Fuel tank skid plate

[Sergei]

Well i been crawling around truck yesterday and its again hit me how unprotected fuel tank is from any harm.

I know that piece of metal, something like 48"x32" will do nice skid, but i dont have any

So question to all - anyone here knows place where i can get metal sheets for less than arm, leg and signing off of first born child?

Or may be someone knows place where one can get it for D1 relatively cheap? (as in - around 100$ is ok and good. 200$ is tad bit steep, but bearable, but southdown prices are just insane)

Or someone got it and dont need it anymore?

I know that one can get D2 tank skid from dap-inc for like 185$ or whatever they charge, but mine is D1, and they are a bit different i think.

Thanks
Sergei

 

[Moose]

Sergei:

Check out www.onlinemetals.com, then give them a call. A sheet of stainless is expensive, but they can probably give you multiple pieces of, say, 3/16" by 3" flat bar so you have a segmented skid roughly following the shape of the frame rails...

Andy

 

[Moose]

Or get a sheet of 6061 Aluminum -- that same site claims it has nearly the strength of steel, and a 36" by 36" sheet lists at $117.02 plus shipping.

If nothing else that site will give you a starting point for contacting someone near you who deals in steel. Myself, I deal in lead*




* 15 points in the Faulty Store to the first person to PM me with the movie that's from. 25 points for whoever tells me what recently-released novel contains the line.

 

[Sergei]

Eh? I thought i heard it somewhere, ran quick search to confirm..

..You'll Never Live To Grow Old
I Deal In Lead I Won't Step Aside..



I tried that online metal place, problem is - 36x36 wont cut it. And 36x48 is already nearly at top of price.. I found it yesterday too

 

[discomike]

Stop by a local welding shop, most of them will sell retail materials and go for the alumium, loat less weight.
Sergei, look at your tank now though, I bet it hardily has a scratch on it, I wouldn't waste the money. Hell, I have done 2 pretty hard years on some rough trails much less alot of rock crawling and I have one faint scratch on my tank.
Just a thought,
Mike J.

 

[Sergei]

Mike - hmm. Thanks. Things is - i am not long time offroader (well roads we drove in Siberia can count as pretty hard mud trails, but hey.. We called them roads ) so i am still getting there. I just sort of used to me X, which got stock skids all over the place (soft but still..). So i felt all funny when stared at this plastic for long time.

 

[discomike]

Sergei,
Start looking at other Discos and I bet you will hardly find more thhen 5% of them with plating, it is a waste of weight and money.
I am always out in rock and dragging my butt through places I don't belong and the only things I have needed were sliders and diff guards.
Mike

 

[Sergei]

Thanks Mike I just laying under it, thinking "damn, that thing gonna get scratched on those ledges" - wanna go to do Top Of The World in Moab, sometime in October and there are few spots that are not nice when you going down - i did it in X, and now dying to try Disco on it..

Sliders are going out today or tomorrow - Dave just called to confirm shipping address Whohoo. Gonna go nuts with paint again