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I'm building a gas tank skid, how thick Is enough?

M

MaxxXJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Bakersfield CA
I do a lot of rock crawling so I'm on my gas tank all too often, I had a factory has tank skid and thought I was safe, well I came down on a rock and bent it and my tank a little bit... Very unacceptable, I'm looking at getting some steel ASAP, I looked at the 3/16 material and while its twice as thick as my 13 gauge(.088inches) stock skid I still feel it might be easy enough to bend... Is 1/4" overkill? Opinions?
 
Interested as well, was thinking about raising my tank to 1/2 in the cargo, but it messes with plans for a rear cargo box. Other than the basic "make it the shape of the tank" profile, is there any pointers to a better design? I've seen the ones sold by manufacturers and it seems simple enough, but would there be a better lighter weight design?
 
husker25 said:
Just installed a 3/16" tank skid last night--very beefy. Can't imagine I'd need thicker.
Click to expand...


Till 2 1/2 tons slides down a rock on it... i kid, i kid... was it a purchased one? built one? basic square front angled back skid? sorry for the ???'s ive just really been debating on a skid or tank raise through the floor.

I saw the thread where the guy made the double decker aluminum belly skid, seems overkill for a tank skid and probably 100x more advanced than i can do. but there has to be a better lighter design than a bunch of plate slapped together
 
I made mine out of 1/8" and used 2 or 3 cross braces on the top side of 3/4 x 3/4 angle iron. Cheap, efficient, never bent. That was on a portly full bodied rig that has seen a few trails.
 
87manche said:
http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1004593&highlight=okie+terry+skid

OK Fab style.
Click to expand...

Like the idea of square tubing :) I have about 40 feet of 3/4" left in my garage, and what's an extra 3/4" added to the drop of my skid plate in the name of strength?! Ill do alot of beefing up as to I'm going for LCOG and tend to drag armor a lot :) I had a thought about wrapping my skid up past my hitch and bolt it up to my rear bumper for kind of a boat side idea, so I slide all the way up instead of off the tank to the hitch to the bumper and then off... Ill just make it a solid single transition :) it might get started this weekend. Shouldn't be to hard, if I do ill post pics :)
 
MaxxXJ said:
I had a thought about wrapping my skid up past my hitch and bolt it up to my rear bumper for kind of a boat side idea, so I slide all the way up instead of off the tank to the hitch to the bumper and then off...
Click to expand...


Thats actually a good :idea:. When we used to take our bronco to moab it was ALWAYS, k hit the skid, creep forward, now the hangers, creep forward and hit that last ledge with the d ring in the reciever... it was like sliding down steps on your anus.

Consider that stolen sir!
 
xcm said:
1/4 IS overkill, use structure to get the strength, not material thickness.
Click to expand...

This. It doesnt really matter how thick, its a large flat area over one plane.


JohnX said:
I made mine out of 1/8" and used 2 or 3 cross braces on the top side of 3/4 x 3/4 angle iron. Cheap, efficient, never bent. That was on a portly full bodied rig that has seen a few trails.
Click to expand...

This is what I did, angle iron supports and reinforced the sides/mounts on a factory skid. It took plenty off good shots that an otherwise stock skid would have folded and bent on. HERE is my thread on it.
 
I picked up some 1"x 1"x 3/16" angle iron from work for bracing, ill round the edges before it goes in but after i gets tacked in place it should be super beefy!

Ill pick up some 3/16 plate today also
 
jeeperjohn said:
I plated over my stock skid with 1/8" material. I have been very satisfied with it.
Click to expand...

This is crossing my mind since I just priced a 4x4 sheet of 3/16 at $85 lol while that's cheap, 1/8" should be way cheaper, reason I changed my mind is because they just laid off 12 guys today at work and work is getting scarce, so no reason to spend where it doesn't need to be spent. Especially since I can avoid rocks that dent my stock skid plate :)
 
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