rustys, mopar)?

Are mopar skids worth it?

If you dont do heavey rocks then mopar is fine but I would do a "good" Trans skid not the "tin foil" mopar one
nolakj bent his so bad that when we took it off it will no go on and all he hit was a log ,front tires were not on the ground but still bent way to easy
because he was going very very slow ,inching down knowing that if he hit hard it would bend and even after that it still bent

we wheeld a good bit with out a trany skid but I am not comforable with out one and I would say a little is better than none

unixxx · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:48 pm

You'll want a front, transfer case, gas tank, and engine/transmission skid. The OEM skid plates should work fine as provisional skids. You'll also want some rock rails. Again, the OEM rock rails will work fine, but they provide no side protection for your doors and rocker panels. Investing in skids and rock rails now is so much better than paying four times as much for a repair later.

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:12 pm

Skid can seem expensive...until...the time you needed one and didn't have one. If something, even a tree limb, jumps up from a tire and "whacks" your tranny pan (if you have an auto tranny) , you will wish you had spent the money. Your rocker panel protection is also a must...they "will" get hit and are not fun to fix.

A little Peace of Mind is priceless!

Edwin · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 3:35 pm

I have All-J's super skid coverin my tranny. It is super thick and heavy.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:34 pm

I do Mild Rocks and the OEM skids are fine. If you flog it and beat the snot out of it, then you will probably need some better skids. :lol:

raceinfan · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:48 pm

I have All J's super skid II for my engine & tranny the rest are Mopar

BVCRD · **Posted:** Tue Feb 20, 2007 5:21 pm

In my opinion with the kind of wheeling that you discribe, a gas tank skid isn't needed. I have all Mopar on mine. The tranny and transfer case skids that I just got were around $40 each. The tranny pan is pretty heavy duty. I was surprised at the weight of it. The transfer case is pretty light weight but it looks to be the same gauge as the original engine skid. If you hadn't said trees, I would have said you could get by with NO skids in just mud.

kolesy · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:50 am

BVCRD wrote:

If you hadn't said trees, I would have said you could get by with NO skids in just mud.

But you never know when that rock got thrown in the hole or your testing out a new pit. Skids never hurt, EVEN in mud.

Mutt · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 10:13 am

Front skid, Skidrow..........works great............barely scratched.
Eng/Trans, All Js............worth it's weight, even if it is bent.
Tcase skid, Skidrow.......taco'ed junk, I'm looking for a tougher one or I'm going to reinforce it with some angle.
Gas skid, Skidrow, bent......dented.......and cracked, worth every penny.
Rock rails, Carolina Rock Shop, worth their weight in gold.

priell3 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:44 am

I have complete Mopar skids and rock rails and have bashed them pretty good.
They are holding up well - scraped but no dents or bends. I don't use them often
or on extreme trails but they are better than no protection.

BVCRD · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:00 pm

kolesy wrote:

BVCRD wrote:

If you hadn't said trees, I would have said you could get by with NO skids in just mud.

But you never know when that rock got thrown in the hole or your testing out a new pit. Skids never hurt, EVEN in mud.

True, skids don't hurt. I don't plan on needing mine, but I got em just in case. We can play what if all day long. The rear differential will plow away any hidden rocks if he gets in that deep.

jason thompson · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 10:12 pm

BVCRD wrote:

In my opinion with the kind of wheeling that you discribe, a gas tank skid isn't needed. I have all Mopar on mine. The tranny and transfer case skids that I just got were around $40 each. The tranny pan is pretty heavy duty. I was surprised at the weight of it. The transfer case is pretty light weight but it looks to be the same gauge as the original engine skid. If you hadn't said trees, I would have said you could get by with NO skids in just mud.

I would no be so sure
we wheel the KJ on about the same stuff ,never rocks, but lots of trees and roots and more than once hit the fuel tank skid.
besides the fuel tank is plastic and a good size stick can put a hole in it if the rear tire cought it just right and no fuel = no go
But like you said we can play what if all day long

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 10:43 pm

When did they start making the KJ gas tank out of plastic(sorry for the hijack by the way)? Mine is metal.

unixxx · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:03 pm

My 05 Renegade gas tank is plastic.

Big D · **Joined:** Mon Jun 05, 2006 10:08 pm **Posts:** 349

Mine is metal too. Gas tank skid helps when you slide into a rut with the back wheels and the front is still out of the rut.

jason thompson · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:24 pm

tjkj2002 wrote:

When did they start making the KJ gas tank out of plastic(sorry for the hijack by the way)? Mine is metal.

I THINK and could very well be wrong but DOT regulations require them to be "plastic" after a certan year
I know that most if not all mfgs use "plastic"

If it came with a skid it may look metal but if you stick your finger through the hole I am quite sure they are all plastic
I know that plastic is used to avoid rusting from condensate in the tank
This is also why I think that the DOT changed the regulations to require them to be plastic it also has to do with crash stuff

I know that our '03 has plastic and I see a butt load of "plain jane" KJ's running around with no skids on the plastic fuel tank
I have never seen one with a metal tank

Try to stick a magnet to your tank if it dont stick then ,plastic ,but dont try to stick it to the skid :wink:

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:50 pm

It's metal I put the gas tank skid on and yes a magnet does stick to it.When I bolted in my tool box I had to remove the skid plate and put bolts through the floor pan and had to use a magnetic retreiver to get the bolts in and in between putting bolts in I "stuck" the retreiver on the gas tank(not the skid,it was sitting on the ground about 10 frrt away from the KJ) so it was close at hand.

tommudd · **Posted:** Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:04 am

I thought mine was plastic also, now I have to go check?? But I covered it with a Kilby skid anyways, good deal on ean bay scratch and dent sale, no more than a Mopar one so well worth it. I finally have all the skids (Mopar but??), seen too many rocks, sticks, dogs, deer etc jump out of no where and hit a vital organ while driving down the road. Wont even get into the time that a junk tranny fell off a truck in front of me in my 69 Bronco at 70 miles per hour, without the skids.........it would of been :cry:

Skid plate essentials?

Who is online