Pezzy Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Here's a couple pics of my pathy skids from BlackPanther, painted in a light coat of mud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trialsin26 Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Looks good. I like the add Bling Bling mud. I can hardly wait tell I pay my PF off, then I can really have some fun. Less then a year to go. :cool2: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
98Chilkoot Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Hey i'm just going to add I have the same one as well they look good, fit real well and i think its probably the best part that i have added to my truck. I doubt i will ever put a ding in it, it seems really really solid... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vengeful Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 To Anyone that takes their rig off road, I feel without a doubt that skidplates are the single best modification you can make to your truck....Not only do they offer protection of vital parts, they give you a sense of security knowing that you won't break your junk. I've got the "thin" BP Skids and I hit a very large rock, directly on the skidplate going some 15mph and it stopped me dead in my tracks....the only "damage" was a scratch in the powdercoating....Marcel does absolutely amazing work, and he's one hell of a nice guy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc_andrew Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 what kit is that, Pezzy? how easy was the install and how much weight do you figure you are adding? also, do you have to remove the plates to change the oil? cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Those plates look really good, especially the oil pan/transmission plate. Much better than the simple factory plastic splashguard for off-road use. From what I can see, it looks like there's only two things that could be improved upon: 1) Add "Winglets" on either side of the front skid plate to prevent mud/water splashed by the tires from getting up and into the engine compartment. 2) Countersink the mounting bolts on the lower crossmember. The current design makes the bolt heads very susceptible to being sheared off or damaged. Here's an example of a skidplate that I had custom-built for my truck. I requested that it include the features above, in addition to extra reinforcement to prevent deformation of the skidplate if it were hit. Then again, my skidplate weighs about 40 lbs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herm Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 (edited) I have the Panther skids and they are pretty nice. And Marcel is also pretty nice! I agree that countersinking the crossmember bolts would stop the chance of shearing them. The front skid is bolted to existing threaded holes, but they are smaller. There are much larger threaded holes within a few inches that could be used - these are used to hold the factory brush guard set-up. I think they would be a better mounting choice - using two large bolts up front instead of 2 smaller. But that is pretty minor. I'm looking into fabbing a piece of 1/4 inch teflon plate (cutting board material) to line the outer part of the skids - this would effectively reduce the vulnerability of the exposed boltheads and let you slide over things instead of hanging up. Which could work for or against you, given the particular situation - but overall I think it would be a benefit. Apparently you can buy this in a roll thru contractor supply houses, but I haven't found a source yet. 4wheeler magazine did a similar mod. Edited July 13, 2005 by herm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runnerman Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Hello Guys/Gals I have been thinking of making some sort of attatchment for those Bolts on that crossmember. Most people don't want to drill into there vehicles so the mounting holes I have are on all the models from 96-04 will stay. I'm thinking the other few inches over larger bolt holes these would be on the top. Well some customers have the Brush guards, that would interfere with using them. I actualy redesigned the plates after, as that's exactly what happened the plate interfered with the brush guard. I still have the old design on our pathy but most of my customers have the new design which is compatable with the Brush Guards. So all my Champion skidplates are now compatable with Brush guards. If somone happens to crunch the 10G Champion skidplate I will give them a new one. The way I designed these Champion plates are very strong. If a customer hits something when offroading and this happens the whole front end would be smashed up and this person would of been going at a very fast speed. I will see this weekend as I'll have the pathy in my garage so I'll see what I can come up with. I am also working on a tool to replace those nuts in that crossmember as one on the end spun. So if this happens in the middle good luck right now trying to tighten the Bolt. So when I get this tool finished and maybe the attatchment I will send those pc's to all my customers that have the Kits. See I'm not changing the design just making it so shearing will be harder to do and if it does happen easier to replace the bolts and nuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pezzy Posted July 13, 2005 Author Share Posted July 13, 2005 I have the Superskid, which is made up of the Champion & the Defender. You will have to remove the front one to do oil changes, unless you get an oil filter relocation kit. Installation was easy... hardest part was that there were a bunch of guys trying to help, and no one (except me) was reading the instructions... haha... Yeah, those bolts have my hubby looking for ways to countersink or otherwise hide them from the possibility of shearing them off... If you're wondering about getting skids... just dont be like this idiot who bent their subframe on a rock (we suppose) and cost themself $1200... Skids would have saved that crossmember from being caught & then bent up like that... oh wait, that idiot was me... D'oh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Runnerman, sounds like you are doing some FINE work !!! As a fellow metal worker, I respect your efforts ! As for the protruding bolt head issue, for a simple 1/2 measure fix has anyone considered using pan heads ? You know, the dome headed allen wrench bolts. Or are they already being used and I'm just being foolish ? Herm, What you probably want to use is polyethylene instead of teflon. UHMW PE (ultra high molecular weight) is what you really want. An easy source for most plastics is msc.com. Here is a link that discusses some of it. http://npora.ipbhost.com//index.php?showto...t=0entry33383 I'm working on this one for the 90-95 Pathys, but dont want to go any farther because my frame is still bent and I dont want to fit it to a fubared truck... Tools used so far: bandsaw and $15 propane torch for heating/forming, but I even cut a small section with a box cutter and a LOT of patience. It is easily 50% larger than the stock front skid plate, 3/8 thick and will have 'winglets' bent back... B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herm Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Precise - THX for the info! exactly the questions I've been thinking about. The skids I heard of weren't purely plastic - they were steel but used the plastic as an exterior lining to slide easier. Runnerman - is this the Fram Sure-Drain plug you have? http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/Pro...254&prmenbr=361 I *think* the pathy oild drain thread specs are M12x1.25 which is the SD3 part number. Can anyone confirm that? I want to put one of these in to make the oil change process easier with the skids. m. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vengeful Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 If you're wondering about getting skids... just dont be like this idiot who bent their subframe on a rock (we suppose) and cost themself $1200... Skids would have saved that crossmember from being caught & then bent up like that... oh wait, that idiot was me... D'oh! You're not the only one Pezzy... A friend of mine did JUST THAT. I ordered the skids that evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runnerman Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Precise - THX for the info! exactly the questions I've been thinking about. The skids I heard of weren't purely plastic - they were steel but used the plastic as an exterior lining to slide easier. Runnerman - is this the Fram Sure-Drain plug you have? http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/Pro...254&prmenbr=361 I *think* the pathy oild drain thread specs are M12x1.25 which is the SD3 part number. Can anyone confirm that? I want to put one of these in to make the oil change process easier with the skids. m. It is part# SD-3 confirmed herm Hope that helps. As for the plastic that's a good idea. So the bolts would have to be longer by 3/16" and the plastic would have counter sunk holes. What I was thinking was making a plate to cover them in away where you could still get to them. Which would be angled on both sides of the plate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Dank Posted July 14, 2005 Share Posted July 14, 2005 Marcel, great looking work. From what every has said, and what I've already believe, they are excellent. Fawk those XOC'ers who have been talking smack. When the time is right for me, you'll be getting an order from me!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runnerman Posted July 14, 2005 Share Posted July 14, 2005 Thanks DJ, The Admin's hostility comes from wanting a Free Set of Skidplates and I told him no, he can purchase a set (which he did not want to do). So he started bashing my skidplates so I rebuttled his bashing with exposing his true purpose, then I was banned and my post deleted. Guess that hit home, and so now he quotes my deleted posts. I am not bothering with that Forum again. I know he says "Why are my plates so much cheaper"? it comes down to overhead. I have none. No employees. It's just my wife and I. I don't sell to an aftermarket company, I was going to but decided against it (thanks to NPORA). This would mean inflation and pricing would be the same as skidrows. Seems this is what people want to pay. It's weird but I can make there plates cheaper then I can make my own. (Then they would be knock offs and I'm not for that) The reason I don't countersink the holes is that the plates are laser cut this is impossible to do with this machine. As for the bends in the plates he's saying there straight design. Guess he figures what he says is true if you look, they have many bends in them. I use a 200ton break I can break over a 1/4" of steel into a box. The Champion skids have 4-Breaks and the Hero plate has 5-breaks, so a straight design they are not. The rear plates have at least 2-3 bends each. I did not start this thread there I only replied after a customer told me what was happening there. Have to say though he has sent me allot of orders, with all of his advertising for BlackPanther Armor. If he doesn't stop might have to put him on payroll I had to say my .02 as he wanted something for nothing, that's not going to happen Thanks Again for the support! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Dank Posted July 14, 2005 Share Posted July 14, 2005 (edited) Yeah. Thats just BS. Just because someone is offering a great deal on a product, doesn't mean that its not quality. Yes everyone knows the saying "if its too good to be true, it probably is..." but I mean c'mon Marcel, its not like you're selling them for DIRT cheap... If you were selling them for like like $50 then thats a diff story. I mean you still have to pay at least a couple hundreds of dollars for a set... Thats the poorest judgement of a products quality/reliability purely because of the price. Tells you the intelligence of someone. Price does not equal quality. I mean look at the H2's...would you pay $60k for a plastic box on wheels? Someone should find Admin(Carlton) and give him a sock party...we can call him Private Pyle. Edited July 14, 2005 by DJ Dank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pezzy Posted July 14, 2005 Author Share Posted July 14, 2005 (edited) Most of his arguements were not well researched, and that's no way to present yourself. The bashing, and then deleting of Marcel's rebuttal lacked any respect at all... But whatever, I have a 'Tool of the Day' trophy for that momo here at my desk. ( you can tell I've settled down a lot since this morning... eh Marcel! ) Edited July 14, 2005 by Pezzy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Dank Posted July 14, 2005 Share Posted July 14, 2005 (edited) The bashing, and then deleting of Marcel's rebuttal lacked any respect at all... But whatever, I have a 'Tool of the Day' trophy for that momo here at my desk. The trophy should be 2 inches to reflect "his tool." Yeah I've learned it takes a lot for Pezzy to get mad. So when i saw the original post about it, I was like "WTF? I gotta go check this out!" Edited July 14, 2005 by DJ Dank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmgar99 Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 Those plates look really good, especially the oil pan/transmission plate. Much better than the simple factory plastic splashguard for off-road use. From what I can see, it looks like there's only two things that could be improved upon: 1) Add "Winglets" on either side of the front skid plate to prevent mud/water splashed by the tires from getting up and into the engine compartment. 2) Countersink the mounting bolts on the lower crossmember. The current design makes the bolt heads very susceptible to being sheared off or damaged. Here's an example of a skidplate that I had custom-built for my truck. I requested that it include the features above, in addition to extra reinforcement to prevent deformation of the skidplate if it were hit. Then again, my skidplate weighs about 40 lbs! Hey Dean, did you have an added section welded in to gain thickness for countersinking the bolts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted July 16, 2005 Share Posted July 16, 2005 Yes. See here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmgar99 Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Perfect Picture...thnx....time to get to modifying mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
senshido Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 ...You will have to remove the front one to do oil changes, unless you get an oil filter relocation kit. ... An oil 'filter' relocation kit ?!? Really, that @!*% exists? PS. I want a f* snorkel, thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Everything exists for a reason Bud. Someone here made a passable snorkel themselves out of PVC. Search, buy and build... B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pezzy Posted July 18, 2005 Author Share Posted July 18, 2005 ...You will have to remove the front one to do oil changes, unless you get an oil filter relocation kit. ... An oil 'filter' relocation kit ?!? Really, that @!*% exists? PS. I want a f* snorkel, thanks hmmm... quick search on AC - Oil Filter Relocation Kit They dont seem to have them for the R50's... although I cant see why the Xterra one wouldnt work on my truck, as it's the same engine... ??? no idea... I havent really put any research into this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abomb1 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 The last time I got an oil change they were going to charge me $5 extra because I have the (stock) splash guard. I would like to find one of these relocation kits for mine if they have them, especially for if (when) I get my BP skidplate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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