Aluminum has a protector plate is fine, but not for a "skid or rock slider" it will grab the roughness of the rock and you will stick on them and wear the plate really quickly.
1/8 or anywhere between 14 ga to 10 ga is fine for a protector. If you plane on jacking the truck on the skid plate, 3/16 is thin, IMHO 1/4 minimum and lots of bend, in other words no flat surface bigger then 14, 16"x16". When designing a skidplate thickness is irrelevant imo, it is the last thing you decide after you know how many bend and flat surface there is.
But since we do no have CNC and huge press to do our own mold and press steel, we use flat plate and at best we can do a couple of straight bend here and there.
If you only want to cover the underside of your truck against heavy gravel road use, then 3/16'' aluminum is the best. It is easy to drill and you will be able to crawl under the truck with the plate on your belly to get it installed.
1/8 or anywhere between 14 ga to 10 ga is fine for a protector. If you plane on jacking the truck on the skid plate, 3/16 is thin, IMHO 1/4 minimum and lots of bend, in other words no flat surface bigger then 14, 16"x16". When designing a skidplate thickness is irrelevant imo, it is the last thing you decide after you know how many bend and flat surface there is.
But since we do no have CNC and huge press to do our own mold and press steel, we use flat plate and at best we can do a couple of straight bend here and there.
If you only want to cover the underside of your truck against heavy gravel road use, then 3/16'' aluminum is the best. It is easy to drill and you will be able to crawl under the truck with the plate on your belly to get it installed.
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