v_man
Explorer
It all started at a junk yard in San Jose ...
I was looking for a 4runner gas tank skid plate . Several years of near misses and plain dumb luck had left my gas tank without suffering major hits or damage. But with a Moab trip coming up , I didn't want to press my luck anymore by not having a tank skid plate on my truck ...
...the problem is that the stock 4runner skid plate is weak. A hard fast ball could dent it, and dropping onto some beautiful Moab red rocks could really put a dent in our trip ...
So I reinforced the stock plate with some #3 rebar...
...and after about an hour of welding and cutting I got this...
I threw on some grey primer to match the truck and it looked like this ...
...next I welded some legs coming down from the frame to hold the plate around the tank. I didn't want anything to do with welding near or bolting anything onto the gas tank itself ... I made my own 3/16" brackets and drilled out some holes ...
...with brackets on all four corners and a few grade 8 bolts the job was done ...
...about 1/2" of space between skid plate and tank...
... it was $18 for the junk yard skid plate, $15 for the rebar, and $6 for the grey primer. The skid plate is way more rigid and stiff , and it still only weighs about 25 lbs...
I was looking for a 4runner gas tank skid plate . Several years of near misses and plain dumb luck had left my gas tank without suffering major hits or damage. But with a Moab trip coming up , I didn't want to press my luck anymore by not having a tank skid plate on my truck ...
...the problem is that the stock 4runner skid plate is weak. A hard fast ball could dent it, and dropping onto some beautiful Moab red rocks could really put a dent in our trip ...
So I reinforced the stock plate with some #3 rebar...
...and after about an hour of welding and cutting I got this...
I threw on some grey primer to match the truck and it looked like this ...
...next I welded some legs coming down from the frame to hold the plate around the tank. I didn't want anything to do with welding near or bolting anything onto the gas tank itself ... I made my own 3/16" brackets and drilled out some holes ...
...with brackets on all four corners and a few grade 8 bolts the job was done ...
...about 1/2" of space between skid plate and tank...
... it was $18 for the junk yard skid plate, $15 for the rebar, and $6 for the grey primer. The skid plate is way more rigid and stiff , and it still only weighs about 25 lbs...
