RCI skid plate buyers, learn from my mistake!

Other steel bumpers may not be compatible with RCI bumper filler. I had to drill holes and use spacers and there is still a gap there that I don't like. RCI makes a neat steel bumper too, get that instead.

 

Let’s see some pictures!

 

Those are some clean skids on the back end - not sure how that supports the argument of the original post

 

Ah ok, you were asking for the picture of the bumper filler. Here you go, I got the non RCI steel bumper.

That's the gap.

 

Yeah, that's a bit of a gap but I doubt anything is going to stick in there. What bumper do you have?

For everyone else's reference, I got the victory 4x4 Blitz low pro bumper (aluminum) which came with a filler plate. It fits great with the RCI aluminum skids that I got but they also sent me 3 filler plates just to fit with factory skid in the beginning. They were great to work with - I sent them autocad drawings and they remade free of charge.

I have to assume as far off as some of the angles and holes were, there must be a lot of variations when fitting a filler plate between the aftermarket bumper and skids. My guess is that the OEM crash bar mounting location has a lot of wiggle room and probably accounts for a lot of it

 

If that filler plate is flat (with no reinforcement bends) it might flex. Try making those spacers a bit shorter and keep tightening the bolts until it’s it flexes flat against the bumper.

Also, I was hoping to see pics of the bumper

 

That right there, sound like famous last words. Looks like the perfect gap for a branch to slide in there and find a home in the radiator.

 

Yeah, I'll give you that. I'm often a man of famous last words. Wonder which ones they will actually be?

 

I agree though, take the spacers out and see if you can fit the filler plate. Unfortunately, mixing and matching bumpers with fillers from a different companies doesn't always work. I have two Victory filler plates that don't fit mine that I can ship at your cost!

 

Murphy’s law you know. And it would happen at the worst possible time too.

No big deal, you just need a little time and creativity to think of a way to close that up. Personally, I’d try to bend the plate slightly to close the gap. Or cover the gap with a plastic plate or some sort. Just think like a tree that wants to get in there…make it like a shingle so that it simply diverts the branch down away from that gap.

I used my factory plastic aero piece that mated to the factory skids, and cut a bunch off to fill the gap between the bumper and the skids

 

Yikes.

Besides folks mentioning the “find the gap” issue, I’d be worried about what would happen with a hard impact.

Could you maybe swap the front skid plate for the TRD Pro one? That might help…or create another issue.

 

KDSS

 

I'm curious how much this comes into play. Victory seemed clueless as to why my filler plate was so far off - I told them they could keep my autocad drawings and update their own. They said nobody else has had issues but it was way off on my vehicle

 

KDSS limits our options

 

This is what mine looks like. Like I said, it’s just trimmed up factory plastic, but it helps guide bigger branches from making a home where they shouldn’t.

 

Kan’t
Design
Simple
Solutions

Sounds like a cool system and all, but man does it seem like it makes life more complicated.

 

Look at you with one of those flaring front skids that offer more protection! I'm jelly!

I wanted those but the shipping cost was too crazy compared to other deals. Good to know there are fitment issues with them as well. I still feel like there is quite a bit of variation in fitment of all those parts. Throw in KDSS and non- KDSS and some people can't keep up

 

Personally I don’t like the sharp slope of the filler plate, because it presents so much frontal area. But I don’t think the goal should be to make that area a skid-able and bullet proof either. It’s vertical enough that a hit there is better described as a frontal collision lol. Sometimes we just need to avoid certain obstacles.

In fact, I kind of think a plastic shield is the best option here (it’s not just me being cheap and repurposing parts). Simple to make, and capable of diverting branches and keeping salt spray out of the works.

 

Yeah, Toyota design the vehicle to work how they intend it to work, and can’t really consider current and future aftermarket possibilities. There’s just a million variables once we start changing things up.

Regarding my 4x innovation plates they really are pretty epic. And oddly enough, really cheaply priced for such a through, well-designed, and tough skid system (less than 800 bucks currently!).

But the front half is 1/4 inch thick, and the back half is 3/16” and way wider than anything else on the market. So I could see how shipping is prohibitive. 4xinnovations was close enough to me that I just drove there and picked them up.

Truth be told, these might be a bit rich for my blood though. They are very focused on protection, but the weight hit is requiring adjustments to my suspension, and removing them for maintainance is a right pain in the ass. Not hard, but you need a transmission jack or similar to get them on and off safely, and it’s time consuming. Just this weekend I took my shock out to adjust the seat height on it. Taking the skids off and reinstalling easily added two hours to that job. All part of the fun, but sometimes that part is not as fun lol

edit to clarify: I didn’t have any fitment issues with mine, amazing considering how tightly these are made. The aero shield mod I made was because I wanted to cover the gap, and modding the factory piece made the most sense to me.

 

There is always a price to pay I guess.

Not a lot on the east coast to justify what I've done, but if Zombies ever rear their ugly heads, I may be somewhat prepared...

 

At 14 mpg I may get chased down by zombies