Aluminum Gas Tank Skid

[Stu Olson]

It goes nicely with my AL engine/tranny skid. 5052 alloy....3/16" on the sides and two layes of 3/16" on the bottom (3/8").

http://www.stu-offroad.com/guards/gastank/gas-10.jpg

More details at http://www.stu-offroad.com/guards/gastank/gastank-1.htm

[Tirith]

Nice as usual, Stu!

So.... You would not happen to have a slightly used Tomken fuel tank skid for sale, would you? :D

Off-topic, how did the Suck-down winch do in Moab?

[DsrtJeeper]

Stu;
Did you test out any of the skids? :)

[Stu Olson]

Nice as usual, Stu!

So.... You would not happen to have a slightly used Tomken fuel tank skid for sale, would you? :D

Off-topic, how did the Suck-down winch do in Moab?

Nope...the Tomken skid went away a year or two ago.

Didn't run into a situation where it was needed. Had I run Metal Masher (did last year), I would have given it a try....would have been the perfect test for it, IMO. The one time I thought I needed it....well.....err.....um......I found that shifting the t-case from 2LO to 4LO solved the immediate traction problem I was experiencing. :D

[Stu Olson]

Stu;
Did you test out any of the skids? :)
Engine skid didn't see any hits. The gas tank skid caught a few but nothing of consequence. I found this year's trip to be far less "smack prone" on the gas tank skid. Maybe crawling over the ledges, etc. with that AW-4 makes it easier.....or....maybe I'm gettin' better at finding the better line. :eek:

I'm suppose to be out on Saturday for a run....if so, I'll report back how the skids did on that trip. I'm thinking they will see more opportunities to work their magic. ;)

[DsrtJeeper]

Engine skid didn't see any hits. The gas tank skid caught a few but nothing of consequence. I found this year's trip to be far less "smack prone" on the gas tank skid. Maybe crawling over the ledges, etc. with that AW-4 makes it easier.....or....maybe I'm gettin' better at finding the better line. :eek:

I'm suppose to be out on Saturday for a run....if so, I'll report back how the skids did on that trip. I'm thinking they will see more opportunities to work their magic. ;)

Please keep us informed Stu. ;) Also; how do you feel your Jeep handles after dropping to the 6" coils? Better or worse?

[Stu Olson]

Handling is just fine. For sure my rear drive shaft is happier. I never had an issue with the 8" coils, but the 6" don't give as much of a lean on the off-camber stuff and that's a good thing for sure. I was extremely pleased with the TJs performance in Moab this year.

There was only one obstacle I had started and then backed away from (literally)....the Golden Crack ran backwards puts virtually the entire weight of the vehicle on the driver's front tire which then must climb near vertically to get onto the other side. After looking at my tire sitting on the ground, in the crack, I decided my hub, u-joint and ring gear were worth more to me than going across the crack in that direction. I opted to cross it next year coming from the customary direction.

[DsrtJeeper]

Handling is just fine. For sure my rear drive shaft is happier. I never had an issue with the 8" coils, but the 6" don't give as much of a lean on the off-camber stuff and that's a good thing for sure. I was extremely pleased with the TJs performance in Moab this year.

There was only one obstacle I had started and then backed away from (literally)....the Golden Crack ran backwards puts virtually the entire weight of the vehicle on the driver's front tire which then must climb near vertically to get onto the other side. After looking at my tire sitting on the ground, in the crack, I decided my hub, u-joint and ring gear were worth more to me than going across the crack in that direction. I opted to cross it next year coming from the customary direction.

Yeah; I burnt up a driveshaft on the way to Colorado with the 8" coils and dropped down to the 6" coils. I suddenly could climb things that I couldn't before and off camber was much more confidence inspiring. The 6" coils unload much less on climbs as well. The suck down winch would have been handy for sure.

[mingoglia]

Some one should get a trademark for "suck down winch". :-)

[Stu Olson]

Please keep us informed Stu. ;)

Well, I think I'll go on record saying that the gas tank skid did everything I asked of it and probably a few things I didn't.

We ran Die Hard yesterday. Here is a pic of the skid after the last waterfall....still had about 50 yards of the mine field left to crawl through. The winch line on rear hook is from Troy's buggy....he blew the rear axle and was using me as winch point as necessary. One of TJ's ripped a control arm loose (rear upper triangulated arm)....there was some lesser things but it was a good run. I lost my steering box brace when a rock I was climbing on broke loose and slid down into my front end. It was about the size of my hood. :eek:

Here is a pic of the gas tank skid.

http://www.stu-offroad.com/temp/Img_3118.jpg

[xFallen]

Well, I think I'll go on record saying that the gas tank skid did everything I asked of it and probably a few things I didn't.

We ran Die Hard yesterday. Here is a pic of the skid after the last waterfall....still had about 50 yards of the mine field left to crawl through. The winch line on rear hook is from Troy's buggy....he blew the rear axle and was using me as winch point as necessary. One of TJ's ripped a control arm loose (rear upper triangulated arm)....there was some lesser things but it was a good run. I lost my steering box brace when a rock I was climbing on broke loose and slid down into my front end. It was about the size of my hood. :eek:

Here is a pic of the gas tank skid.



Cool! :D

This made me laugh. :D


I lost my steering box brace when a rock I was climbing on broke loose and slid down into my front end. It was about the size of my hood. :eek:


Sounds like you had fun on a great trail.


Barry

[Stu Olson]

Cool! :D

This made me laugh. :D

Sounds like you had fun on a great trail.

Barry
Barry....it was crazy....frickin' tight squeeze to get past a rock on the passenger side....used the side sliders to scrape my way along it. Then...about the time I clear it, I have to get the driver's front quite a ways up in the air and ready for a hard right turn.....all of a sudden.....LAND SLIDE!

Luckily, it peeled the bracket off the gear box and not the gear box off of the frame! LOL

http://www.stu-offroad.com/temp/IMG_0774.JPG

[xFallen]

Barry....it was crazy....frickin' tight squeeze to get past a rock on the passenger side....used the side sliders to scrape my way along it. Then...about the time I clear it, I have to get the driver's front quite a ways up in the air and ready for a hard right turn.....all of a sudden.....LAND SLIDE!

Luckily, it peeled the bracket off the gear box and not the gear box off of the frame! LOL


I remember that spot on the trail. Dang. Glad it wasn't worse. That's a big rock! A friedn ahd to 3 wheel out of the second half of the trail after loosing a hub. Our trail repair didn't hold up. He did great but that's no place to be without all 4 wheels powering! :D

That is certainly not a trail for the faint of heart. We cleared the big rock out of the first waterfall smoeone had put there. Why people do that I don't understand. "I can't do this trail so let's change the trail so I can do it.". Sorry...pet peeve.

Anyway, back to your fun, did you run the crack at the beginning?

How'd you like the second fall? :D :D


Barry

[FrenchChili]

Barry....it was crazy....frickin' tight squeeze to get past a rock on the passenger side....used the side sliders to scrape my way along it. Then...about the time I clear it, I have to get the driver's front quite a ways up in the air and ready for a hard right turn.....all of a sudden.....LAND SLIDE!

Luckily, it peeled the bracket off the gear box and not the gear box off of the frame! LOL

http://www.stu-offroad.com/temp/IMG_0774.JPG



Pffff....pebble... ____________________________:D

[Stu Olson]

Anyway, back to your fun, did you run the crack at the beginning?

How'd you like the second fall? :D :D

I opted out of the crack at the start. After seeing docs Bronco go into it and later Brandon's TJ, I decided I still like my sheet metal just the way it was.

The water fall....it was nice. Troy lost his rear diff on it, taking the right hand route around the big rock. He later lost his front diff too....and so was on 1 wheel drive (per axle)wheel drive. I never could have made it out of there that way....he is one heck of a driver. :)

Here is my write-up of yesterday's events.

http://www.stu-offroad.com/others/other53-1.htm

I haven't snapped any pics of the aluminum front skid yet, but I will and I'll post the results. At one point, I had the entire weight of the front end sitting on it....axle at full droop....just scratching the dirt. :( What a day....I'll probably be arrested for skid abuse! :D

[DsrtJeeper]

Holy crap!!! Frog is back!? :eek: I can't believe that rig is still going.

Did Doc run his swaybars this time? When we ran Collateral Damage; I thought he was going to flop over on the way to the trail! :D He had removed his front and rear swaybars and the rig handled aweful.

The skid looks great, but your bumper doesn't. :D You'll be washing and touching up for a week! :p

How did Troy bust two portals? LOL! He didn't brake anything on DH running it with his Jeep.

[Stu Olson]

The rear diff let go on one of the waterfalls....call it attempting a non-traditional line. Once it was gone, the front didn't do all that well in handling the rest of the trail. Troy didn't baby it very much. :)

The aluminum (front and rear skids) did very well. I was quite pleased with their prerformance.

I don't think Doc had the swaybars connected....sounds as though the same problems you described were happening yesterday. It was a short run for him once he discovered the alternator was not working. :(