What skid plates are a must for wheeling?

I am starting to armor up my Taco - I already have an engine skid plate and a transmission skid plate. I am planning on a transfer case skid plate and maybe skid plates for the A arms and the rear shock mounts. That will take me pretty far into my budget so I'm wondering if that is plenty of protection. I do moderate trails but may take on some more difficult trails or at least some trails with some technical challenges.

 

Skip the A arm skids. In my opinion, they're beefy enough to handle rocks.

 

Get a gas tank skid plate

 

Well they exist for a reason
-engine
-trans
-tcase and reroute
-gas tank
-diff skid and probably not expensive low hanging bolt on

that being said my crawl ratio is like 50:1 when it should be 100:1 or better.
So avoiding nuts trails until that is resolved is probably wise.

Bronco and Jeep is probably 100:1.
Rubicon tcase is 4:1. That’s said to be better for rocks.
Toyota choosing 2.57 is supposedly better for wheel spinning faster for sand mud dirt. Aka average light duty.

according to Marlin, a crawlbox means control and easier on the clutch.
And no crawl box means faster, bumping, jumping, bouncing, revving, with less reaction time window and more likely to break shit.
Which is exactly what happened to me trying to climb up an obstacle.

so yeah, if you don’t have a tcase setup for hard shit
Then why be concerned with skids for that.

the amount of times I have got for free
And given away for free
A used LCA

showing the price
What’s the point of a skid

never hit mine
And, a arm skids supposedly prevent water from draining out and cause rust
Because they tend to bolt on using the existing water drain holes in the arm thus blocking them.

you would probably be better off welding the stock arm
Stronger, higher clearance than skidding it, looks better. Cheaper.

with lift and tires I’m generally not hitting unless I take a bad line.

 

Which trails? How experienced are you?

I’m not much into rock crawling, but there is the “lighter, more agile” school of thought that forgoes tons of likely unnecessary skids — instead using basic skids (what you have) + sliders and careful line selection.

Your OR has the tank skid already. I’ve read maybe one person ever that had the tank punctured, and it would have done it with a metal plate over the skid too.

 

TacoTuesday1 mentioned a good thing ... exhaust re-route. Post in your regional forum to ask where ... mine was $100 at a local muffler shop. The pipe now goes around the transfer case instead of under it ... picture of "after" is below. Ask regional forum to get someone who puts the new pipe far enough behind the transfer case to provide heat clearance. Without the re-route the transfer case skid has a "bump" hanging down.

 

as long as your main skid plate (not the one gravel guard) covers the LCA tabs, I agree that you don’t need them.

 

- Don't need LCA skids as they can take the weight of the truck.

- Fuel tank skid is advisable but it's a balancing act between strength and weight (largest skid by area). Can go with aluminum or Trail Toys UHMW. The 2nd/3rd gen Tacoma fuel tank is tucked high flush with the frame, so it isn't as hard on skid plates as other model (4R, FJ).

 

Did the exhaust re-route so will get the flat RCI X-fer case

 

Nice, looks similar to my reroute.

The RCI crossmember has a weak point at the oil drain cutout. You can weld a square tube or angle iron for reinforcement.

 

I guess I was a PITA because the shop that did it does lots of them or so they said - but I wanted it further back than what he was going to do. He did what I wanted but got me good $130 became $200 because I "needed a new Y pipe" but it also tucked up nice on the passenger side so . . . .

 

Rock sliders…..they saved my door sil from the giant invisible rock I didn’t see and drove up on and crashed down on

 

Body Armor rock sliders were my first mod.

 

None are needed for wheeling which is most suited to a taco.

- you'll need them for hitting rocks.

Armor is heavy. Consider this...

I went as far as sliders...

 

Ifs, trans, tcase, rear diff....and maybe a tank skid if you fancy that

 

Someone already mentioned a rear diff skid plate. But make sure it’s the one that covers the u joint. BAMF, DRT, and C4 makes them.

 

ours fits the best

 

I would’ve copped if I didn’t have one already. Waiting on ya’lls front bumper with cross member delete.

 

Love to hear it!

 

No skid plates are a must. Get out and do it.