Valhalla's Catalytic Converter Shield Installation

With all the catalytic converter thefts going on in Texas (and in my surrounding area) I figured that I should do something to deter someone from stealing my cats. So, I purchased the front and rear Valhalla's catalytic converter shields. I ordered the black powder coated, 1/8" steel plates on April 2nd and they arrived on June 13th. It sucked that it took 10 weeks for the shields to arrive, but, to Tyler's credit, he was incredibly responsive whenever I asked for an update. I know that he had manufacturing issues and he was apologetic about the delays.

With all the news broadcasts about cat thefts, this was one of the mods that my wife was super excited for me to do

I know that these are an easy install, but I figured that I would throw in my 2 cents on the installation. Maybe someone will find this useful

The plates arrived in 2 separate boxes:


The rear plate weighs about 22 pounds:


The front plate and hardware weighs 46 pounds:


The plates were packaged very well. There was no shipping damage. Here is the front plate:


Here is the rear plate:


Here is the box of hardware:


The nuts, bolts, and washers that come with the kit are very heavy duty:


Here is the additional hardware; spacer plates and rear plate brackets:


Instead of using the nuts, bolts, and washers that came with the kit, I decided to go in a group buy for the security bolts:


The tools that I used for the installation:


The first thing is to locate the holes in the cross members where the front plate bolts go through. This is towards the front of the truck near the oil pan:


This is behind the transmission:


Screwed the front cat bolts into the crossmember leaving a gap so that the plate can slide into the bolts:


I left the front cat plate in the packaging and used that to slide it under the truck. I then slid the front of the cat plate into the bolts and, using a home bucket (that fit perfectly under the truck), I propped the rear of the cat plate up:


The kit comes with 4 spacer plates. For 2 wheel drive vehicles, 1 plate is needed on each side so that there is a flat surface for the plates to rest on. You can see that the cross member is indented: (for 4 wheel drive vehicles, 2 spacer plates are needed on each side so that the rear cat plate clears the transfer case).


Installed the rear bolts with the spacer. You can see that the spacer fills the gap so that the plates can rest evenly on the cross member:


With the rear bolts in, the home depot bucket can be removed:


The next step is to install the mounting brackets for the rear cat plate. On each side, there are 2 holes in the frame. The mounting location is the hole towards the front of the truck. or, to the left of the brake line mounting bracket:


The shield bracket is attached right next to the running board mounting bracket. This meant that I could not get the impact drill in there and I had to manually drive the bolts:


Installed the mounting bracket on the other side as well. You can also see that I left the rear cat plate in the packaging so that I could slide it under the truck:


Again, I used the home depot bucket to hold up the cat plate. I then slide the rear cat plate in between the spacers and the front cat plate:


With the plates in place, there is still access to the nuts. Here is the rear bolt of the front cat plate. This is looking over the rear cat plate:


From the front of the truck (and without a front skid plate), the front bolts are easily accessible. If you had a front skid plate, you could go through the lower control arm to get a wrench in there:


I started to tighten down all the nuts and bolts, but the washers for the rear mounting brackets were pulling through the frame hole (these washers were not supplied in the kit. they came from the security bolt group buy):




So, I hammered out the washer and then used the washers that came with the kit. They are so beefy that there is no way that they would bend:


I probably should have used the washers that came with the kit for the outside of the frame bracket too. This one is slightly bending, but it is holding:


The shields all installed:


A couple of things to note. The rear cat plate came with a large gouge in it. It is more cosmetic than anything, but it might end up rusting? Also, there is a gap between the front and rear cat plates. This causes the plates to rattle of you bang on one of them. Although, I did not hear any rattling when I took a test drive with them. I think this gap is caused by a fitment issue with the rear cat plate. The width of the rear cat plate is not quite wide enough to mate up with the mounting brackets (maybe 3/4"? or maybe the brackets could be longer?). So, when I tightened down the bolts that hold the rear cat plate to the mounting bracket, it bent the plate ends out. This caused the center of the plate to slightly bend up. If rattling became an issue, I suppose that I could put some double sided foam tape in between the plates.


There is no way that anyone can get to the front catalytic converters. However, the rear cats are kind of accessible, but you would really have to work to get to them. Getting a tool up past the rear cat to cut the exhaust pipe would be difficult; not impossible, but a pain in the ass. That is really the point of these shields. They are not fool proof, but they make a very good deterrent. If you had 4 wheel drive, the transfer case would fill the opening near the rear cats. That would make getting to them even more difficult, but not impossible.

Thanks for reading

 

Great write up. Waiting for Tyler to develop plates for a BDS lift then I’m jumping on it. I’ll be referring to your thread when installing. Thanks for posting!

 

Yea my rattled when I hit them with my hand but zero noise when driving.

 

I think the gap may be an issue where the bolts aren’t quite tight enough, usually when I am done installing the plates for customers, I beat on the plates partially to make sure they are solid and to make sure it is right, but also to check for rattles. My version 1 plates had expanded metal welded in and it was actually an issue where the welds sometimes didn’t penetrate enough and the expanded metal would rattle. This lead me to doing this check.

Generally when I am tightening down the bolts at the rear of the front plate and the front of the rear plate, I will tighten them down until the metal begins to deform alittle. Over tightening the bolts would likely cause the washer on top to collapse through the hole

 

I am a nut for rattles absolutely cannot stand them. Drives me nuts. Your plates DO NOT RATTLE. I intentionally tried to get them to rattle numerous times with all windows down including back window so I could hear the slightest noise. Zero noise. Truth be told forgot they where even installed till I saw this thread...

 

Nice write up OP

 

Excellent write up OP…looking forward to getting my plates and installing them soon.

 

Great write up and pics! I got my cats stolen in early May. Just waiting on my aluminum plates to arrive now.

 

Great write up NetMonkey!!

 

We needed this writeup! Great job. Hoping to install my plates as soon as I get them.

 

Tyler, are the spacer plates needed for the aluminum shields? I did not get any.

 

Great write-up @Netmonkey. Do you, or anyone else that has installed the rear shield, know if the rear mounting brackets would interfere with the mounting points of a WKOR or similar rock slider?

 

I have both front and rear 1/4" aluminum cat plates. I had and used the two spacers, but I think if you only have the front cat plate you wouldn't need the spacer.

 

I’ve had mine Shields on my truck for about three months now and have Zero rattle so far. The truck is going into the shop on Thursday for a transmission service and when the plates off I’m going to add a strip of closed cell foam weather stripping to the overlapping area just to keep from rubbing and possibility of rusting.

 

The bolts are very tight. At the ends of the plates where the bolts are, the 2 plates are touching each other, but in the center of the plate, there is a gap. The rear shield is slightly bowed up.

You can see that here:

 

So....this is a good pic of the vents in the shield. Wouldn't a cat thief be able to easily cut along the sides of those vents to get to the cats? Like below? Would the cats fit through the hole? Didn't think about this till I saw your picture. Lol...till I saw your picture...

 

the cats would not fit through the vent opening.

 

I have his plates on my 2021 as well. GREAT product and with my TRD front skid plate, I'm literally covered front to rear. Having both plates is a must, and the other companies offering these plates need to either extend theirs or come out with their own rear plates as well.

 

Great write-up, thanks!

 

They need to put a hole/bolts so that center slack can be eliminated. Also, if it rattles while hitting it, it will surely rattle when off road on a washboard terrain. Other than that looks really good.

 

The cross member is right above where the two plates meet. I am not sure how you could put a bolt in the middle.

 

Nut welded flush in plate, stubby bolt.

 

This is a great write up!

Thank you for sharing.

I think for the next security bolts group buy (whenever the vendor gets more stock in) the washers have to be thicker.

I think you should be able to rattle can some primer where that gouge is on the plate to prevent rust. You can also periodically check it (oil change interval) to make sure there aren't any new ones. If there are, just spray it again.

 

I have both the front and back shields but did not get the spacer plates. Thanks for letting me know. I will message Tyler about this.

 

The spacers are only needed for 4wd trucks.

 

Hopefully my plates will be arriving shortly. Thanks for the write up. I have some leftover sound deadening, so I think I'll put a thin strip where the two plates meet.

 

as is stated earlier i had zero rattles but initially i did install metal roofing seal between the two plates, problem is it still rattled when i hit the plates so i removed. I wouldn't worry about it they dont rattle.

 

NO rattles on my truck.

 

I have summarized what I could find from other contributors regarding Valhalla fitment with various rock sliders here:
https://www.tundras.com/threads/val...-and-ordering-post.84911/page-38#post-2269911
I have not seen anything regarding WKOR sliders yet.