Does anyone have recommendation's on what thickness steel or aluminum and placement on a 2 wheel drive truck for a custom fab'd skid plate? Or just ordering a kit online. I found this http://www.jegs.com/i/Skyjacker/825/DSP2345/10002/-1 but by the picture I'm not sure how that would do anything.

I've done some minor damage to the tranny fluid pan while bottoming out while doing some offroading a while back and I'd like to have a skid plate to help avoid any future damage. Would also like to protect the oil pan.

Problem is, besides the cross member that the rear of the tranny is bolted to there isn't much up front to bolt to.

The exhaust pipe is lower then the oil or tranny fluid pan so one long skid plate wouldn't work, besides looking stupid, I don't even know if that would be practical.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

I think it would be cheaper to buy a 4wd with all the mods you are trying to do with a 2wd. LOL And what's up with the "Off Road" rims you have in your sig? You want to sell them?

 

3/16ths steel, or 1/4 inch aluminum. You will have to make your own cross members. Keep in mind, it is possible they will have to be able to support a significant portion of the weight of the truck..... so, they need to be pretty substantial. Comparable to the T-case cross member at least.

 

Sounds like this is going to be interesting then....

Thanks

I really don't have too many mod's I wanna do with this 4x2!! Just the usual dual exhaust, CAI, stuff like that. I will however do a little off roading every now and again, gotta prove that 2 wheel drive and an open differential can do more then beat the pavement!! (Like pull F-250 Diesel's outta ditches, and pull an older dodge and his boat & trailer out of the river)

On the wheel I've got the "sawblade" design now and I got the wheels from the pic from my brother in law's 04 4x4. I know they were available on the 01 4x4 models (pretty sure anyways) but don't think they were on the 4x2 (please correct me if I'm wrong). The tires on the truck are pretty much brand new. I'm upgrading to those wheels in January when I have a little more "truck play money".

Unless of course you wanna make me an offer

 

You should put those wheels in the for sale section. I bet someone will buy those the first day you post them.

 

They really look good on the truck, give it an inch or two higher stance too. But selling them isn't a bad idea either.

 

And btw, there was a really good thread on 2wd lifts. I tried a search, but, for a change, the search function really does not work right now. don't know what the deal is with that.

 

I noticed that as I did try to search for skid plate before I posted by question.

I plan on leveling off the front with 2" coil spring spacers (it's very possible you recommended that, don't remember for sure). Other then that I'm happy with the ride height of the truck, but for off the beaten path it's a little low.

 

How do think a lift will help that? The diff will still be just as close to the ground. The only thing that might help is bigger tires. And of course, that will require lower gears, so you don't lose power and wreck the tranny.

 

I'm not at all against the idea of lifting it, just not anytime soon.

I don't expect the front being level to help with ground clearance, that's just a visual improvement in my opinion.

At the moment I'm running 245/65/16 and if nothing changes will be upgrading to a 265/70/17 on 17" wheels in January

As far as the gears go, stock I'm running 3.55, how much lower can I go?