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Belly pan / skid plate

jmh78

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
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273
Location
Sale Creek, TN
What are you using and what are your attachment methods to keep from fighting distorted bolt heads?

For those of you running AR plate did you happen to bend any of it during fabrication or weld it?

I was wanting to run 1/4" AR400 but I wanted to bend tabs up along the outside edge that I could bolt throgh to keep bolt out of harms way.
 
I used 1/4 AR400 and welded mild steel tabs on the side. Keeps the bolts up out of the way.
 
Let's see if photobucket will work.
I bent the side tabs with a torch before welding them on so they would wrap around the tube.
I also welded corner pieces on each edge of the frame to take shear load off the bolts and keep anything from grabbing the edge. The raised tabs in the middle are also for shear load and locate against the crossmembers.





 
counter sunk allen bolt heads, and carriage bolts are my favorites. if I am using UHMW skids, I go countersunk bolt..with just a steel or aluminum plate I go with carriage bolts
 
I use 1/8 ar 500 welded to the bottom bars just a few welds that can easily be cut out if needed you dont have to use thick plate if it is ar500 or ar400 if you have good braces on the chassis it wont bend or distort and slides like glass across rocks bc it is so hard they dont gouge into it like mild steel or aluminum
 
fl-krawler said:
counter sunk allen bolt heads, and carriage bolts are my favorites. if I am using UHMW skids, I go countersunk bolt..with just a steel or aluminum plate I go with carriage bolts

I use carriage bolts in one rig, 1/4in steel plate, and countersunk on my other with 1/4 stainless. Love the carriage bolts for taking it on and off, never hung up on them. Like the countersunk cause there is nothing to grab onto but not as easy to take off.
 
SBJeepn said:
I use carriage bolts in one rig, 1/4in steel plate, and countersunk on my other with 1/4 stainless. Love the carriage bolts for taking it on and off, never hung up on them. Like the countersunk cause there is nothing to grab onto but not as easy to take off.

if you are using thicker plate, mcmaster-carr sells a bolt that is a countersunk carriage bolt so you get the benefits of both. I am going to be using them for lower link bolts at the axle end of my new buggy
 
Also, the real beauty of carriage bolts is that you can just go steal them from your back porch if you need a spare.
 
The-Boss - Thanks, that is what I had in mind. I also saw where goatbuilt is using a high strength steel plate that looks to be formable. Their skid plates have several tight raduis breaks. I am looking to do something similar to yours though where the vertical tabs wrap around the outside of the subframe tubes.

Goatbuilt refers to theirs as XT 100 plate but didnt find much that matched up well when I searched it, maybe A656 Grade 100.


Do you have any issues not having the boatsides of your subframe plated with skid? Would like to keep mine open to let exhaust heat out better, but looks like a good hang point also.
 
There may be some but I am not familiar with any hard steel like AR400/500 that is very formable cold. If its heated to form I would think it would loose some of its hardness. That is why I made the tabs out of regular mild steel plate and formed them with a torch before I welded them on.

I haven't really had issues. Definitely nothing worth putting boat sides on. There will be something every once in a while that can get up in there. There are some dents in the perforated metal and a few on the exhaust tip. Most everything hits the edge of the skid and the rectangle tube slider. They take a lot of abuse.

Side note. The skid comes off and goes on easy. I even put heavy grease on the bolt threads and use nyloc nuts. Haven't had one loosen yet.
 

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