Eccracer104’s not totally stock 16’ CM 4x4

Haha I gotcha

Yeah it does, and there are some “trails” that can be found off old Santa Cruz highway, pretty sure you’re not supposed to wheel them though.

I do enjoy SoCal, but NorCal has a special place in my heart.

 

Hahaha, yep, I know those trails. That's where we'd go as kids and where I began wheeling. There and Buzzard Lagoon off of summit road.

 

I would like to do this one but I would definitely have to stay one night it's 5 hr drive for me.

 

Haha same! Definitely was run off by some angry mountain folk when we accidentally were mud puddle bashing someone’s side yard
Good times.

I plan to camp Saturday night, and I’m sure others will as well

 

Yup, Rica, we’ll for sure camp with you Saturday night. Bring the Fam!

 

What truck is complete without patches

These had been floating in my glove box since removal from my taco. They don’t stick to the headliner so I slapped them on the tunnel over break.



Whomever can correctly guess which 3 I paid for wins a high five and a beer from my cooler on a trail ride

 

Hmmn. Not easy. I narrowed it down to 5, then got stumped by the collection of dimes... I don’t get the reference. Here’s my best guess:

 

Good guesses!

You have one right, Good Night Left Nut, I bought that one.

Stacking Dimes. My buddy got that for me as a gift. It’s meant as like a welding thing because when you can TIG weld well the beads look like literal stacked dimes.

 

"Stacking dimes", a welding reference I believe.

 

didn't die
left nut
welding 101

 

Lol 1/3

Didn’t die I got for my birthday from Bre.
Left Nut I bought.
Welding was a gift.

Thanks for playing!

 

Two questions for anyone who may have some insight:

Does anyone have experience with BudBuilt skid plates?

Has anyone attempted to DIY a 38 gallon fuel tank skid plate?

 

So... I know some very experienced off-roaders who believe the stock plastic skid is better than any aftermarket. I tend to agree....

Lightweight, doesn’t break under the weight of the truck, no rust, no bolts get sheered off.

 

Alex runs Bud Built. His are actually customized/reinforced by them to be extra stout. 2nd the plastic tank skid. I was looking at it the other day and decided it'd be a lot of work to properly make a metal one. IMO you'd need to fabricate a "cross member" type of support to provide strength to the inner side of the skid. You can come off the frame on one side but what about the other side?

 

I’ll give you a hint, @Sunnier crossed out the other two I bought.

Hmm... my concern is a puncture from a rock, or getting overly dented up. I also haven’t gotten the Tundra on some rocks to see just how much abuse the tank is going to take.

That’s a good perspective. I hadn’t thought of a crossmember for it. Best I could wrangle up is a square tube structure for it, but then we’re talking much more weight.

I’ll see if it gets banged up and by how much when I get there.
Still need to figure out engine, trans and transfer skids first.

That’s good to know they can customize and overbuild them. I have a sheet of 1/8” I can make some gussets to burn on them if getting BB to do them is too much a hassle (or expensive).

 

@Cruzer sold me his due to the rci having no real mounting points and just held by straps. He went with a victory that has more protection and thicker

 

So, the tank is pretty dang durable. I haven't been running a skid, my plastic skid had an attachment point unexpectedly modified. I've had the truck on the tank, not recommended, and not suffered any damage other than scratches. I do plan to put the plastic one back on, maybe, 'til I imagineer something different. Problem with the metal ones is they usually do contact the tank and they're great at collecting small rocks and debris. Then you ride your truck up on a big rock and squish the little ones between......... yep....... a rock and a hard place. That's my take on it but I'm sure there are other, more qualified, opinions

 

I for one am very glad that I had the Victory4x4 gas tank skid and the Bud Built transfer case skid when I went wheeling in Moab. There were ledges after ledges that I was scraping down and crashing down onto.

Here's the Bud Built transfer case skid. It was brand new prior to the trip. I had to trim it a little to fit with the Victory4x4 gas tank skid.



Here's the Victory4x4 gas tank skid on the right, with the Bud Built skid on the left. I adjusted the Bud Built skid to sit lower than the gas tank skid so that whatever hit it would slide onto the gas tank skid - which looks like it worked out perfectly. The gas tank skid is pretty roughed up and gouged deeply from this trip. It felt reassuring to have this skid being almost a 1000 miles away from home.

 

Cruz, we need a pic of the Bud Built "cross member". Looks like you put the skids though their paces and they did a good job protecting ya.

 

I don't have a picture of the crossmember bar itself but it's basically a straight round tube shaped like this: \__/ (angle not so steep of course)




There's a rectangular 3/16th plate on the other side that clamps onto the frame using 2 bolts




Here's picture of the Bud Built before I adjusted it lower, otherwise obstacles would hit the edge of the gas tank skid straight on.

 

Thanks Cruz!

 

Skid plates are for wussies

 

My truck has been on this crossmember a few times lol. Not sure how to protect the t-case without adding it. I’m a wussie with my skid plates.

 

Plastic skid plates are for cheap wussies.

 

I want to be a wussy with steel skid plates

 

I think the budbuilts are thicker than RCI. I mangled my first set of RCI’s. They were so bad I just left them on the truck after I totaled it. It was basically fused to the truck.

 

Yeah 3/16” on BudBuilt vs 9/64” on RCI.

Damn! You really beat them on there
How’s the current set holding up?

On my Tacoma with 3/16” steel skids they were slammed hard and dented all over. With the weight of the Tundra I’ll definitely want to work out some sort of reinforcement like Alex. With some luck they won’t be as frustrating to pull when needed