This post has eight parts. Click below to navigate:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three <- You are here
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
4. Skids and Sliders
- The Stock Skid (AKA "Bling") Tray and Stock Rock Rails
I bought the FJC with stock rock rails and skid tray. I was actually quite surprised at how well the truck handled with no extra skid trays on my initially forays to UT and various SoCal runs. The stock skid tray was fine, but it just
buckled so bad after moderate impact with rocks that it became clear that I should swap it out. The stock rock rails
handled much better. But I just decided I wanted some extra width (don't we all?) I still went with one of the least wide aftermarket rails, though.
IMAGE-> Front segment of the MAF/4+ skid trays. The apex of the "V" sits a little off from the cross member associated with the front axle, but touches the bottom of the front differential. The ridge line or apex of the "V" in the skid becomes the lowest point on the entire three segment skid setup. Probably good, since if you can't clear this, you'll be in deep trouble a few feet later...
- Man-A-Fre/4+ Skid Trays
I went with the
MAF/4+ skid trays because they cover the entire length of the underside from nose to the back end of the tcase, and at 3/16" steel, they are as strong as you can get. The photos on MAF's webpage are of my truck, so you can see the before-and-after effects of wheeling. Whilst I have bounced the truck off very many big rocks, the worst I've managed to do while rock crawling is scratch the plates. Absolutely no tearing and no snagging on rocks. The only time I've
damaged the plates is when I hit big "whoop-di-doos" at very high speed - no plate could survive that unbent. The front section has since been replaced and is now almost stock again. The exhaust cross over cover has taken by far the most damage while rock crawling - but just scratches and I have never got stopped on a rock by this (I think there's no physical way to do this since it's so small and you can just brute force the vehicle to slide over it - unless you've really badly high-centered it - in which case the trench is irrelevant and you have bigger problems). There are nice access holes and drainage holes in the plates, but small enough that they will not snag on stuff. The oil drainage hole did not line up properly on early versions, but I understand that this is now fixed. These skids cover all of the underside of the vehicle - the only skids with as good protection I have seen are the BudBuilt units, and
I see the MAF/4+ and Bud's as equivalent, despite all the hype.
Recently, MAF introduced an extra skid piece that replaces the ARB apron at the bottom of the ARB front bumper. This essentially upgrades the thickness of this piece. Given that I've never so much as scratched that piece, it was of highly dubious necessity, but hey, now I'm full thickness steel from the top of the bumper all the way back to the gas can.
IMAGE-> Second and third segments of the MAF/4+ skid trays, including the extra cross member for the third panel mount.
IMAGE-> It turns out I quite like flat bottomed girls... 
This image also shows why the exhaust cross-over bulge isn't really an issue - if that snags, checkout what's next - d'oh, rear diff pumpkin, comin'in fast!
IMAGE-> This is the new full-thickness steel plate skirt / connecting plate (in black) that fits between the ARB bumper and the first regular MAF/4+ plate. The original ARB skirt was quite thin - but also nearly impossible to hit. Whether I really need it or not, I now have it!
- Making the MAF/4+ Plates work with the Inchworm Lefty+Crawler
When I had my transfer case changed out to the Inchworm dual tcase, my combined transmission / tcase became about 8 1/2" longer than stock. This pushed the tcase end aft of the MAF/4+ cross member (the part needed to mount the third part of the skid plate). We were concerned this would be a major issue, but it turned out that the cross member could be cut in a very limited number of places to allow it to pass in the original location, without fouling on the tcase. Thus, the skids have been reinstalled over my new tcase setup and work great.
IMAGE-> The MAF/4+ cross member was cut to accommodate my extended Inchworm tcase, but the skids required no modification.
IMAGE-> With the third plate off the truck, you can see what parts of the cross member needed cutting. Having dragged the plates over rocks, even cut like this, the cross member and plates are more than strong enough.
- Man-A-Fre/4+ Rock Rails (Sliders)
The change out to new rock rails was less pressing, but having used the rails as an essential part of getting over obstacles as I got to do more difficult trails, I felt I wanted the rocks kept further from the vehicle. I put the wide version of the
MAF/4+ rails on the truck. These have worked out great. I have managed to deeply scratch the rails, and by dropping the whole weight of the truck (at some speed) on one side as I slid down a rock, I have even managed to very slightly bend one of them. Overall, these are awesome rails and will do the job vs. rocks. They're a little too narrow for steps, but I never bought them wanting steps. Plus, being pulled in, they'll take less torque on rock impact (torque = force of impact * radial distance to the mounting point).
IMAGE-> The MAF/4+ "wide" rock rails on the truck. These rails are still quite "tucked in" compared with the other aftermarket rails. Have worked great for me.
- Total Chaos Front Lower Control Arm Skids
The front suspension and steering components are vulnerable, and the lower front arm particularly so. These are the only parts I've ever out-and-out broken on the trail.
Total Chaos have designed a bolt or weld-on skid plate for the lower arms. In the photos, I have them bolted on. Now they're partially welded (and painted black!) The plates originally interfered with the bolt on the base of my jounce receiver, but this was solved by recessing the bolt.
IMAGE-> The Total Chaos front lower control arm skids shown bolted to the arms. I now have them partially welded on and painted.
IMAGE-> I now have the lower arm skid plates partially welded on (outboard part, note unused bolt hole and weld) and painted.
- Total Chaos Spindle Gussets
I read
this post on bent front spindles and also noted that Air2Air had beefed his spindles up and thought "do I drive like a crazy person off road? Might I also potentially damage my spindles?" In good conscience, I could only answer "yes" to both. In that case, I figured it was better to spend $40 on some gussets that potentially damage my spindles. It is important to note that these gussets eliminate the sway bar mount points. This isn't a problem for me as I haven't run with a front sway bar in a long time. The gussets also do not work with the stock UCA - again, not an issue for me as I have the Total Chaos UCA's.
The gussets can be bought from
Total Chaos (they're the 5th item down from the top of the page). They weld to the spindles and reinforce them.
IMAGE-> Spindle gusset welded in place and painted.
- Rear Differential Cover / Skid (AllPro and AllPhase)
I had got my rear differential caught on a rock during a trip in December '06, and got worried about protection. At the time, all I could find for diff protection was the
AllPro weld on rear diff plate, which provides great protection for the back of the diff, but not the bottom or front.
IMAGE-> The AllPro rear differentail guard is welded onto the "pumpkin" - also shown are the lower shock mount skids.
I ordered an
AllPhase Offroad rear diff skid as part of a group buy that resulted in some badly sized plates. But my biggest problem was that it turned out that the skids wouldn't fit over my welded-on all pro plate. So the skid (after heft mofidying) found a home on another FJC:
IMAGE-> The AllPhase skid wouldn't fit on my rear diff because the allpro skid was already welded on. So it found a new home on a different FJC.
- TLC Trailing Arm / Rear Lower Control Arm Mount Skid
In the same article that talked about the bending of the rear lower control arms, I also read about how exposed the frame mount for these arms are. I had recently been at
TLC and so decided to get a set of their
skids for this mount (see bottom of this linked page at TLC). These are easy bolt on parts. The only issue is that I can imagine the fronts of these digging in and pulling off the frame. Welding the leading edges would probably help.
IMAGE-> The TLC lower control arm mount skid plate.
- All-Pro Rear Lower Suspension Mount Skid
More exposed even than the trailing arms are the mounts at the base of the rear struts. I this added
protection to the bottom mounting points of the rear shocks with skids from AllPro (see near bottom of the linked AllPro page).
- Inchworm E-Locker Guard / Skid
I really don't want to lose my rear locker while crawling due to rock impact, so I picked up these
Inchworm guards. The bolt and snap-on (one of the bolts cannot be put back in after installation - this is intended).
IMAGE-> The Inchworm e-locker guard is the blue piece near the rear differential on the rear axle.
- Manik TailLight Guard
I have one final piece of protection which maybe more bling than protection, but I like them. They're the
Manik Tail Light Guards. They're a pain to install, involving removing panels in the back, and there was concern that they'd just get pulled off by a branch or rock. Indeed, for a long time I only had one of them on my truck because I
thwacked my left side guard off on a rock when returning down one of my favourite trails. BUT - I insist that I would have broken my tail light instead of the guard if the guard had not been on! That's my story, and I'm sticking to it
"Just tell you're self: they're not bling, they're not bling, ..."
IMAGE-> Oh, left side tail light guard, I feel like I never even got chance to know you! Gone young, but not forgotten...
5. Exhaust
- FlowMaster Offroad Muffler
After some amount of wheeling, I noticed that I'd beaten up my stock muffler pretty bad. I felt it was time to go shopping for something less prone to damage.
IMAGE-> Beaten up stock muffler.
It was thus that I became enamoured with the
Flowmaster OffRoad Muffler. What a thing of diamond plate beauty! Anyway, it tucks-up much closer to the vehicle body and I don't think I've even touched it on a rock since I got it. So much for the need for diamond plate steel. The FJC sounded more "truck like" after getting this (and the custom exhaust) added - not sure if that's a great thing, but 1. this was a functional as opposed to aesthetic (acousto-aestheic?) mod, and 2. the later mods have also added noise, such that the FJC is no longer a quiet ride, regardless of the muffler.
IMAGE-> The Flowmaster OffRoad Muffler installed along with the custom exhaust backend.
- Custom High Clearance Exhaust
While having the muffler installed, my local muffler shop in Glendale (
Muffler Town and Brakes, BTW) also came up with a way of re-ducting the exhaust to gain more clearance. The design for this turns out to be pretty obvious, since it's been independently come upon by several designers. Mine has just ordinary bent pipe (which puts little contraction points in the pipe where it bends), but AllPro has subsequently come out with a very similar design using
really nice mandrel bent pipe. If I were to do it again, I'd just buy the AllPro stuff - not because my custom stuff is bad, just because the AllPro stuff is better...
IMAGE-> Custom offroad exhaust rearward of the rear axle showing the high clearance, especially where the pipe exits under the rear bumper.
This post has eight parts. Click below to navigate:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three <- You are here
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
