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home-made skid plates and install

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Old 10-23-2011
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home-made skid plates and install

bear with me here..

I have a large street sign. Almost 2X if not 2.5X the size of a normal sign. it is a speed limit sign so its rectangular in shape. Believe it to be aluminum and almost 1/4 inch thick!

I want to fashion it into a working skid to protect tranny cooler and tran housing. Im not making a prerunner front end here but just a nice clean skid (itll be sanded and painted black). Idea is to keep front bumper (try to raise it the best I can, and drop the lower splash guard...now form here where do I mount?..as the body bounces up and down atop the frame I dont want to restrict its movement but securing the plate in the wrong area. So pointers would be awesome.

should i secure it to bumper alone? or cross member alone? I will bend and fashion the sign as needed. Im just lookin got see if anyones done this. Its practically free. sign is hella big and easy to cut and shape and My tran cooler is so messed up from wheeling it cant take much more so its practical too. thanks!

[IMG][/IMG]
 
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Old 10-23-2011
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Idk about others but my front skid is mounted to the crossmember at the rear and the frame at the front. No bumper mount. The only way I could see it working is if you were to weld extensions that bolted to the frame and crossmember.
 
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Old 10-23-2011
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Sweet. The idea i told pat was to find small square tubing. like 1/2 inch square tubing and run it behind the skid. 2 vertical beams that would attach to frame behind bumper up front and weld to cross member.

I just dont have square tubing and money is tighter than...
so I was wanting to get a "free" mod here. Do you think I could more or less screw through the plate into weaker parts of the under carriage? Wheeling down here is mostly crossing fields and the skid will really only defend against small small shrubs and palm fronds.
 
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Old 10-23-2011
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Mine is just bolted to the frame. I have a build thread on it and its probably not the type of design you are going for.

just some information in some states, if not all, it is illegal to have road signs in your possesion because it usaully means somebody stole it. And police frown on theft of government property.
 
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Old 10-23-2011
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the guy im getting them from has them in the woods behind his house. He's so rich he bought up like half of the city im from lol so thats why he has the signs. My property backs on to his and were good buds so Im just gonna take it. a street sign is just metal with fancy painting.

however I have in my possesion a warning sign like this that I sneakily came into ownership of haha: [IMG][/IMG] I wanna put in on my tailgate haha
 
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Old 10-23-2011
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its a sticker too haha stick it on a cop car hahahaha

I love your build little red and if I had the cash and time and equipment I would build this as legit as it gets. but I have 0 out of those 3. so simple stuff will have to do
 
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Old 10-23-2011
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yeah i understand about about the money and time took me a while to get both but my dad had the equipment so that helped out a lot.
 
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Old 10-24-2011
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just bumping mid day to see if any other info is available
 
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Old 10-24-2011
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Haha using my idea. I knew you'd like it.

Make a hood next. :-P

Don't paint it.
 
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Old 10-24-2011
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dude I really want this and I halfway need it. my radiators sont have fins anymore. thyre flat faces of smooshed metal
 
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Old 10-24-2011
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Well, If you need some help I'm an engineer at heart. Hence why I'm in college. :-P

I'm sure we could think something up with minimal money.
 
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Old 10-24-2011
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dude let me know. were gonna be leveling the trucks this weekend and installing lights and roof racks and skid plate and junk. make a trip down here. haha
 
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Old 10-24-2011
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Where is here you're back down south? Alright, I actually might, let me know. I hate driving to Melbourne, but I can for a leveling party. :-P
 
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Old 10-24-2011
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haha ill be in mel all weekend. and im only in orlando. you could walk here in a day or two lol
 
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Where you are in Orlando isn't much further than Melbourne.
 
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Old 10-24-2011
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really? cocoa is up by here I thought
 
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Old 10-24-2011
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ok cocoa to here is 31 miles cocoa to mel is 23
 
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Old 10-24-2011
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Yeah, still not bad either way though.
 
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Old 10-24-2011
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not horrible if you do decent on gas. I dont, you do worse major lolz


guess its the price to pay....when youre awesome
 
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Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Being awesome isn't free.
 
  #21  
Old 11-03-2011
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this is a great idea gah i wish i had larger signs around here 2 steal lol
 
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