Skid plate material???

I've been looking into RCI plate options. Gonna get a full set from engine to diff. But I'm having trouble deciding on the material. 3/16 steel sounds strong but heavy, and it's also alot cheaper. 1/4 aluminum I imagine would be alot lighter, but how much? And should I be worried about tearing up the aluminum with extended use? Is the weight less of a factor than material strength?
https://rcimetalworks.com/product/05-19-tacoma-full-skid-package-deal-copy/

 

Depends ultimatly what you will be doing with the truck. If you dont plan to be playing in the rocks a lot and are more concerned about weight and plan to add bumpers, sliders, tent, etc Aluminum would prob a good option. If your going to do a lot of heavy offloading with full weight drops than i would def go steel.

 

The weight savings of steel vs aluminum are negligible when it comes to skid plates. You save maybe 50 lbs when talking about the main three skids, but that weight is low and evenly distributed so you won't notice any difference in driveability. I always recommend steel for skid plates.

 

Steel 100%. The weight savings is not worth it. I've seen countless guys with aluminum regret it as soon as they actually need to use the skids. Unless you're going for pure asthetics and cool factor then yeah aluminum. If you off road at all you'll want steel. Plus with the weight aspect, it's adding weight to the underside of your vehicle so actually lowers your center of gravity a bit more. Here is a picture of my three RCI skids. I've hammered the shit out of them! I will say try and do an exhaust reroute if you can and get that version of skid from RCI. I did not and as you can see it's the worst of the bunch. You'll love having that extra 2-3" of clearance. There are a few threads on here that show exhaust reroutes.

 

Aluminum skids are roughly half the weight of steel ones. Because the aluminum skids are thicker, strength might be comparable, but none of the manufactures advertise that. The drawbacks of aluminum are that 1) it is softer 2) it tends to crack upon failure instead of bend and 3) repairing it is more difficult.

A little bit of weight times many parts can add up to a lot of extra weight and weight has a lot of drawbacks. I plan to go aluminum with my armor; albeit I installed steel sliders before I thought that way.

An additional advantage of aluminum is that it doesn’t rust, and I see this as a big advantage in areas that have salt covered roads 6 months of the year.

 

If you need skids get steel.

 

Be honest with yourself about what you're using it for.

Are you doing LEGITIMATE rock crawling where you're literally, and intentionally, slamming and dragging the full weight of your truck across the undercarriage every time you go out? Steel.

Do you want to protect yourself against occasionally dropping the weight of the truck on a rock on moderate trails when you maybe misjudged the height? Aluminum.

Exceptions are sliders which should always be steel (because they're generally getting much more use) and traditionally mounted gas tank skids which in my opinion should always be aluminum.

 

Even this scenario I recommend steel. I had a friend with this mentality while wheeling, bumped his skids once or twice each trip, nothing major, and they were all deformed to shit after a while.

My opinion is aluminum is for someone who has zero intentions of ever hitting them into something, but they are there if it does happen, say a rogue stump hiding in some tall brush, or some off the wall scenario like that.

 

I’m also looking at the Rci steel and alum. Once you add shipping The extra weight the price between the two isn’t far off. Still not sure as well what I’m doing but I’m not let cost play a factor

 

Some guy ran alum skid plate..... It got ripped right off HAHAHAH. Depends how you're planning to use your rig. Protection first!

 

I’m looking to replace my stock skids as well. Can’t decide on aluminum or steel. What do you guys recommend by looking at my current skids. And is that bend bolt going to be an issue?

 

No. The nut that gets bolted into gets scrapped when installing aftermarket skids. As far as AL vs steel, I always recommend steel unless you're somewhere that heavily salts the roads AND you don't plan on wheeling too hard.

 

I have 3/16" steel. Bench press in place, hold with a knee and start a bolt. If you live in the rust belt it WILL RUST!

 

I'm running engine/trans/tcase steel skids from RCI. +1 for exhaust reroute, having that bump hanging down didn't seem like a good idea. Went aluminum for the gas tank, I don't think I've ever hit it, while the others are pretty well used.

 

The fuel tank is pretty hard to hit and even when it does, it's not a hard hit. I have a 1/4" UHMW plastic fuel tank skid that gets hit a decent amount and even that's plenty adequate protection.

 

Based on the amount of mud and scraping you have exhibited in this photo, I would recommend you purchase steel. Overall, steel will take abuse better but does require maintenance. It will slide over rocks better and not deform as easily.

 

High centered on a rock today. Almost took out my transfer case.

 

Steel because I full dropped it on this rock (Left front wheel is off the ground) and it saved me from completely destroying my cat converter. Weight is negligible, lost no MPGs.

 

These are what my RCI skids look like now. I went with al for the weight savings and they have done their job but they are pretty bent up. The truck has been on them multiple times and on the sliders( which are steel). Overall they hold up better than people claim but again depending on what you are doing steel is a tougher option. I’ll probably replace these with steel at some point when I do exhaust reroute. I’ve been hung up on this “little bump” a few times and it sucks.