MDB Radiator Skids...

[janesy86]

Mike, whats the status on these puppies?

[bartonmd]

Mike, whats the status on these puppies?

I was just about to PM you... They're welded up, and have the holes in them... I haven't rattle canned them yet, but will by this weekend... Price is $230 for these, before shipping... I'll need to measure and weigh, so I can figure out how much it'll cost to ship to you...

Mike

[Zero]

Rattle can???? Are you not offering powder coating anymore??

[bartonmd]

Rattle can???? Are you not offering powder coating anymore??

I can do P/C, but it'll probably add $40-$50 to the price, and once it's scraped, it's scraped... Hard to touch up a textured P/C... Not hard to touch up the "hammer finish" Rustoleum like HardtrailZ runs on his bumper/sliders/Rad skid...

Mike

[Zero]

Is "Por15" an option?

[bartonmd]

Is "Por15" an option?

For a price, I guess... That stuff doesn't last for ever once you open it, so it's not like I could buy a gallon of it and use it on all of them until it's gone, to spread the cost...

I'm planning on just doing the Hammer Finish stuff included in the price, or an extra ~$40 for P/C...

Mike

[bartonmd]

Wink is now officially the first one with a semi-production rad skid installed!

Mike

[wink]

I win.

[Regulator1175]

Thanks again for getting this armor on today Mike. I will be talking to you very soon for the next piece of the armor package.

We discovered right away that because the sway bar is different on the '02's the plate needed to be modified a bit. This meant that the extra support gussets in the middle had to be "adjusted".



The next discovery was that the sub frame that is forward of the oil pan was pretty banged up, and the holes didn't line up very well. This created another opportunity for "adjustments".



Final adjustments and bolting in the rear of the plate



Bolting on the sides of the plate



Finished product. Yes, I know I need to do some serious cleaning underneath the truck. I had some boot issues a year or so ago, replaced everything, but didn't clean up the mess due to a lack of a decent area to clean.

[Zero]

Simply put....AWESOME!

[HARDTRAILZ]

Now its time to go beat those skids off some rocks.... I know they can handle it.

[bartonmd]

Mod... Kyle and Wink, you know where we drilled the holes in your frame, right behind the radiator? Yeah, the early ones had the anti-roll bar there, as well as the anti-roll bar subframe that takes up that area... Just had to cut off the horizontal flanges at the top of the center rad support.

I guess I now just need to find out which years had the anti-roll bar outside the frame, like that... I gather it was just '02 and '03, but will need further research...

Mike

[janesy86]

Just got mine in, and man is it heavy duty! Can't wait to get it on and bash some rocks.

Even tho I wont be able to mount it for a week or so (lack of an extra hand and would be much easier with some power tools since I'm also trying to see if my WAAG will fit, so I may need to do some cutting) I'm trying to figure this out:

and stock tow hooks will mount to them. You will have to make a small (dremel or metal shears) slot in the bottom of your stock metal bumper support to mount the tow hooks, though.

What do you mean about a slot? Does the rad skid mount between the bottom of the bumper and the tow hook?

[bartonmd]

Just got mine in, and man is it heavy duty! Can't wait to get it on and bash some rocks.

Even tho I wont be able to mount it for a week or so (lack of an extra hand and would be much easier with some power tools since I'm also trying to see if my WAAG will fit, so I may need to do some cutting) I'm trying to figure this out:

and stock tow hooks will mount to them. You will have to make a small (dremel or metal shears) slot in the bottom of your stock metal bumper support to mount the tow hooks, though.

What do you mean about a slot? Does the rad skid mount between the bottom of the bumper and the tow hook?

Yeah, ship weight is 70#...

Extra hand... pfft... I mounted every one of those twice, and drilled all the holes, and re-mounted to tack weld all by myself...

Yes, the rad skid goes between the bottom of the bumper and the tow hook, but you are getting the bumper, too, so yours can't take the stock tow hooks... To take stock tow hooks, there's got to be a hole for the end to go down into, and there's got to be a piece welded on the top side with a hole in it, for the second bolt to secure the end of the hook. This piece mounted on the top side makes it uncompatible with the bumper, since they sit right up next to one another.

Mike

[janesy86]

Ahhh gotcha... So then I guess I'll just have to ditch the tow hooks til I get the bumper, and then I'll have the clevis shackles for recovery.

And I'll try to do it myself this weekend because I'll need to take off the grille guard and lights, then figure if I need to cut the WAAG mount, and then bolt it all back up. I just don't have the time during the week...

But thanks again for the protection, I'll feel much better on the trail for sure.

[janesy86]

Now since I have the factory tow hooks and after looking at them and diagrams on Compnine it looks as if the long bolt that goes thru the imact bar (metal bumper) just threads into the tow hook and does not use a bolt on the bottom.

So since I can't use the tow hooks with the skid I need to get a nut for that bolt, which is a M14X2X180, so what I'm asking is, without having to order the nuts off Compnine, are they easy to come by(autoparts stores)?

Or could I just replace those bolts with a comparable grade 8 bolts/nuts and call it good without having to wait for Compnine to ship em?

[Trail X]

Mike - where does your radiator skid mount - between the tow hook and the bumper? or above the bumper?

[janesy86]

JD, it mounts to the bottom of the bumper where the tow hook is, so the tow hook can't bolt up b/c of the M10 bolt on the inside of the bumper. No hole in my skid for that and if you go up a cpl posts Mike explains this... b/c I am also getting one of his bumpers and it wouldn't match up.

I just need a solution in the meantime before I get the bumper so I can run the skid.

[Trail X]

What if you...

-grind the top of the hook flat
-drill a hole in the radiator skid
-notch out the hole area in the bumper (for screw head clearance)
-notch out the frontal area of the radiator skid for clearance with the backwards U shape of the tow hook

?

[bartonmd]

What if you...

-grind the top of the hook flat
-drill a hole in the radiator skid
-notch out the hole area in the bumper (for screw head clearance)
-notch out the frontal area of the radiator skid for clearance with the backwards U shape of the tow hook

?

Or...

Go without factory tow hooks for a month, and have a full strength radiator skid with no cutouts in the edges, once you get the bumper with its own shackle mounts on...