wayoflife

the factory skids are more than adequate and you really don't need to beef it up. as you know, i have beaten the crap out of my jeeps and i still run factory skids. save your money and effort for things you really need

OoPEZoO

For you guys that have pulled the fuel tank and/or skid. Would banging up your skid plate real good have any potential effect on the tank capacity? I'm not talking minimal amount.......I mean could you lose a gallon or more? I've been getting some screwy fueling numbers for the past ~2 months and the last time I was out wheeling was Black Friday. I know know my skid is beat to hell, but I wasn't sure how it all fit together above the skid.

wayoflife

the sending unit on jeeps aren't the greatest and that's why you are seeing scewing fueling numbers. the inside bottom of your skid has cross members and these elevate your fuel cell. you can beat the skid quite a bit and it will not effect your fuel capacity. up front, the fuel cell steps up about 4" leaving a significant void between it and the skid. every jk i have seen that sees time on the trail has this part of the skid beat good but, i can assure you that your fuel cell will be intact.

remember, the whole concept of gas tank skid plate were introduced back when there wasn't any real protection offered. back in the day, all you really had was a plastic fuel cell held up by a thin metal strap of sorts with open corners and sides exposing the fuel cell to rocks. back then, a real gas tank skid was needed but it is not needed for your jk.

here's a shot of my old TJ gastank before i installed a skid. as you can see, the metal strap was super thin and the sides were completely open leaving the fuel cell exposed....



again, back then, a skid plate was something i would have strongly recommended and something that i myself got. however, on the JK, it is not necessary and i would recommend saving your money for something you really need

Absolute

I already have a clean piece to work with. It was Free.
I still may do this having heard others have also.

OoPEZoO

Thanks.....I hadn't planned on adding a skid. My issue (for another thread) is that my stupid idiot light has started coming on when I've only burned about 13 gallons of gas, when it USED to turn on after burning about 16 gallons of gas. I'm assuming my sending unit is crap, but it really got noticable the week after wheeling it pretty hard and thrashing that skid. I couldn't imagine losing 2+ gallons of capacity, so I thought I'd ask.

rubiwhite

I just did this before i came across this thread. Jeep is up on blocks so i decided to pound dents out of the skid. Then i thaught why not throw a few strips of steel on it for a little support. Going to clean it up and bed line it. Cheep and easy... Bad thing is a few extra lbs..