RIVAL 4x4 Aluminum Gearbox Skid Plate

Anyone have experience with this product? Can’t find any reviews online. Looks like decent 1/4” aluminum and good quality from the few pics I did find.

Thanks in advance.

 

Also interested

 

Mine just shipped today and I’ll post how it goes. Hard to pass on it at $300 and my truck came with the TRD aluminum skid. I checked with Rival and they said it would fit just fine.

 

Keep us informed please.

 

It arrived safe and sound! Well packaged and looks good so far. I’ll bolt it on over the weekend and report back on how it fits

 

Whelp it didn’t fit with the TRD aluminum skid. I’ll reach out to them on Monday and see what they say. I’m a little annoyed since I emailed them to double-check and they said it’ll fit with that skid.

 

You might have to use a spacer and longer bolt just like the rci trans skid to get it to work , good luck

 

I wish it was that simple. The plates overlap and don’t match up like they are supposed to. It would take cutting and/or drilling new holes to make it work.

I’ll figure something out since it is otherwise a good skid plate. It probably matches up perfectly with their own front engine plate.

 

I'm looking at the same thing - did you ever get it mounted?

 

Still interested to hear their response to this.

 

Hey! Sorry for the delay. I just emailed them and will keep you all posted.

it looks like I could lower the front TRD with 1/2” worth of spacers, or I could cut the Rival skid to make it fit. The only issue is that I would have to cut off the plate’s mounting holes.

Any good ideas on how to cut a slot in the plate? I have a drill and a dremel, not sure how long it would take to “machine” it!

 

Well, I actually have access to a water jet at work, so if the fit was bad enough, I'd run something through there. If it was just trimming, a metal cutting jigsaw blade in my cordless and then a carbide chamfer bit in my trim router was my idea after seeing your post. Any photos of the fit? The embosses of the Rival don't allow the TRD front skid embosses to fit into them? I assume you'd put the Rival under the TRD.

 

sounds easy enough. half inch is nothing. (Or is it??)

 

Rival emailed me back- they are giving me a partial refund and I’ll just trim the plate to make it fit without spacers. I’m headed out camping for the weekend and will post pics of the trimming required when I get back.

Overall I’m very stoked! The company has been great to work with and they offered to take it back if I didn’t want it.

 

Finally had a chance to spend some quality time with the hacksaw. Trimming the front corners and drilling new holes turned out to be relatively quick and easy


Overall I’m happy with the way it turned out, other than the front bolts stick out more than I would like. Not bad for a budget option!

The Rival skidplate is a quality option and it would be seamless if you also use their engine skid. Solid option for $600! Plus the company has been good to deal with and quick to respond to emails.

It looks like it may fit with the CBI front skid, at least from looking at photos.

 

@Ffej Do you have a better pic of the rear cross member? I bought the same skid plate and I cannot get the rear cross member to fit on my 2016 TRD Off road. Also were the written instructions for the install that came in the box the same as the instructions Rival has online? https://drive.google.com/file/d/19fkoYXCDwJd7NqzL5F61RRmWElA9uiVG/view
Online Manual shows date of 06/03/2022, where as instruction that came with my skid are from 10/27/2020 and it is missing steps that are in the newer install manual.
I am starting to wonder if they sent me skid for old Taco.

I bought mine from TacomaBeast not from Rival directly and TacomaBeast is not being very helpful demanding video and pic proof part does not fit after I struggled for 1 1/2hrs trying to get that cross member to fit even took to a shop they said too wide as well.

 

Did you get this figured out? I bought and installed the front skid which seems like a decent piece. In the garage awaiting install is the tcase as well as the gas tank skid. I bought some of it from Tacomabeast as well.

 

Yes @mistareeman I got this resolved the rear support crossmember provided by rival in the kit was defective. TacomaBeast reached out rival. They replace the entire kit not just the crossmember. I will post a couple videos what I sent to TacomaBeast support which they sent to rival.

Here is a link to a video showing another install attempt and showing the cross member is Too Long…
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B0VsEE51LKBhk4lCLcxIwEBXTxMoMDJv/view?usp=drivesdk

Here is another video link showing better view of cross member Crappy welds.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U91TEd1_NSnJ_tZCByI7XIAKohFfj2Kz/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Thanks! I’ll check my cross member before install.