The greatest Idea for a skid plate ever | Page 3 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

The greatest Idea for a skid plate ever

Actually, that stuff is pretty strong. There are sheets of it under the combind heads that we have on our farm, that are constantly drug over the ground to keep the height of the head constant with slight ground variations. We've never broken any and they are constanly going over rocks, and corn stalks, which are a lot stronger then you think. I would put some sort of a frame to suport it though, because it does flex a a bit depending on thinkness.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





my sliders will have plastic, um er well sliders.
welcome to march 2005
 






so I thought, i's bring this thread back from the dead.

I still need to build a skid plate for my t-case, so I think I'll give this a try. I'm going to order a piece of 18"x36" that will mount right under the frame like a belly pan. My only concern is at this point is, one of my cats is right over where it would be. This stuff has a melting point of about 220*-260*:( Maybe if I wrap the cat with header tape or something:rolleyes:
 






What's the clearance between cat and skidplate? Even 1/2" or so should make a big difference in heat transfer (as long as you're right side up that is... ;)). Let me know how it works if you do it. I'm deciding on a front skidplate myself and the "standard" (Ranger/Superlift) parts look like tin foil compared to modern plastics.
 






I will be watching this.


Possibly a weight saving option for the new crawler
 






Maybe for the temperature you could put some shielding on it
 






Just to add my 2 pennies, I work here in St Louis at a electrical parts manufacturer and use the above mentioned materials in various thickness' including UHMW, Delrin, teflon, nylon, and lexan. We also carry fibreglass reinforced sheet laminates. I run a 10' CNC panel saw and have cut and machined these materials daily, some of the sheet laminates have really surprized me at the flexability and strength of these materials. This has really got me thinking because of the amount of materials that we throw away. Over the next couple days I am going to be getting the material spec sheets including the fracture test, heat restistance, and costs per Sq.ft
 












well I recived my cuttingboard today:D looks like it should work good, It pretty rigid, until you step in the middle and it flexs but, I think it will work well. My plan is to make a template from cardboard and then cut and drill the cuttingboard. I will use the rear bolt holes off the trans suport for a front mounting location, and then have some kind of bracket to mount the sides to the frame, and then a rear mount off the front of the gas tank mount I think.
 






Put some sort of backer metal behind it - otherwise the first time you drop down on a stump, you'll punch a hole right through it.
 






Any cutting boards from walmart I could drill and bolt right up? lol (I'm serious.)
 






Put some sort of backer metal behind it - otherwise the first time you drop down on a stump, you'll punch a hole right through it.

yes, I was thinking of using something light like 1/8" for support. I think the two together will make it strong;)
 






yes, I was thinking of using something light like 1/8" for support. I think the two together will make it strong;)

Get some construction adhesive, and glue the two together. The belly plate on the zuk is only 3/16", and it's kinda beat up, but it works good!
 






And use some big ass fender washers to spread the load as much as possible
 






Get some construction adhesive, and glue the two together. The belly plate on the zuk is only 3/16", and it's kinda beat up, but it works good!

3/16" steel right? I was going to use that, but I figured I'd try something different. It works for all the pro rock crawler! Plus 1/8" steel plus 1/2" plastic, equals 5/8", should be good:thumbsup:
 






Sorry it took so long to get prices, had issues with my aunts Lincoln Mark VIII had to fix for her.

I am still going to get the heat resistance and impact strength numbers.

Lexan comes Clear and some thickness' avail. in white
.236" thick @ $3.75 sqft
.375" thick @ $7.37sqft
.500" thick @ $10.75sqft


UHMW white only that i know of
.250" thick @ $4.16 sqft
.375" thick @ $5.27 sqft
.500" thick @ $7.77 sqft
.625" thick @ $10.54 sqft
1.00" thick @ $15.09 sqft

Delrin white
.250" thick @ $11.09 sqft
1.00" thick @ $56.52 sqft

Teflon not sure of color
.250" thick @ $18.00 sqft
.375" thick @ $37.50 sqft

Nylon cream colored
.625" thick @ $35.70 sqft

ABS black
.250" thick @ $ 2.25 sqft I think this might be wrong going to dig deeper
.500" thick @ $28.43 sqft

these prices are cost and will need approx 10% markup for cutting/handling and some material will need to be ordered, and UPS shipment is availible

If anybody would like to explore possibilities. PM me and i'll see what kinda of price for size and shipment. I may take a couple days. I'm still diggin.
 






No one do this yet? I just found this and I think im ganna go check out Home Depot and Lowes and see if they carry any of this stuff. I wonder if you took 2 or 3 pieces and put them together and used a heat gun if you could actually fuze them together...any thoughts?
 






No one do this yet? I just found this and I think im ganna go check out Home Depot and Lowes and see if they carry any of this stuff. I wonder if you took 2 or 3 pieces and put them together and used a heat gun if you could actually fuze them together...any thoughts?

You won't be able to fuse UHMW plastic together that way. It is basically impervious to everything, including heat fusing. Not even many glues that work well with it.

Also, Home Depot or Lowes won't have that stuff. They'll sell run of the mill plexiglas, but unless you could get that in about 1" thickness, it wouldn't hold up at all as a skid plate.

Find a plastics or rubber distributor. They're the ones that have the stuff. Everything listed above and about a thousand other types you've never heard of. They also sometimes have a drops pile with cut-offs and corner damaged sheets for sale much cheaper.
 






I actally have the material in garage to do this, just never got around to it.:rolleyes:
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





^ pfft well get on it! lol
 






Back
Top