Skid plate: steel vs aluminum

Hey guys, I'm looking at the RCI front skid plate to replace the factory one. I know the aluminum is lighter, but is the lighter weight enough reason to spend the extra money?
What are the advantages of one over another?
Thanks.

 

If you are crawling over a lot of rocks, I'd go steel. It slides better. Aluminum will gouge and grab the rocks. I have 3/16" steel skids on my taco, and 1/4" aluminum on the 4 runner. The aluminum ones has been dragged over dirt ruts and held up the truck just fine, but we only do light trails with the 4Runner. The aluminum is also great when you have to pull them off for whatever reason.

 

Go steel. Much stronger but thats my opinion. I have the rci steel ifs.

 

Did you do bare steel or powder coat?

 

I painted it. Easier to touch up. So bare steel

 

Plus i have to weld about 6in more so my mobtown trans skid will bolt on to the ifs.

 

Personally anything that is going to smash things gets rattle canned. I've been over coating my skids with dupicolor bed coat, it looks nice and is easy to touch up. It has Kevlar, so it's bro rated.

Custom Mid Plate

 

I would never run aluminum skids if your wheeling in the rocks. Dirt roads you should be fine but hitting rocks is a no go for aluminum skids.

 

Steel. The weight is a small price to pay for the added protection. Mine (mobtown) are powder coated. I figure the bottom will need to be touched up, but I don't spend a lot of time laying on my back admiring the skid plates. I went powder to ensure the top face was sealed, figuring that if it bugs me it'll be a lot easier to touch up scratches on the visible face then it will be to deal with the a completely rusted upper face

 

Steele, Steele and more Steele. I just bent my back bolt on the drivers side 30 degrees and gouged the hell out of it a few weeks ago. Trd, 1/4 IN Thick aluminum skid. It worked but wish I had gone steele.

 

Aluminum won't rust though. That's a big advantage.

 

3/16" steel plate will last longer than your frame.

 

Again though, won't it rust?

 

Aluminum corrodes. Same thing different chemical reactions happening I believe

 

Yes, if you are worried about rust, have it powdercoated. Most good powdercoat shops will do a zinc rich base coat, then a color top coat. Then you can just rattle can any gouges. That's how mine are.

 

Yes, raw aluminum will oxidize. And if you use stainless hardware, you get galvanic corrosion where the stainless contacts the aluminum.

I just painted the 4Runner skids because of this.

 

An Aluminum skid will hold up to quite a bit of abuse, but it's service life in the rocks will be much shorter than a steel skid. If your primary goal is Forest Service roads with the occasional trip excursion, you'll be fine with aluminum. I was surprised by how many KOH cars run Aluminum backed HDPE skid plates.

 

As many have said it depends on your intended use, if your building a rock crawler go steel, if building a daily driver/expedition rig go aluminum! The only down side to aluminum is it will gouge and grab on the rocks.

 

I'm happy with my aluminum RCI skids. Yeah they'll eventually fail but so will steel if you're beating on it hard enough.

I've done enough rock crawling/bouncing to know that's not in the cards for this truck. In any event it handles rocks just fine.

 

The aluminum Pelfreybilt skid is 1/4" thick and beefy as hell. Sure, it's not steel and will dent if you drop the weight of the front end down on a big rock, but for light wheeling and even some hits it will do just fine.