DKehler

Anyone ever replace their dented up fuel tank skid plate and regain some tank capacity?

icrashbikes

This is a good question. I'd like to know what kind of fuel capacity I used to have..

karls10jk

Interested as well. With the low fuel light on, the most I can fit is 14-15 gallons. I've pulled it down and beat it back into shape but I don't recall the capacity at that point in time. The 2dr should have a capacity of 18.6 gallons at dead empty.

resharp001

Years ago I was the lucky recipient of a full set of RH skids from a contest on this forum. As a side note, that is the primary reason that I support this forum almost exclusively in an effort to give back to this particular community. Anyhow, my gas "skid/hanger" had been so dented up that I swore I had lost some fuel capacity. Before putting the new skid over the factory one, as that is how they all install, I lowered factory POS and fuel tank. It was a major pain IMO. For the effort, I'm not sure it was worthwhile. I was extra careful as to not bust one of the fuel line clips. Then, just banging the dents out of the factory unit was its own fun time. I do recall the bottom of my fuel tank being bowed up some. It seems things went back to normal after that, but that could be a little revisionist history as well as it was years ago. I recall thinking I'd never want to do that again. Maybe the limited capacity on a 2dr would make the payoff a little more worthwhile.

DKehler

If it’s worthwhile I’d like to completely replace the factory skid plate with an aftermarket one. I’ve heard of people taking the factory one off, banging out the dents, and having one hell of a time putting it back on. My fuel tank only fills up to about 85%. It’s a two door.

karls10jk

Putting it back up isn't terrible as long as you're down on "low fuel". I use ratchet straps between the tank and the skid to hold the tank up while I work the skid.

resharp001

The issue is that the factory skid plate is what holds the fuel tank up in place. It is more of a "hanger" than an actual skid. No aftermarket skid that I know of is going to perform that same task in that manor as they simply overlay the factory. Think about how the factory one is on the DS side.

I did this too and still have part of that strap in there between the tank and skid. I couldn't get the strap back out when reassembling so I finally just cut it on both sides to be done. Maybe yall's 18g tank is slightly less cumbersome than the 22g tank. This was also before I replaced my cross member so removing skid plate bolts and trying to get everything lined back up was never a fun task.