D30 Lower control arm mounts, Skids

I have been into the rocks one time, and both my front lower control arm mounts are opened up like a tuna can.
Do you guys reinforce them? Make new ones? Box them in? Leave alone till they break off?

JKS makes skids for ~$30.

Or you can make them. Took me all of 20 minutes.

Max can make you some, Kyle. Also, you can weld some washers to the sides for a little more added strength.
Otherwise, I've thought about getting a set of the ruffstuff coil bucket/LCA mounts and getting them welded on.

I have the weld on lca skids and when im in the rocks they see alot of action.

They work great

Starboard M said:

Or you can make them. Took me all of 20 minutes.

Click to expand...

x2

That's what I'm talking about. Perfect.

one thing i learned the hard way... bolt your LCAs in and make sure they have full range of motion before you burn everything home. the first time i welded on a set of home made LCA skids i wasnt able to bolt in my arms. lol. not trying to insult your intelligence... but its something one could easily overlook. lol.

X2 on checking to see if the arms clear. Especially if you have flex joints. I made that mistake and had to hack the skids up and bend them and re weld them. They look :gee:

Heres some I've made over the years. First pic is stock LCA brackets with washers welded over the bolt holes to double up thickness. Also some 3" wide 3/16" plate to box them in. Second pic is my last D30 because I destroyed the stock brackets (third pic). I simply cut off the stock stuff and made some simple brackets, all outta 3/16. Also redid the trackbar mount since that got torn up trying to remove the stock trackbar.

I made some skids out of 3/8 plate that I had and tied them into the axle tube

I used old XJ rear axle U-bolt plates. They fit perfect and are heavy

That is a sexy diff

I just let em fold... I gusset the sides of the LCA bracket to the tube with 3/16 above and below the bolt hole and let the rest take care of itself.



Sorry about the awesome photography, it was well past nightfall when I got to that point and all I had was a flashlight when the welder wasn't running. Picture that above and below the bolt hole (make sure it clears the bolt head - and your socket/wrench!) on at least one side of each LCA mount. If you gusset both sides of an LCA mount, make sure you have the bolt tightened when you do it, or you might not be able to tighten the bolt enough to get full mount to bushing sleeve clamping force without stretching the mounts or breaking the welds.

I think gusseting does more for lateral strength than boxing (may be wrong there, but it hasn't failed me yet) and it doesn't reduce ground clearance at all - skids may not reduce it much, but every bit counts. Losing a half inch of ground clearance is the same as losing an inch of tire size. Hell, my ghetto gusset method lets the lower (not very critical) edge of the LCA mounts fold over when they hit rocks, increasing clearance :gee: