Skid Plate??

[DieselBound]

My skid plate is made of 1/2" thick steel. It would be rather heavy to take off without a jack or some other method of lowering and lifting it when I need to do maintenance. So the guy who designed and fabricated it for me made it in two pieces. The smaller front piece is more likely to be removed for regular maintenance. This is held on with 2 bolts near the front of the piece. The rear of the piece is held on by a tongue-and-groove section that slides on to the front of the larger rear piece. Remove two bolts, and the front piece slides off and is light enough to handle easily.

Reminds me of the guy I bought my utility trailer from. He'd had someone build a heavier duty ramp and after lifting it around (and he was a big guy) he decided not to have a second one made!

Curious as to what is a realistic thickness (1/2" would be great, but I'm thinking that I wouldn't be able to work with that thick of metal). I think that in most cases it's a matter of trying to protect against brush, keep it from jamming in places. Rustyiron (I think the thread is great! pictures are worth a thousand words!) used some bedliner for some shielding. Got me to thinking... I'm seeing a bunch of diamond plated truck storage boxes popping up on Criagslist, wondering whether that material would work for being brush shields*. I'd think that as long as it is anchored securely that it then only need to manage light deformations: seems that there are lots of places where hard tractor parts are going to stop the material from deforming very much. Granted, slamming on a big rock or stump is going to be trouble for just about anything (other than 1/2" steel :thumbsup.

* I've got some fairly thick aluminum skid plates on my cars. In this case it's an issue of high rates of speed meeting hard objects: just the other day I hit someone's escaped piece of firewood (at 50+ mph)- ouch! I need to check to see what kind of dent I got from that one!

 

[jenkinsph]

Removing and replacing a skid plate is easily accomplished using a floor jack. Raising the plate from the center approximately will allow you to slide it around to line up close then hold it in place to bolt on. Smooth steel on steel will slide easy enough and works great.

The skid plate on my 110tlb is about 5/16 with rolled edges and has no damage after about 12 years of use. I can not remember ever high centering the tractor on anything so I really don't know how it would hold up to that. Being a poor man I am cautious about damaging hard earned equipment.

 

[John_Mc]

Curious as to what is a realistic thickness (1/2" would be great, but I'm thinking that I wouldn't be able to work with that thick of metal). I think that in most cases it's a matter of trying to protect against brush, keep it from jamming in places. ... Granted, slamming on a big rock or stump is going to be trouble for just about anything (other than 1/2" steel :thumbsup.

High-centering on a rock or stump is exactly why he recommended going with 1/2". He's done a lot of these for people who use tractors in small logging operations (most of them bigger tractors than my NH TC33D). I was thinking 1/4", or even diamond plate spanning the gaps between my backhoe subframe rails. He strongly recommended going heavier, especially if I needed to get things on and off for maintenance. We both agreed that 90+% of what these do is protect from brush or other odds & ends poking up and damaging something. However he said that unless you are staying on prepared trails, sooner or later (especially in our rough, rocky terrain) you are going to hit something more solid. When that happens, you don;t want something that is going to deform easily. Once it bends, it's going to be hard to remove it for maintenance, and it will take a lot of work to get it back into shape so you can get it back on - you may end up having to rebuild it. He convinced me that we only want to make this thing once, we might as well make it tough.

I asked about whether 3/8" would be tough enough, given this was a smaller tractor. He thought about it, and now that you bring it up, I'm not sure where he ended up. I'll have to go out and measure it (tractor is 5 miles away right now).

 

[VroomVroom]

Just started mine. 2816hst.

 

[VroomVroom]

 

[VroomVroom]

1/4 inch. Don't feel it's too heavy at all.

 

[Rustyiron]

Nice Vroom!
If I'm looking at this right, drive over it, jack up the back & slide it forward, jack up the front and 2 bolts. Slick:thumbsup:
Are you going to further support the front area?

 

[VroomVroom]

I took the fel off so I could remove the front bumper. I needed it for the hole pattern of the two plates that are bolted to either side. Tommorrow I'll weld a flat stock to the part of the skid plate that hinges upward. Then both the flat stock and the plates that drop downward on either side will mate and four bolts will fasten them together. Eventually I'll probably angle the plate up a little between the front and rear wheels. I'll also make vertical walls that will sit around the edge of the skid plate in the wheel cutouts and between the front and rear wheels. They'll be bolted there once plate is on the tractor. Your right, just drive over it, lift back end of the plate and slide it forward three inches. Then lift front of the plate up and insert one inch pins. Then fasten two bolts of the hinged portion of the skid. Very easy.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Just started mine. 2816hst.

Nice work. I like it.

 

[VroomVroom]

Yes, I got the hinged portion ahead of front axle done. But had a lot of trouble getting the welder to work. Almost impossible. Not sure why it won't start and even keeping it burning is difficult. I re-installed the front bumper which receives the fel. So tomorrow I'll have to take a picture. I never answered rustyirons question if the front was supported more. Ahead of the one inch pins It isn't supported any more until just forward of the front axle. There I made a hinge, and there's another section you can see which angles up towards the front bumper. This hinged section of the skid plate will have flat stock on its edge that is drilled and matching it to pieces which are bolted on both sides of the tractor using the same holes the front bumper is bolted on with. It covers the front drive shaft which looked quite exposed as well as filters further back. The only problems are , because the front wheels turn so sharp, I had to cut the wheel wells out a lot. The portion ahead of the one inch pins is only 13 inches wide.

Some hard pipes run along the engine a little lower which could get caught with sticks running up through the wheel wells. That's why I'd like to back vertical walls surounding the wheel well and between the front and back wheels.

Also because it runs under the front axle, I will have much less clearance. Though I don't expect to be too rough with it either, it's mostly made for a decent cleared path and those un suspecting sticks poking where they shouldn't