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

Done

 

One of the plates that didn’t cut well is boxed up, another is supposed to be picked up in a few days, one left

 

Thanks for the deal!

 

Besides some odd ball orders, I am caught up to April 28th now, next week all the odd ball orders are going to be shipped or ready for pick up and I will be very excited to be moving on to May orders

 

Woot. Then my plates will be coming soon!!!

 

Well worth the wait.

 

Anyone in the NW Houston area with a BDS LIFT that I can use for making a template? I had someone but I lost their info in the vast amount of messages I had. I actually want to try and do this, this weekend

 

was it @MogwaiBoogie? he's running the bds lift and mentioned reaching out to you @Classy63 for measure during our last chat at a red light.

 

Well, today I broke into May officially with shipping orders, there are some bare metal and powder coated aluminum orders that will be fulfilled this week but otherwise, I am happy to say I am making real progress shipping plates. I want to say I’m the last week or so I went from about April 8th to the beginning of May, so damn near a month caught up in not a lot of time. I still have more plates to send, and I have a lot of steel going to powder coat this week, and I am going to try and make time to start bending and welding out the front skid plates aswell, I think I have 4 1/8 and 4 3/16 ready for me to work on. All of these have the most recent changes, and I am really happy with how they are turning out now.

Side note, BDS adapter and rough mock up of the lifted front skid plate will be happening VERY SOON! Expect a post in the near future looking for local Houston Tundras with 4.5”-8” lifts to come let me test fit this plate.

 

PM incoming about my order.

 

Placed my order.

Looking forward to having this extra peace of mind.

 

My order's in. Hopefully they'll arrive before the tweakers

Same here. I figured the cost was about the same as my deductible, so...

 

The deductibles not so bad, its the months long lead time on cats

 

^
Reason I bought. Can't image having the truck out of use for months while cats try to be sourced to be installed.

 

x3. Might as well pay up now to have some piece of mind should the scum bags show up.

 

May I also add, as many others have already, how much I appreciate Tyler's commitment to this effort and transparency into what we might otherwise think is a straightforward process.

 

I try

 

Question, I got a 2020 Tundra, it didnt come with a transmission cooler. I haul heavy stuff quite often and it runs pretty hot. Should I be worried about the heat if i cover it with a skid plate? the transmission oil pan is right next to the 2 front CC.

 

There is still a lot of air flow between the plate and the transmission, I highly doubt it would affect temperatures very much

 

So much for brightly colored paint to stop them, they were caught in the act, but still think it is funny that people thought this was a real deterrent

 

The brightly colored paint idea was from a video the Houston Police posted on measures to reduce the risk of theft. They also mentioned skid plates as a deterrent.

 

Security bolts should be used with the plates. Someone posted the other day that someone took the rear bolts out and tried to remove his plate.

Post #152. https://www.tundras.com/threads/houston-catalytic-theft-heads-up.83461/page-6

 

This is interesting, first time hearing of someone attempting to take off the plates.

So here is the reason I dislike security bolts.
They strip out easily.
You can cut them off faster than a hex bolt.
Not as strong.

But with this most recent situation, makes me wonder about this position, as it is the only spot that is easily accessible. At the end of the day, the plates did their job, but I want to prevent this from happening again. Essentially, if I can’t use my impact to put a bolt on for my plates and trust it to send the bolt without issues, I don’t want to use it. So this removes all the security bolts. I wonder if it would be fruitful to try and run a socket head Allen here

 

Also, I am picking up a very large 1/4” aluminum batch from plasma today or tomorrow, and a few 3/16 steel pieces.

I am dropping off 7 sheets of 3/16 aluminum to plasma cut today, I have 11 sheets on order from my main supplier. I also have an order for 11 sheets of 3/16 steel.

I am dropping off a bunch of 1/8 steel to powder coat today and finally picking up a load of powder coated aluminum that will take care of a lot of people still waiting from April.

It is hot, but I will catch up dammit!!!

 

There do not seem to be a lot of security bolts available in the 1/2" size. This bolt from McMaster-Carr uses a pentagonal head with a special socket. The issue that I see is that a standard set of pliers would probably defeat it.

 

This actually isn’t bad! How do you see a set of pliers defeating it? In version 3 I plan on making the 3/8’s bolts 1/2” so I could add these here aswell

 

Couldn't a set of channel-lock or slip-join pliers be used with the teeth grabbing the flat of the bolt head on one side and the point of the bolt head pentagonal shape on the other? Would certainly be more difficult than a socket or wrench.

Here is the link:
https://www.mcmaster.com/security-bolts/thread-size~1-2-13/

 

They also have the pentagonal head bolts in 3/8 using the same socket

https://www.mcmaster.com/security-bolts/thread-size~3-8-16/