Capablity vs. Protection

[Sethdavis580]

Thanks guys, a lot of great advice. I was looking into the River Raider skids. But I was hoping to piece mail it in, and thought the full set would be overkill. Above all I want to get home and have fun, I'm not planning taking on the biggest of rocks yet, but knowing which ones I better have is extremely helpfully. A lot of great advice, thanks.

[frenchlayer]

Think evap skid was my first addition


Sent from the ether

[Cannonballkev]

I had a friend in a Toyota break something on the front end and it pierced his oil pan.  He had armour, not sure exactly where. 

[lt99ls1]

I have never seen anyone actually pierce there oil pan, but it could happen for sure.

I hit right on the drain plug and knocked a hole in the tj pan.

[jgerhard]

Also take a look at if you want to go with steel armor vs aluminum as you start purchasing a set, depends on how hard you want to beat on your Jeep and how you want to approach your overall weight/performance.   Its easy to add a alot of weight in bumpers and armor. 

Rock sliders, some choices to make if you want the sliders to be high and tight in, allowing more performance, or wider and functioning as a step.  Some of the common brands in the catalogs sit too low.  I like a wider rock slider at this point, as my family needs a step in and I am able to keep the rocks a bit farther away lol.  Look at what you want closely for a good compromise. 

[Jango]

Great advice about sliders^^ I have the Smittybilt sliders and step and they are great for having a step, but hang too low on the trails causing me to get hung up on obstacles.

[Raisinhead]

^^^ yes, this is good advice that I didn't think about when I started my build. I had some cheap rugged ridge sliders that really got hung up a lot.  I've been temporarily running stock rubi sliders until I pull the trigger on something else.

[Sethdavis580]

I already got the smittybuilt sliders w/ steps. The first thing I noticed was how low they hang. I will go with the steel over the aluminum skids, just for the fact it's steel. One thing I noticed about smittybuilt products is they are usually a lot cheaper in price which leads me to believe they will be cheaper quality. What do you guys think about the brand in general? I will probably try to run the smittybuilt sliders just to see, how they run. I know poison spider makes a nice set, but they come with a nice price!

[Jango]

Smittybilt makes some hit and miss stuff. Just depends on what it is. A lot of people run smittybilt bumpers, winches, and sliders which seem to work great for people. I do see rust spots on some of their products probably just due to cheap paint job. I have a little rust here and there on my sliders. One thing to watch out for with the sliders is to not use the middle of the sliders a jack point. There are only two mounting points on the sliders so only jack from the front or rear.

I want to go another route on my sliders soon.

[patman]

Anything that attaches to the body mount bolts will have a lot of flex. Frame welded is best and if it attaches to the pinch seam (like rubi rails) the smaller the better. The ones with integrated steps or a "rub rail" will put a lot of leverage on that seam and flex into the body