Oops. Village idiot moment.

In case you haven't figured it out, I am prone to having many of these moments.

While I was under the truck yesterday, futzing with the sliders, I figured I ought to mount up the rest of the skid plates from BudBuilt. I've had the front, engine and transmission plates on for awhile but not the t-case or tank skids. Bud had very kindly sent me replacement bolts, no charge, for the ones that had gotten stripped during my alignment. I got those taken care of then looked into mounting the crossmember and transfer case skid.

Small problem. The crossmember does not fit because I have the larger gas tank. Something I neglected to check prior to buying the skids. Here's a pic.



The crossmember should go across just before the bracket on the gas tank. The one with the bolt ends visible. The right side fits up where it should but the left needs about another 1/4" as the bend in the crossmember is contacting the tank. This also means the gas tank skid is going to be a few inches too short. Pretty sure the transfer skid will not fit with the plastic factory tank skid.

Here's a pic from Bud's site that shows how it should fit.



For all my careful planning, this one went right by me. Kicking myself just a little.

I've got a message out to Bud and I am hoping to connect with him this week to see what options I might have. While I wait, I figured I might as well ask my esteemed gear head colleagues what they think. So, what say you?

 

The obvious solution here is that you and I swap gas tanks. Only a few thousand mile drive.
But seriously that's a tough spot you're in. I'm sure Bud or someone here will have a solution.

 

rad. that's all i really wanted anyway.

 

I'm not really sure what the question is.