RCI front skid plate--Aluminium or Steel ?

I had no problems communicating with RCI. They emailed me back within a few hours. A buddy of mine was able to change his order pretty fast as well.

 

Glad to hear this! Maybe it's isolated but, since more than a couple guys have chimed in reporting they had problems, it'd be awesome if @RCIoffroad could chime in to reassure us that, whatever stuff might have been going wit on behind the scenes, that's fixed now....

I sure hope so, since they're one of the big Go-To off-road suppliers... and that one-piece is awesome!

 

Was easy as long as you don't mind sliding around under the truck. I used a jack stand with a towel over it to support one end as I held up the other. Used sockets on my drill to speed things up. Was all straightforward.

RCI is local to me, but still had it shipped. Came in a couple of days. Haven't had to contact them, so can't speak to that aspect.

 

Install was pretty easy. Took me about 1.5 hours to install the front and transmission skid. No floor jack needed.

 

Sorry to hear that man. Hopefully @RCIoffroad will make it right for you.

 

Those with aluminum skids. Can you look at the bottom of your engine skid.
Are the bottom perimeter of your upright supports welded?
Look at mine that arrived today, is this incorrect or a change that RCI made recently?
Most of the aluminum skids that I've seen on here have the bottom perimeter of those upright support tubes welded.

 

is it welded on the inside ?

 

if not, they're just gonna pop off the first time you hit something.

 

The inside is welded, pretty solid. I guess I just expected the outside perimeter to be welded as well.
I figured there were a few others who got the aluminum plate recently and might be able to compare.

 

here is a recent steel one...looks to be the same . they probably use the same process.

 

I have the 1st gen two piece

 

Looks incomplete not being welded on both sides. That would never fly where I'm at. I'd call and see what the reason was since @BlueBottle s was welded on both sides.

 

UPDATE- RCI Has refunded me the extra shipping charge that they charged me. I wanted to give them one more chance and provided the information and so all is good now. I will not hesitate to buy from them again and will absolutely do so. Thanks RCI for making it right!!!

 

Just got my RCI skid plate installed -- I went with the powder coated steel. Easy install, though tough to maneuver with just one person. I added a few 1/8 inch rubber washers to leave a gap between skid plate and cross member so water could drain and not get trapped inside cross member. See pics of the OEM steel plate, aluminum foil can compared to the RCI, though the OEM does provide a bit more side coverage.

 

For the trans/transfer skid? I did it.

 

I struggled with it a little bit, but it is totally possible. The bolts on the Pro skid plate have these captive cylinder spacer things, not sure what they are really called. After finally figuring that out and fighting with it a little bit, I grabbed a flat head screw driver to hold the spacer up while I aligned the transfer skid.

 

I looked at the RCI but I feel like the 1/8” isn’t thick enough for our trucks. I’m planning on ordering a set of 3/16” steel skids from BudBuilt on Friday. Does anyone else make skids for Tundras? All I know of are RCI, BudBuilt and PP engineering, but PP doesn’t have a 26g gas skid...

 

Been struggling with this the last half hour. Not sure how you were able to hold those spacers up to align it. Got one side, then lost that one while fighting with the other. Those spacers don’t really slide up easily at all

 

Did you get it? If you need help, let me know.

 

Thanks. Gave up that night and then have been out of town. Will try again on that and the fuel skid once it’s it raining.

 

I Gorilla glued the spacers in place on the skid. Made all the difference.

 

Good call

 

I can't believe I just read 145 messages about skid plates!

 

146 now...heh....heh..

 

welcome to the forum

 

Probably would have buckled just as bad if it were steel. Explanation below (for those that care):

Some quick maths for y'all:

Yield strength (YS) of:

1018 Steel = 53,700 PSI
5052 Aluminum = 28,000 PSI

So now we get the cross sectional (CS) area (assuming 1" wide):

10ga Steel Piece = 0.141 in^2
1/4" Aluminum Piece = 0.25 in^2

Multiply YS and CS and cancelling out units gives us each piece bending (and not bending back) at:

Steel = 7,551 lbs of force
Aluminum = 7,000 lbs of force

So in this instance, they're pretty much comparable. Considering they're so close, it would come down to QC on material mfg control, and how well they were welded. That's about it.

Admittedly I'm assuming RCI uses 1018 steel, which they may or may not. It's not listed on their site, so the steel they use could be weaker or stronger. Maybe they can jump in and tell us. But then I'd have to ask about their weld types/sizes/fillers, etc. cause I'm a nerd like that...

tl;dr:

GENERALLY speaking... Aluminum is a third the weight, and half as strong. So if you double the thickness of the aluminum part, it makes up for the weaker tensile strength. Generally.

For me personally, I like the lighter weight of Aluminum, and the fact it wont rust.

Just my unsolicited 2 cents...

 

I don't speak your language, but I get what you are saying. I assume you are a fabricator/engineer? They usually speak your type of lingo. I do agree with ya. A jump like that would buckle both, I'm sure, would it buckle less and cause less damage? That I can't really say, but from what you just stated, it would be just as bad or close to the same result. I would love to see a truck jump comparison. Even then, there would be a debate over that.

 

tell me he didn't send it though..
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZKx4cDFcsE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
I would say it was a worthy send lol.

 

Pretty well sent

And yeah, basically what I'm saying, is that assuming that RCI designed these right, steel or aluminum, it probably would've buckled the same.

Just remember, a skid plate ≠ a bash plate. Can these skid plates handle abuse? Sure. But if they were designed so that we could drop our trucks at speed or height onto rocks all day long, they'd be a hell of a lot thicker and heavier.

 

This thread is pretty old and was a lot of reading. I am shocked that RCI never joined in the conversation to put to rest concerns/issues members have/had. I did not realize the metal was so thin. Hmmm, onward with my search