Sliders and Skid Plates
Finally, some protection underneath and another couple items to cross off the wish list.
Since the monty is pretty much maxed out on lift,as I understand anyway being a uni-body with IFS/IRS, I decided some stout protection underneath was well warranted.
I wish I already knew how to work with metal, but unfortunately I don't...yet. I'm already thinking it would be a good idea to get some tools and learn how to MIG and arc weld. :Mechanic:
So, I turned to the guys at Expert Off-Road in Plano, TX. They helped me out a great deal over the last 2 weeks.
They built 5 skid plates and sliders for me.
The sliders were the easy part. There were actually great places just inside the rocker panels to mount these to the frame. They used rectangular tubing for the sliders and then round tubing for the nerf bars. These will provide serious protection for the sides and rocker panels, and in addition, provide me some steps to get to the entire roof rack. This is something I've been wanting for a long time now.
The skids were the challenge. First up, replace the plastic, er, skid plate? that was directly under the engine. I'm not sure what Mitsubishi was thinking. My Gen II had a metal one in the same place, but plastic it was and we had to get rid of that.
Next, they created a set of plates for the transmission/transfer case, center diff, and front & rear drive shafts. This turned out to be three plates. They had to remove the fiberglass/plastic skid on the gas tank. Then, since there weren't that many places for all the plates to tie into, they created 2 custom cross members from one slider to the other out of square tubing. This provided a solid platform to mount these skid plates, and also allowed them to keep the skids as close to the body as possible and clearance as high as possible.
I even had to get the muffler replaced with a slimmer model (Magnaflow) to allow more clearance for the new plates. I'm not sure I'm crazy about the sound--it's too refined now.
But hey, at least it works and I got a little more clearance out of the deal too.
Finally, I wanted some protection for the rear. The departure angle is nowhere near as great as the outstanding approach angle of this vehicle. I know that for most vehicles the departure angle is always lower than the approach angle, but this is a bit extreme. In addition, I wanted to keep my rear A/C compressor. In the high heat it helps cool the cabin down. It is located just above the right rear quarter panel, behind the tire. It's just asking to be smashed...almost like it was an afterthought to add this right before production began.
So, they created another plate and tied it into the receiver hitch. It extends the entire width between tires, and covers the A/C compressor. It should allow me to slide off of things that are too tall for me to traverse. Sure, more lift or completely re-building the rear end would have been more elegant.
But, again, I was faced with not knowing how else to get any more lift out of it than I already have, and not wanting to butcher the rear body panels, lose the rear A/C, and the massive extra storage I have under the rear floor (where most trucks would have a spare tire or a gas tank). So, this was the best option that presented itself after several ideas were tossed around with the specialists at Expert Off-Road over the course of 3 days.
It's not a great picture, but here's the rear skid plate:
So, now I'm wondering if I helped lower the COG of this tall vehicle with all that 1/4" steel under there.
Anyway, now I've got the protection to start taking this thing places I probably shouldn't. :smiley_drive:
