RCI cat protection is coming

Installed my RCI Off Road engine skid plate and transmission/transfer case skid plate with cat protection today. Couldn’t recommend a better product.

 

Nice product, terrible Quality assurance. Received mine, and took it and the truck to a DIY garage. Got the truck up on the lift. Started unpackaging everything and found out that one side of my Cat. guards was for an F150. Called RCI and sent pictures. Oh we're sorry, we'll get the correct piece out right away. No mention of compensation for my inconvenience. Now I have to pay again to go back and put the truck on a lift to get the job done.

 

But it doesn't protect the rear catalytic converters...isn't that the point of this add-on, complete coverage, or just throwing $200 away for false sense of security? How can you state you "couldn't recommend a better product" when a post in the forum clearly shows someone being able to access them with a cutting tool. The front wings seem like they provide great coverage, but the rears not so much. I have the full RCI skid plates, am ordering the fuel tank one too; and was waiting for their cat protection to come out, but this clearly isn't what I or others had in mind.

 

I have them, ordered because I got free shipping with my sliders (and currently owned full skid) already coming, and the rears could definitely have better coverage.

The most frustrating thing is, they knew about the access issue (posted in this thread I think) and said they did it to save people $50 per order. They should have gone with the better coverage at a slightly higher cost. They have the customer base and could have easily sold them for more with better coverage.

Oh well. I see them as a deterrent and may look go fan something to add on myself in the future.

Quality made product. Terrible terrible instructions and hardware. Their hardware never matches the vehicle and you end up with extra of some and have to purchase more of others.

 

Yea...that's a crap response from RCI that doesn't make much sense at all. I think they missed the mark on this one. Oh well I'm sure other options will present themselves.

 

I sent mine back because of this. Just holding them up I could see that you can still get a saw in there. If a thief is already under your truck, they can easily get the rear ones with these shields. I also got to pay a restocking fee and had to call twice weeks after they received them back to get my refund.

 

Can you recommend a better product? I was going to get Valhalla plates at first but after paying for them and waiting 6+ weeks and still no ETA I asked for a refund. RCI had my plates to me in less than a week. I agree the rear gaurds could be a little better but the location of the transmission crossmember does not allow any plate to give complete protection. I think if RCI came out with a vertical back plate to eliminate access from behind the transmission skid plate it would be much better. I might even make something myself if RCI doesn’t in the near future. I guess I was lucky to gave a good experience with RCI overall and that’s why I would recommend them and their products. Everyone has their own personal preference I just think the RCI plates have a better appearance with their powder coating and functionality as an actual skid plate with how they are built and attach to the vehicle. I still feel like if a thief looks under my truck and sees the cat gaurds they will just move on to the next truck/car without them.

 

Yes. Valhalla, DE, and there are a few others that Re doing them now. The wait time is the issue. In my case it is finding something that works with my RCI front and trans plates. I may even go with rci just cause they bolt on...but have some one improve the rear guards. Still though those rear shields could have been better designed. Look at the front ones. Some thought went into those...why not just repeat for the rear. My urgency isn't as high because I live in a rural wooded area but you never know.

 

If you do choose to go with RCI cat gaurds, hold them up in place and mark them before you drill your holes on your transmission plate. You can see in my picture here that there is only about 1/8” to 1/4” gap between the crossmember and the plate with room on the carriage bolt slots to move it forward even more to where it would actually make contact with the crossmember preventing sawzall access from that point. Valhalla plates have at least a 1” gap there. I think there could easily be a custom vertical back plate attached to the back of the transmission skid plate to block access from that point also. As long as they can’t get to the exhaust pipe in front of the rear cat you are good to go. I have to park in some “not so good” parts of town in and outside of Seattle, WA while I am working and I feel much better with this setup on my truck that is for damn sure.

 

I went with RCI because I already had the full skid set up. I agree, the rears are not protected fully. Their directions were horrible, but I called them during the install, and they told me to remove the crossmember that I previously installed for the skid and to attach it to the skid plate before mounting up. That helped me a ton because I was stumped on how to get a wrench up there to tighten it all up! Not being a CAT thief, I don't know if just seeing them is enough deterrent to move on to another vehicle that has easier access. One other thing I read somewhere is that the rear CATS are not worth as much as the fronts. No idea if that is true or if CAT thieves are educated on which CATs are more desirable.

 

I actually felt the instructions were pretty decent, I followed them and everything lined up perfectly.

While the rear cat protection is a little lacking, the front's are fully covered and worth a lot more than the 2nds.

 

Has anyone tried adding these (or something similar to the back of their RCIs? These would take some mods, but look possible.
https://catshield.com/collections/t...ta-tundra-4x4-v2-2007-2021-rear-shield-add-on

 

I purchased this cat shield recently and feel comfortable with the protection it provides. The brand is TPFI and can be found on Amazon. It aluminum and is a breeze to install.

 

How about the front this looks to only be for the rear

 

I’m one of (I think many) that ain’t happy with the rear cat guards from RCI. I already had the engine, transmission/ transfer case skids. Which I like. So I thought I would stay all RCI product’s when I ordered the cat guards when they 1st came out. I sent them an email about not being happy with their rear guards. I got the popular response about saving cost. I told them I would’ve paid more for COMPLETE coverage. Hopefully they’ll redesign the rear guards. But you can see it’s still somewhat easy to get to. But, they did say it’s a deterrent for easy thefts. So far I still have my cats.

 

It would have been so easy for them to have widened the side plate to cover the cat.

 

Somehow, by the grace of God, I still have all of my cats that are somewhat concealed above my RCI gear.

My biggest complaint is not with the coverage (or lack of), but with the rattle between the rear edge of the passenger side forward guard and the head of a bolt on the OEM crossmember. The directions could be a tad more explanatory with regard to retrofitting the cat guards onto the rear skid.

My fix was to pull the offending cat guard down about 1/4” and slip a small piece of an old mud flap between the top of the guard and the bolt head. Rattle gone.

I could have pulled it all down and slotted the holes so I could slip the guard forward 1/8”, but figured I’d try the easy fix first…

 

I suppose if you were a welder or know someone that welds, you could weld plates on the rear RCI cat guards so it’s completely wrapped/covered. That might be the “cats meow “. He! he! he!

 

Yeah, it would be the "Cats Meow", I love my rci as well, as I have all the skids but a redesign is in order..... its pretty sad when you think about it.

 

Gaps aside, that rear wing looks like it would be easy to simply grab with your hand and bend down, no?

 

No. I believe it's the same 3/8" (correction, it's 10ga) steel as the plate, it's very sturdy. If you can bend that with your bare hands I don't think I'd even want to shoot you - it would just make you mad.

I think the 4 bolts holding them on would be easier to cut/chisel off than trying to bend the wings.

 

Their website says 10 guage....I think that's about 9/64. That's not very thick.

 

Hmm. Maybe I need to look again. They seemed pretty stout as I recall, though. Took damn near forever to drill those holes in the plate.

I looked at the site, and the skids are also 10ga steel. So the cat guards are the same thickness as the plate, but neither are 3/8" as I originally stated. I will correct my original post so as to not confuse anyone with inaccurate data.

 

Using the Bend Force & Tonnage Calculator from jmtusa.com - yeah at 52k tensile strength and a 10ga / 0.1345 in thick plate that's approximately 10 inches by 12 inches (just eyeballing that plate here) - you'd need to exert something in the area of 1.6 tonnes of force to bend that sucker. Pathetic human 400 newtons of force ain't gonna cut it.

 

@RCIoffroad
Are any transmission skids being shipped with pre-drilled holes to mount the catalytic converter guards?

 

They make the Tskids now with the holes predrilled. I didnt have to drill any holes when I put my up. That said, Id look at a different option if you can. Talons seems to be pretty quick and 100x better coverage. Im considered swapping to Valhallas or Talons and trying to sell these RCI plates.

 

When I called RCI today he confirmed the transmission skid plate is pre-drilled for installing cat protectors.

 

I just placed an order for the Cat Guard from RCI. Those who have the old Transmission skid, do you guys go under the truck, mark, and then drill?

 

I thought about that when I did mine. Until I crawled under to look. Pull the transmission skid out to work on it. It’ll be a lot easier. I used a floor jack to assist me. It’s a lot of weight to deal with. The one bolt on the driver side is a bugger to deal with when bolting it back on.

 

Installed today. Pretty easy bolt on

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