Hey guys, it’s Kevin with another little Q&A video session here. We often get asked questions about different things by our customers. Today, the question is – “What is the most important skid plate...or what order should I purchase my skid plates in?”
Well the Upcountry models and Overland models come with skid plates on the transfer case, some of them under the radiator, and most all of them a skid plate under the rear fuel tank.
The customer has a 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee which didn't come with any skid plates. Basically he is asking where the best money is spent. In my opinion, the first thing that's going to get whacked is the transfer case. The reason for that is, that's the point where its going to be the lowest when you're going over rocks and that sort of thing. That's not to say that you cannot put a rock into your fuel tank. I'm not saying that at all, however the fuel tank resides up and over the rear axle so you're more likely to hit the rear axle before, by a long way, before you hit the fuel tank. However you're definitely going to hit the crossmember and the transfer case first.
So the very first skid plate I would ever purchase is going to be a transfer case skid plate. From there I would go to Rocker Panels.
Rocker Panel skids are kind of multi-purpose or at least ours are any way. It can be used as a step, it can be used as a pivot point when you're going around tight trails, rocks, trees that sort of thing and obviously can also be used as a skid plate from underneath. We build ours so that you can get the usage of all three of those different aspects of it. You can easily use it as a step and and jump up and in, makes it way easier than trying to boost kids and short people up into the the rig there.
Obviously from the bottom its going to give you a lot of protection from rocks and stuff and when you're coming up and over ridges and that sort of thing. You're going to come down on the rocks and you're gonna come down on trees, you're gonna come down on stumps and everything else that happen to be in the trail right there, these things will protect the lower side of your vehicle from it. So its well worth the expenditure in my opinion.
Ours are priced, around 400 bucks or something like that. If you have the best deductible in the world its probably 500. So you go offroad you munch the thing up, you're gonna be spending 500 bucks to get it put back to the way that would have been from the factory. You could spend 400 up front and have all of these other features to it at the same time.
So then from the rocker panel protection, the gas tank would definitely be the next thing. There are several manufacturers out there that make gas tank skids for various different Jeep vehicles.
And then the radiator front skid plate from there. Although in my opinion not super super useful. I guess maybe I should clarify I would say front skid plate rather than radiator support. We actually do sell an upgraded radiator support for the ZJ Grand Cherokee. That's actually not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is the skid plate that comes on the Upcountry models and the Overland models that basically goes up in front of the radiator and kind of gives you a ramp to come and up and over. If you're running a factory height Grand Cherokee or Cherokee and that ramp is useful for you, then you know maybe just leave it or something. But with a 2-inch budget boost you basically are going to clear everything that you would have hit with that skid plate so its my opinion that adding a 2-inch budget boost or something would be a far better expenditure of your time and effort then attempting to find one of these things in a wrecking yard or online or what have you.
[I'll mention the radiator support in a different video to make things more clearer.]
So basically in that order, transfer case skid, rocker panel protection, gas tank skid and then at the very very last a budget boost or you know basically the front skid plate would be the very very very last thing that you would wanna, that you would want to invest money in is that front skid. Like I said budget boost will get you up and out of the rocks and the trees and that sort of thing automatically so you don't have to worry a whole lot about that. It will also give you a better break over angle so that your transfer case and transfer case skid plate are not constantly getting knocked around by rocks and trees and that sort of thing.
If you have any comments please post below I'm happy to clarify anything. Post up questions below if you disagree with me I'd love to hear from you as well. Give me the order that you think it should be done in, if you don't think my order is a good one. And I look forward to hearing from you.