Valhalla’s Shield theft deterrent/skid plates info and ordering post

Guess I better temper my expectations. At 5 weeks for black steel. Hoped for maybe July when I ordered them. Looks more like the next oil change might come up first. I should have ordered back around New Years I guess.

With the materials shortages you'd almost think aliens abducted about 20% of the supply chain. We keep running into strange random backorders and there's no rhyme or reason to it.

 

Yeah you prob won't be getting yours in July. I ordered black steel in mid Feb, still waiting. But maybe he'll get all the things that have been slowing down production and you'll get yours faster than that. Maybe the aliens will realize they took the wrong stuff and come back to return it all?

 

I have the overland c4 bumper and Valhalla skid and front/rear cat plates fit just fine. You’ll have to loosen the brackets that attach at the bottom of the bumper to slide the skid on and then tighten it back up.

 

I am at 11 weeks waiting on aluminum.

 

I keep checking the John Michael Godier channel for the 10 most likely ways to discover aliens retrofitting spacecraft with skid plates but it hasn't come up yet...

 

8 weeks on black steel, both front and rear plates with security bolts. Tyler told me about 1 month turn around until I could pick them up, which was a hopeful estimate. With the volume of orders that were coming in vs the availability of materials and services, I expected it to take longer than the original 1 month estimate, and I don’t fault Tyler with that.

Despite being overwhelmed, Tyler’s communication with me was pretty good considering the stress of managing all of the orders. Tyler messaged me his phone number so that we can arrange pickup once he notifies me that my order is ready. Until then, I am patiently waiting. (Though I will admit to a bit of anxiousness from time to time being maybe overly worrisome regarding my cats being stolen, especially with the varied parking scenarios afforded by my job).

 

Ordered 1/8" steel front and rear plates powder coated black with security bolts on February 28, 2022.
FEDEX says my order will arrive tomorrow, May 31 (edited). Pretty sure that's about 13 weeks.
Just the facts fellow owners, just the facts.

 

Tyler just messaged me. Mine are ready for pick up!

 

I have been waiting for 10 weeks for PC aluminum front and back. If the eagle doesn't shit pretty quick I will have to cancel and order from another source. Nothing personal but I have to plan for my schedule. I didn't know that it could possibly take this long to get plates.

 

Mine is in my driveway 99percent of the time and no reported thefts of this kind in my neighborhood. Only park in public places a few times a year but would still like to get these for the peace of mind.

 

so if I had both cat plates plus his skid plate how many domes/bolts do I need? I know he sells the bolts where do you get the domes?

 

https://www.rockhard4x4.com/product_p/rh-6000-sw-496.htm

 

Got a message last night mine was 100% shipping this week. So I'm a little confused how someone can order 18 days after I did and get theirs before I do? And I went with bare steel. Guess I still have to wait and see if I get a notification from FedEx.

 

I assume some things when I pick up, or someone else promises to pick up to try and expedite the process. The first chunk I sent straight to powder coat assuming that the rest would have come as others promised.

 

Ordered the front shield first on 2/12/2022 and it was ready for pickup on 4/8/2022. I liked it so much that I decided to order the rear as well. Ordered 4/18/2022 and ready for pickup 5/28/2022. Both were aluminum, black powder coated. Having these installed has definitely lowered my blood pressure and now I don't have to circle parking lots so long attempting to get a close-in, "safe" parking space. I can now quit attaching my under body motion sensing alarm every time I leave my truck. Tyler sells a great product (as evidenced by the demand for them from customers).

 

Well, here is an example of how bad this catalytic converter theft really is.
Both my wife and I drive school buses. Over this past weekend someone cut a hole in the chain link fence and cut out the cats from five of our propane buses including my wife's bus.

 

That's nuts. Somehow reminds me of that MASH episode where the jeep got stripped in the time of a grape nehi

 

Domes are unnecessary but I thought it was one more thing to throw would be cat thief off and as other stated to prevent ability to cut bolt head. On mine there's only (4) domes I used on the cat plates, the others are on the BDS skid. After retorquing may fill the domes on the cat plates in with some black caulk, putty or chewing gum or something just to make all this look even more PITA and time consuming to them... anybody know where to get black high heat chewing gum lol. I didn't use security bolts at this time but would be a better soln. Like he said rockhard4x4, I ended up ordering them for a slightly better deal at the time at https://www.northridge4x4.com:

Disgusting. One can only hope the sharp ends of that fence taught them a lesson.

 

If it makes you feel any better, I ordered the same thing he did (black 1/8 steel) 11 days before he did and haven’t gotten a ship notice yet. They’ll come.

 

I ordered mine on March 1, 2022 and still haven’t seen them.

May 2nd was told that the 2 cat plates are done and the front skid will be 2 weeks out, and that the cat plates can be shipped without the skid, I requested that they be shipped and to send me the tracking number.

May 23rd sent an email no response to date.

Going on 14 weeks and I am getting very frustrated on the communication.

 

Well on April 29 Tyler replied to a post that mine would be shipping “next week”. That week has come and gone. Maybe he meant to say next month. I have messaged him in every way, lastly through facebook (as he requested in a post), no response. I ordered on March 8, front and rear shields bare steel. The lack of communication is concerning. 12 weeks and waiting.

 

I'm gonna stick up for Tyler a little bit. I don't think he, as a one man operation, ever expected the absolute flood of orders he received. Like everyone else, he is having supply chain issues (steel and aluminum) and has said he has contracted out various parts of his manufacturing. Yes, he stated certain lead times that have passed, but he HAS tried to communicate his status in general. I chose to wait for the V3 for my rear plate, but he went ahead and sent my front plate and bolts. I ordered on 2/16/2022 and received my front plate last week.

 

Like I stated before, 5 months waiting on materials for work. It is absolutely insane !!! I think Tyler does a good job communicating, not the best but waaaaaaay better than most. Hang in there Tyler !

 

None of this bothers me...I like supporting new businesses. If the guy is communicating, working hard and not taking folks hard earned money.

 

We are having vendors at least twice per month or more notifying us that what we have been previously purchasing flat out isn't available anymore, with no notice to them from the raw material manufacturers.

Oh, and sometimes it isn't just material manufacturers and lack of raw materials. We had a solvent, used in Med Device, that is only made by 3M. Have been purchasing for over 15 years that cleans implantable devices. All of a sudden our distributor told us that the product was back ordered for 9 months or more. Started calling other distributors and same scenario...out of stock. Here is the twist...3M was producing this at 100% capacity. Samsung and Apple had done some supply chain risk assessments and determined that this chemical was a potential risk if they didn't have enough of it. So they bought up the WORLDWIDE supply of this chemical. That's right...ALL of it, and had blanket orders for more than 3M could produce.

Some crazy times...

 

Perhaps Tyler can post an update on where he is on orders for those of us who are waiting on plates. One update that will generally answer most questions. @Classy63

 

Patience. I'm sure he is more focused on getting the plates cut, welded, powdercoated, packed and shipped than sitting here in the forum reading every single post. If he doesn't reply for a bit, that means he is busy. He is a one man shop with alot of orders. His lead times are alot shorter than big companies out there.

 

I'm well aware of his situation and was only thinking, instead of trying to reply to a growing number of update questions, one update posting could answer most questions saving Tyler some time. I completely agree that we need to let him focus on getting product out instead of answering a large number of update questions.

 

I'm not sure he'd be able to answer most peoples questions in a single update, too many factors involved