Asfir D1 Gas Tank Skid Plate

[psykokid]

Anyone installed one of these? Picked up one pretty cheap, but was laying under the truck the other night and I dont think the rear mount will fit without some modification due to the NAS style rear hitch. IIRC the plate was made for a D1 300 TDI which has the rear hitch which is a bolt on affair vs the NAS one which is welded in place. Any one have experience with this particular gas tank skid plate?

 

[psykokid]

Last night I crawled under the car and removed the stock cradle on the fuel tank to see what sort of wiggle room I had. Turns out with a little notching of the plate to mimic the stock cradle and a notch on the bracket that bolts to the stock mounting points it should work out just fine. Not sure why Asfir decided to make an intermediate mount plate that bolts to the stock location and then affix the skid plate to that bracket using captive nuts. Perhaps to spread the load out a bit. That's the only reason I can come up with. After looking at things under the truck the skid plate was definitely designed with the European trucks in mind where the hitch is a bolt on item, much like the way the D2 hitch mounts versus the NAS style where the receiver is welded to the frame.

I'm going to notch things today on my lunch and give it a shot mounting it up this evening. Here's a couple of pics showing the stock cradle in place and the back of the receiver, the intermediate mounting plate with the stock cradle removed and the depth of the notch required to mimic that of the stock cradle.

 

[Cleand]

You know, I would be happy to take this off your hands. If you choose you don't want to mess with it.

 

[gali]

Asfir is an Israeli company so i dont know if they manufactured it upon the NAS style.
Next...if its a used piece it could be deformed or banged out.

 

[psykokid]

You know, I would be happy to take this off your hands. If you choose you don't want to mess with it.

Yeah.. how bout no.. ;P I'll be able to make it work just fine, just a little bodging of the bracket and mount area and bob's your uncle..

Asfir is an Israeli company so i dont know if they manufactured it upon the NAS style.
Next...if its a used piece it could be deformed or banged out.

Yes, I know Asfir is an Israeli company which is why I think it was modeled on the ROW discovery chassis which has a different tow hitch mount. Not a used piece either, delivered new from Asfir's former North American distributor.