The Factory Skid Plate Is A Joke

[TremorOwner]

I went offroading today on a, at worst, mild-medium level forest road here in Georgia. The truck did amazing on the more technical parts that were only technical because of a Memorial Day weekend of Jeeps destroying any area of the trail that was wet from the water flow coming down from the "mountain" above. Electric line workers that were around the area on 4-wheelers were impressed how I got through some places. The downhill assist (whatever it's called) is great to have because the brake actuation on these trucks is so bloody horrible I was getting really aggrevated having to hold it so far down all the time. Works really well and, oddly, the brake pedal feel while using it was firm... like it should be. Weird... but anyway, onto the topic of this post:

I hit the skid plate with a rock pretty lightly. I mean... I knew the rock was there, I did misjudge it some because the ground dropped right after it more than I expected, but I just tapped it at like .000005 MPH. A brief millisecond of scrape sound. That's it and the skid plate completely bent down the middle.

What a piece of junk!

Today is the first time I actually looked closely at it. It's about as thin as a piece of sheet metal you can get from Home Depot. It needs to be at least twice as thick to be actually durable and ideally ribbed (not for her pleasure, but for strength). The skid plates that came with my old Tahoe were far thicker than this crap.

Mine is black - I don't know if that's because I have a Tremor or what. I go to see how much a new one is... lord save me, Ford. Are you serious? Wow... and only in silver.

Look, I'm glad it was there. If it wasn't, things could have been worse I suppose, but a skid plate needs to be able to hold up to a bloody half a human head size stone that's not even embedded into the ground. What you get with an expensive Tremor package is a "for show skid plate" not a real skid plate. Sad.

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[Joyride]

I went offroading today on a, at worst, mild-medium level forest road here in Georgia. The truck did amazing on the more technical parts that were only technical because of a Memorial Day weekend of Jeeps destroying any area of the trail that was wet from the water flow coming down from the "mountain" above. Electric line workers that were around the area on 4-wheelers were impressed how I got through some places. The downhill assist (whatever it's called) is great to have because the brake actuation on these trucks is so bloody horrible I was getting really aggrevated having to hold it so far down all the time. Works really well and, oddly, the brake pedal feel while using it was firm... like it should be. Weird... but anyway, onto the topic of this post:

I hit the skid plate with a rock pretty lightly. I mean... I knew the rock was there, I did misjudge it some because the ground dropped right after it more than I expected, but I just tapped it at like .000005 MPH. A brief millisecond of scrape sound. That's it and the skid plate completely bent down the middle.

What a piece of junk!

Today is the first time I actually looked closely at it. It's about as thin as a piece of sheet metal you can get from Home Depot. It needs to be at least twice as thick to be actually durable and ideally ribbed (not for her pleasure, but for strength). The skid plates that came with my old Tahoe were far thicker than this crap.

Mine is black - I don't know if that's because I have a Tremor or what. I go to see how much a new one is... lord save me, Ford. Are you serious? Wow... and only in silver.

Look, I'm glad it was there. If it wasn't, things could have been worse I suppose, but a skid plate needs to be able to hold up to a bloody half a human head size stone that's not even embedded into the ground. What you get with an expensive Tremor package is a "for show skid plate" not a real skid plate. Sad.

Pictures? Going to go look at mine. Figure that all protection under the truck is made out of the same stuff.

 

[TremorOwner]

I tried taking a picture on the trail but my iPhone camera is perma-shakey after I road my motorcycle with it attached to a phone holder once. I swear to god... my luck. I will go under there with my real camera later and get a shot. I will probably remove it to see what P/N it is. It's black...

 

[RedlandRanger]

Interesting - I have the FX4 package (not the Tremor) and I've bonked my front skid plate pretty good a few times on rocks and it has held up well. It is reasonably thick material. The other skid plates are not as thick however. Are you talking about the front plate? The transfer case plate? Something else? I guess I'd be surprised if the Tremor had a different front skid plate from the FX4.

 

[Trigganometry]

Think factory plate is like 10 gauge. If you want 3 gauge better get ARB or one of the others.

 

[Ranger_Rocks]

My '94 Jeep GC ZJ skids were 1/4" stamped steel and provided good protection.

Knowing how thin my FX4 skids are, I drive like they are not there.

 

[TremorOwner]

Think factory plate is like 10 gauge. If you want 3 gauge better get ARB or one of the others.

I will be.

 

[Skoth]

I too was disappointed when seeing how thin they are. I was expecting something closer to the 1/8" thick aluminum plates my 1993 Z71 Silverado had. Are the f150 skid plates also flimsy or did Ford just cheap out on the Ranger?

 

[TremorOwner]

I'm finding a lot of "cheaping out" on the Ranger and it's aggravating the ish out of me.

The fact the 4WD selector continues to turn even though there's only three options.
The fact there isn't a dash mark to align to your selection on that same selector.
List goes on. I'd say every car has these kinds of things but this one has a lot of OBVIOUS ones.

Anyway, I just removed the skid plate. Thankfully, it's not AS BAD as it looked out on the trail with me bending around and over uneven ground, so that's nice. More of a pronounced dent than a full on bend inward like I thought. I can't get a good picture because it's black and my camera isn't picking up the imperfection. Going to try some better lighting tomorrow.

I think I basically dropped the skid plate onto the rock. So weight of truck did this vs a progressive scrape. A little less annoying, but I have beaten the ever loving poop out of the factory skids on my '02 Tahoe because that thing's front wheel travel is pretty awful and it's never bent.

This is a Tremor... should have heavy plates in the package. They aren't as heavy as a Tacoma's.

 

[TremorOwner]

Here's some pics from the trail. My camera will not take focused pictures consistently anymore so I did my best. Figures, since I have an iPhone 11 and Apple wants me to buy the iPhone 12... timing is always "spot on" with their products, eh?

Ranger went through some pretty interesting stuff. I didn't take too many pix at the hardest parts because I was concentrating on getting through, which every time didn't end up that hard. I'm just not a picture taker, I guess.

 

[TremorOwner]

Yes, the stupid steps did scrape a couple times... just brushed dirt. Those have to go...

 

[Langwilliams]

My guess is all the manufacturers except maybe jeep use light steel for skid plates thinking 90% never leave the pavement except for crossing a lawn. Their goal is to keep weight down an MPG up due to economy regulations. An off road package that's supposed to be an upgrade should have stronger plates IMO.

 

[CJ74]

I'm finding a lot of "cheaping out" on the Ranger and it's aggravating the ish out of me.

The fact the 4WD selector continues to turn even though there's only three options.
The fact there isn't a dash mark to align to your selection on that same selector.
List goes on. I'd say every car has these kinds of things but this one has a lot of OBVIOUS ones.

Anyway, I just removed the skid plate. Thankfully, it's not AS BAD as it looked out on the trail with me bending around and over uneven ground, so that's nice. More of a pronounced dent than a full on bend inward like I thought. I can't get a good picture because it's black and my camera isn't picking up the imperfection. Going to try some better lighting tomorrow.

I think I basically dropped the skid plate onto the rock. So weight of truck did this vs a progressive scrape. A little less annoying, but I have beaten the ever loving poop out of the factory skids on my '02 Tahoe because that thing's front wheel travel is pretty awful and it's never bent.

This is a Tremor... should have heavy plates in the package. They aren't as heavy as a Tacoma's.

I agree on the cheaping out of these trucks. I put eibach rear shocks on today and my passenger side shock was already leaking with 3600 miles on it. I could push the stock shocks together with my hands, no way with the eibach's. Plus no engine cover, passenger side visor mirror, 2 missing bed tie downs, plastic ring around the ignition, ecoboost badge. I love this truck it's just aggravating me what Ford is doing to save a buck.

 

[HenryMac]

I went offroading today on a, at worst, mild-medium level forest road here in Georgia. The truck did amazing on the more technical parts that were only technical because of a Memorial Day weekend of Jeeps destroying any area of the trail that was wet from the water flow coming down from the "mountain" above. Electric line workers that were around the area on 4-wheelers were impressed how I got through some places. The downhill assist (whatever it's called) is great to have because the brake actuation on these trucks is so bloody horrible I was getting really aggrevated having to hold it so far down all the time. Works really well and, oddly, the brake pedal feel while using it was firm... like it should be. Weird... but anyway, onto the topic of this post:

I hit the skid plate with a rock pretty lightly. I mean... I knew the rock was there, I did misjudge it some because the ground dropped right after it more than I expected, but I just tapped it at like .000005 MPH. A brief millisecond of scrape sound. That's it and the skid plate completely bent down the middle.

What a piece of junk!

Today is the first time I actually looked closely at it. It's about as thin as a piece of sheet metal you can get from Home Depot. It needs to be at least twice as thick to be actually durable and ideally ribbed (not for her pleasure, but for strength). The skid plates that came with my old Tahoe were far thicker than this crap.

Mine is black - I don't know if that's because I have a Tremor or what. I go to see how much a new one is... lord save me, Ford. Are you serious? Wow... and only in silver.

Look, I'm glad it was there. If it wasn't, things could have been worse I suppose, but a skid plate needs to be able to hold up to a bloody half a human head size stone that's not even embedded into the ground. What you get with an expensive Tremor package is a "for show skid plate" not a real skid plate. Sad.

Yeah... Ford just paints the std skid plate black on a Tremor.

The stock skid plates work fine for 85% of the Ranger owners. They don't take their trucks and drag them across rocks. Ford designs the truck for these folks.

The 15% that want to drag their trucks across rocks need to upgrade with aftermarket parts.

 

[TBR17]

My guess is all the manufacturers except maybe jeep use light steel for skid plates thinking 90% never leave the pavement except for crossing a lawn. Their goal is to keep weight down an MPG up due to economy regulations. An off road package that's supposed to be an upgrade should have stronger plates IMO.

Especially with 19mpg. That's Wrangler Rubicon MPG.

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