Westcott Lift Kit and TRD Skid Plate "Sound"

First off, this is NOT an issue with the Westcott Lift OR with the OEM TRD Skid Plate....

BUT, below may be some good feedback for other customers of the kit and that have a TRD skid plate.

My truck has both an OEM TRD Skid Plate AND a Talon CAT plate. When the lift was installed on the front suspension, the mechanic did not remove the TRD plate.

What seemed to be the culprit was something in the steering box area that was flexing or moving to "bump" the TRD skid plate and develop a "thud/ping" sound at left and right 3/4 turns. It almost sounded like the shocks, springs, or steering knuckle wasn't seated correctly or was loose.

After taking the skid plate off and doing a full left and right lock with the steering wheel we could not duplicate the sound. The final solution was to add an additional 1/8" washer spacer to the inside bolt hole of the middle skid plate mounting bolt holes and this seemed to resolve the sound/noise at turn left or right. In a sense we "dropped" the TRD plate by 1/8" only in the middle of the plate to compensate for whatever was touching the TRD plate.

I only provide this information for others that hear or sense something may be a little off with their front suspension after installing a Westcott kit....Again this is NOT a problem with the kit itself....it may just be my truck or my TRD plate, but I wanted to inform folks.

Good Luck

 

im having a ton of clanking right now on my 2023. I have the trd skid plate and talons cat shield. where did you buy the rubber bushing? Did you apply them to all 6 screws on the skid plate?

 

Look at this thread... Duster's Double Cab Build - The Daily Do-it-All | Toyota Tundra Forum (tundras.com), post #19. This is where Duster recommended the nylon spacers and bolts and is what I installed. All knocking at full left/right lock went away.