Front Skid Plates

New member here. long time 4Runner owner. 2008 for 15 years, now 2023 SR5 Premium.4Runner 4 Life!! Looking to add front skid plate with oil access. Not intending to do any heavy wheeling, yet!! I am considering making it a full set. Ive researched most.. HeftyFab, C4, CarTrim, RSG, RCI, CBI, Cali, 4X, etc. Any info or recommendations are appreciated. Leaning towards aluminum and powder coated or raw and powder coat myself. Thank you and look forward to this forum.

 

OK Expedition if going with aluminum for light wheeling.

For hard wheeling get 3/16" steel and either pick one without the oil door or weld it shut, because the door would get destroyed anyway.

For harder wheeling do the JD Fab LCA pivots. It comes with its own skid plate.

 

Look at Greenlane Offroad as well.

I high centered my 4Runner on a ~2 foot boulder, only thing touching the ground was rear wheels, and skid on boulder.

Skid plate had barely a scratch. Anecdotal evidence enough for me.

 

4x Innovations skidplates are quarter inch thick for the first two plates that house the filter access door and oil drain door. Those probably won’t ever get destroyed.

Drawback to the skids is that they are heavy. You pretty much need a jack to take off and move around the plates.

 

^If you're wheeling hard enough to need 1/4" skid plates, it's time to weld in the JD Fab lower pivots - it solves a few problems at once and provides more tire clearance, so less cutting is required to run 37s.

 

On the 1/4" skids I have, (4xInnovations) the access panels are fine. They can take numerous, full-weight-of-the-truck beatings with no issue. The C4 tank skid I have is 3/16" and has not held up nearly as well as the 4x belly skids. It's not even close. 4x is in a different league. To kinda stay on topic, steel skids will skid across rocks better than aluminum. Aluminum will "grab" a rock, and not slide nearly as easily.

 

My favorite part that drew me to the 4x innovation plates is that they are W I D E! ! ! And specifically that they completely protects the frame mount tabs for the LCAs. Unlike all the other options that are significantly narrower than the stock skids.



The fact they were 1/4in thick, cheaper than other skid plate options (which is shocking), and had a. local pick-up option was the icing on the cake.

Well…truth be told, the 1/4in part held me back for a long time, because it honestly seemed excessive. If you already have your suspension set up (even aftermarket) you’re going to have to redo it. I adjusted my front dobs to compensate, but the rear coils ended up in a weird no-mans land. I went from 1.5 in lift dobs coils to their 2in lift heavy load coils, but that overshot, so currently the rear is sitting too high. Thinking of going with 2in lift “stock” rate coils or just putting a spacer on the first set of dobs coils.

New lower pivots, and dreams of 37s, and a regear are waaaay too rich for my blood lol.

 

You two are going talk the OP into buying an 80lb skid

 

Welcome Chris!

 

I'd rather just keep beating up the OEM skids and replace them every now and then.

 

The places I go, I need those 80 lb skids. See my avatar.

 

If you wheel hard, the powder coat will get scraped off from the rocks, which you will then touch-up with.....paint. If you plan to play on the rocks, painting is cheapest.

You may want to check into powder coat prices. Local place wanted $600 to coat a rear bumper. I painted it same factory color as the 4R for less.

 

I agree. If you need heavier skids because you're bashing them up, you might as well just paint them. Depending on what I've been doing, I usually touch up skid paint when I change the oil.

 

I think they only sell as a 175 lb set of 4 plates.



Some of the plates actually depend on each other for structural strength. You’d need at least the front, mid, and transmission plate. You could save 60lbs or so by not installing the transfer/exhaust cross-over skid.

Depending on how expensive the factory skid-plates cost, there is real merit to this idea. Their strength to weight ratio is really quite good all things considered. And the fact they bend means they will absorb some of the impact forces of a hard hit. Just because there are strong-like-bull skidplate options, doesn’t mean it’s good to be bashing hard into things, since I think engine mounts and such don’t appreciate taking all that energy.

Another advantage of the factory plates, is that when they deform, they also self-clearance. It’s much easier to get hung upon a rock with hard plates…at least judging from my experience. Of course, you have to balance self-clearancing armor with potential damage.

To me though,my biggest worries were the exhaust crossover, and frame tabs for the LCA. Only 4x plates protect both areas well in one package. I also imagine they would protect from small roadside IEDs lol

 

Bud Built skids work great.

 

I ran BudBuilts on my old FJ and they sure took a beating. But weight was always an issue. With my 4runner, I went with aluminum. Just installed RCI engine skid plate and will instal the Transmission W/ Catalytic shield guards. They are on sale.
Easy instal and great customer service.

 

Mine had a pretty good bump from a hard snowbank. Cannot imagine what a rock would have done to it.

 

Although I don't approach an obstacle planning to ride my skid plate across it, I have done so a couple times without much more than a deep scratch.

 

I dropped mine hard onto a rock once. It was unexpected, slipped off a taller rock straight down and it dented it pretty deep, but didn’t crush down completely. Although it would probably have been fine for another hit, one strong hit is probably enough to justify replacing it.

 

I hate powder coat
Everything I bought new or used that came with it, ends up peeling off…plan on sandblasting it all at some point n getting to 100% rattlecan
@CP4Runner23 save the $100’s n buy better/more stuff
Granted, there’s paint/powdercoat n then there’s paint/powdercoat, I don’t see how it justifies, really using the truck or not…that “ding” will spread whether you like it or not

I reached out to Adam at 4x round Xmas bout just getting front/engine skid(since I have their sliders, n like one of yall said ”cheaper n beefier” somehow n just killer…he’s a genius
They do sell them individually, he did comment however bout how the back of that skid meets with the transmission has those funkie connection lines(look at their website)
I’ll look up the email n follow it up

 

I agree the guy is a genius lol. He put some thought into designing that skid plate set. That jigsaw arrangement and how they mount to each other pretty much makes it a “unitized” skidplate set. He didn’t tell me that, it’s just apparent once it all goes together, that it’s structurally all one big skidplate in the end.

 

Exactly

per Adam
N by no means do I speak for him or 4xinnov
But last November
“It is a little clunky because they're designed to be one continuous unit and I don't have a rear ending section when going with a partial skid set.”

in regards to just buying front

I was also inquiring if they were in the works of a 5th gen rear bumper…..in time he said haha

 

Highly recommend if you want more of a touring/overlanding skid plate as opposed to something for crawling that'll regularly be sliding and bashing on rocks. They're very well made and super tough, but there is no transfer case coverage behind the crossmember. Still love them and they only added like 30 lbs to the truck.

Their sliders are equally good for the purpose... Use them regularly for pivoting and light drops and just need a little rattle can cleanup. Plus they're only 50 lbs with hardware.

 

Thank you all for your info and recommendations. Much appreciated.

 

I went Bud Built light steel full skids. The skids are great except for mounting. I had to stack washers at some of the mounting locations which I think is a little chincy for the price I paid.

 

CBI was a perfect fit. Easy access to drain plug and filter.

 

Anyone here running a C4 non-KDSS front skid?

Just arrived today and wondering why the bolt holes in the middle support struts are 90 (sort of…..the one is kinda cockeyed) degrees to each other?

 

If all the plates can align and bolt up correctly, I wouldn’t worry about it. But it does seem odd since that might prevents any fore/aft adjustment.

If they don’t align, I’d call C4 and let them know. Personally I’d settle for a price adjustment that would let me buy decent cordless drill and rotary rasp bits made to work with metal. Then you could take off a little material to allow it to fit.

 

@

Yeah I’ll have to try and install the skid and see if any issues arise with hole placement. Maybe I’m being too particular but the one upright with the cockeyed hole is also canted a bit which may not let it sit flat against the crossmember it’s supposed to bolt to.

I’ll have to install and see if there are issues or not.

 

I’ve had mine since 2021 and the orientation seems the same. The only difference I see is the welds. Seems like they got a new welder.

Old pictures:


Welds. I welded the top a bit just for a peace of mind. Top one was mine and the bottom one was C4’s. C4’s welds were beautiful and straight. Seemed like it was done by a machine.