Well, I've been thinking about doing this since I bought my truck back in June of 2005. My truck didn't come with any skid plates, and I thought I could come up with something better than the stamped steel ones the factory uses. So after measuring the bottom of my truck, I soon realized that every crossmember bracket on the 1500 Ram's are the same height from the ground as each other. After seeing this, I decided to make one big plate from the front bumper to just behind my transfer case where the rear drive shaft is. So lets call it a "Belly Pan" since it covers most of the trucks' underside. This belly pan should also increase my fuel economy even though it will increase my weight since it will reduce my drag. I'm using a piece of steel that is 1/8" thick, and is 30" X 9'. Then I plan to have it Rhinolined to help keep it from rusting out from road debris. I'll upload pics after the completion. Has anyone thought of doing this?

 

yes & no... I'd looked into pans to cover the open area's behind the front wheel and to the outside of the frame rails all the way back to the rear tire. soley for reducing drag to improve mileage.

I think the steel is a good idea but it may be hella heavy, are you going to make 1 piece or multiple pieces?
how are you going to deal with the axle movement?

how soon before you think your done?

 

Don't forget about body flex and access to maintenance areas. I'd make it in sections to cover the needed areas such as oil pan, tranny, gas tank, etc.

 

Well I had it all planned out until I got sick this weekend with Strepp Throat. It like Murphy's Law or something. Anyway, I picked up a piece of 1/8" sheet metal measuring 30"x9' on Wednesday. This one piece design is going to reach from the front bumper to just behind the charcoal canister. There will be a bracket at the rear most point, and one just in front of the transmission pan. The one up front will clear the torsion bars, and the exhaust. As far as the frame goes, there will be 4 individual mounts, each with 2 bolts. So I can easily remove the 8 bolts, and the pan will drop down. I'm still deciding on how big of an area I want to cut open for the oil pan drain plug as this will need to be accessed on a regular basis. And with it being one piece, it makes the fabrication very simple, since every crossmember on the 1500 truck are the same height. I think there are total of 5 crossmembers which will help spread out the load if I were run the pan over something. I'll upload pics as soon as I get some more progress done..... I hate being sick.

 

Too bad you weren't able to work on it over the weekend[&o]. Just keep us updated with the fabrication and installation

 

what are you going to do for airflow to the motor?

 

Some vents might solve that problem, i dunno if you have access with a plasma cuttin torch, but you could definetly cut a few cool vent designs in the front towards the engine compartment with one.

 

I'm hoping the openings where the tow hooks mount will be sufficient for cooling in addition to the grill. Other than that, the sides of the pan will be open, so there shouldn't be an issue of over-heating, although I did stop and think about that for a while. I figure if it got to hot in the summer I'll just modify it for what I need, or just remove it all together for the summer. But as for winter, heat should be no problem. Thanks for the constructive comments. Here's some of prelimanary pics... Sorry for the dirty truck, LOL.

 

whats the point in covering your whole undercairage?? Sorry just seems pointless to me. little skid under the motor and transfercase is all you really need, unless u are crawling rocks or something

 

The main point was to cover everything so that was very little way to get hung up on things, like snow covered stumps/logs. I drive in a lot of snow covered fields during the winter. After I decided to make the plate this way, I realized after talking to my step-dad (Who runs fuel economy tests for the Proving Grounds) that it will also increase my fuel economy. I forgot about it until he reminded me of the belly pans they have made for a variety of chrysler cars out there. The belly pan designs significantly cuts the drag out from under the truck. And it will be easier than making 2 or 3 separate skid plates which all would need their own mounting brackets. The one piece design allows the weight of an unknown object to be transfered across the whole pan since there are many different crossmembers under the 3rd gen Ram. Just wait until I have the pan completed, and the pics should speak for themselves.