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SKIDPLATES - R50 - Aluminium - Soon AVAILABLE


fleurys
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******* EDIT ******

 

THEY ARE NOW AVAILABLE AS A PRESALE UNTIL DEC 31ST ONLY FOR NPORA MEMBERS... CLICK HERE : http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/42686-r50-crosslink-mid-skid-and-rear-skid-presale-ends-december-31st/?p=783943

 

 

 

 

 

I'm on the final details of the fabrication of a full set of aluminium skidplates that will be available before Christmas. I thought I would give a small peak for all those that patiently waited for this moment..

 

If you have any questions, just go ahead and ask them in this post as it will serve everyone.

 

Here's a few facts :

 

1) No price yet - still have to finalize cost before that

2) All parts will be powder coated black for a durable finish

3) They have been designed to be symmetric... This means you can flip them if they become scratched and you're back with a new fresh set.!!

4) The 3 skids are not dependent on each other, but the Mid and Rear will need the crosslink for attachment

5) The items for a full set are : Front Skidplate, Mid Skidplate, Rear Skidplate, Control arm Crosslink

6) Only the crosslink is made from steel, the skidplates are from 1/4" aluminium T6061

7) The skids are water jet cut. so no distortion from heat

8) The mid and rear are compatible with the front skidplate that were bought from me in the past.

 

 

 

Pictures :-)

 

 

 

 

BEFORE :

IMG_0325_zpsdgkxpsjv.jpg

IMG_0339_zpskue0bxvx.jpg

 

AFTER:

 

IMG_0350_zpsoe8x1chx.jpg

 

IMG_0351_zpso5xdoosz.jpg

 

IMG_0356_zpsqvjfm9cs.jpg

 

IMG_0357_zpslj5aj0tp.jpg

 

IMG_0360_zpst0mldnko.jpg

Edited by fleurys
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It is unlikely. Simply because the chances of finding a 95 that is not rusted out in Qc in near impossible. I was lucky enough to find a npora reader to help me design the rear spacers, but designing a set of skidplate is a whole different kind of animal... There is no way i can do this remotely.

 

I am not closed to the idea, but i doubt everything will line up so that i can have access to a good, not rusted, straight wd21 in the near future... Also , do you think there would be enough interest?

 

 

Envoyé de mon iPad en utilisant Tapatalk

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If I were in the area (I'm a good ways away unfortunately :/ ) I'd let you use my 87 as a blank slate since the frames are all the same between 87 and 95. And as for interest I'm sure there'd be plenty especially since there's only a couple companies that have front skid plates and so far I haven't found anyone that has under body plates like what you've made for the r50. I've resorted to having steel plate cut to make mine when I get the funds up but it's going to be extremely heavy and I'd much rather have aluminum plates.

 

Sent from inside my potato

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Have you tested out the strength of the skids on rocks or any tough terrain? They must be significantly weaker than your steel front skid.

 

Sent from my SM-G530T using Tapatalk

 

The aluminum skids at 1/4" thick do quite well actually. I have the older version of his front and mid skids, and they've done fine...added some new scrapes to them on Saturday, actually.

 

Steve: I do have some questions about the rear skid...

1. I presume this will work with your older crosslink?

2. What's the mounting setup to the transmission crossmember? Is there another plate that connects to the cross member first, and if so, do it prevent the tail-end of the skid plate from bending up into the t-case? Asking because I'm curious to know if I can make this work with an SFD (noting to others that if you have an SFD, your crosslink will sit lower that the transmission crossmember).

 

I noticed you're now just overlapping the front and mid plates to the diff crossmember, but thought I'd note that I liked your previous 'mid-plate' that provided separate front bolt holes for the mid skid. Not sure if this was the original design, but I bolted that piece directly to the crossmember (instead of the front skid sandwiching it with 4 bolts) so that I could remove the front skid without leaving the mid plate hanging there or otherwise needing to remove it. I imagine you can still replicate convenience with two more holes in each plate rather easily. If none of this description makes sense, I'll send you some pics.

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Have you tested out the strength of the skids on rocks or any tough terrain? They must be significantly weaker than your steel front skid.

 

Sent from my SM-G530T using Tapatalk

 

 

Yes I have For a long time now... (by the way, my front is in 1/4" aluminium too, not steel.) ... Back in 2010 I was testing different approach of manufacturing the skidplates and I basically dropped the truck many times on them. I literally slide down on the skidplate, wheel off the ground. Here's a picture of one of my first beta test for a full skid. It was all in one piece ( I welded the front with the mid-rear),,

CIMG1183.jpg

CIMG1179.jpg

 

CIMG1182.jpg

 

There was a slight deflection like you can on the 3rd picture, but the plate had done it's job..Which is to take the hit and save your equipment. I have twin lockers on my rig and I am an avid rock climber with it..I have NEVER broken any parts (transmission pan, oil pan, trans, steering rack, etc.. due to hit because I had these skidplates..) If you listen carefully , near the end of this video (2:44), when I finally make it up there, you see and hear when I fully hit the rock with the skid. This hit was directly on the transmission and transfer case... no damage and drove right back home..

 

Personally, I have seen many guys stranded in the woods simply because a tree branch just badly positioned on the ground went through the oil pan.. There is many thousands of dollars worth of items underneath our trucks.

 

At the beginning of this all (when I was choosing the material for the skid, I did a sledge hammer test with 2 identical piece of material (square), one with 3/16" steel, the other 1/4" alu. I can honestly say the dents were the same on both.. So for me 1/4" alu is as strong as 3/16" steel, and the weight reduction, rust free attributes makes it a perfect material for these high end skidplates.

Edited by fleurys
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The aluminum skids at 1/4" thick do quite well actually. I have the older version of his front and mid skids, and they've done fine...added some new scrapes to them on Saturday, actually.

 

Steve: I do have some questions about the rear skid...

1. I presume this will work with your older crosslink?

2. What's the mounting setup to the transmission crossmember? Is there another plate that connects to the cross member first, and if so, do it prevent the tail-end of the skid plate from bending up into the t-case? Asking because I'm curious to know if I can make this work with an SFD (noting to others that if you have an SFD, your crosslink will sit lower that the transmission crossmember).

 

I noticed you're now just overlapping the front and mid plates to the diff crossmember, but thought I'd note that I liked your previous 'mid-plate' that provided separate front bolt holes for the mid skid. Not sure if this was the original design, but I bolted that piece directly to the crossmember (instead of the front skid sandwiching it with 4 bolts) so that I could remove the front skid without leaving the mid plate hanging there or otherwise needing to remove it. I imagine you can still replicate convenience with two more holes in each plate rather easily. If none of this description makes sense, I'll send you some pics.

1) Yes and no... You will have to make new holes in the rear skidplate in order to attach it to the old crosslink. I made some changes for more torsion force in the new one, but it is basically the same idea. On the old crosslink, the holes were 14" apart, on the new one they are 18". So if you have wood working tools, you can work with aluminium and make new holes. I have also removed the welded nuts from the new crosslink in order to save cost and bring the price down. The bolts are also downsided to 3/8" instead of 1/2" like I used to ship.

 

2) the mounting on the rear took most of my time as to what I was going to do considering the experience I have acquired with time and lots of offroad. I have settle for 2 brackets that wrap around the transmission crossmember. I went this way over making a bracket that would either bolt to the transfer case or sit right under. I did this because at the end, the stronger part of the transfer case is the bottom of it. So yes, in the event you sit the truck on a rock near the transfer case, the plate will bend and tuck itself under the transfer case hard spot.

 

If I was to put a bracket, I could see either the bracket break and potentially become a spear-like object going through the TC, or if the bracket was to be attached via one of the transfer case bolts, I could easily see it break in two and then be stuck with oil coming out.

 

The setup I choose uses all the strong point of the under carriage. Mind you, there is about 0.5" inch space between the end of the rear plate and the underside of the transfer case. So the bend will not be excessive and everything will be properly protected.

As for the SFD setup, in order to have the plate sit flush underneath the transmission crossmember you would need a slightly longer plate and probably a bend in it to compensate from the 4" SFD drop as the crosslink would be sitting 4" lower. If you are interested with that I could design/fabricate you one... Just send me a private message and we can talk about it.

 

yes , I now overlap the front over the mid skidplate. Again this is to bring cost down. It also makes it stronger since the mid skid is now full seated against the sub frame as of before it was bolted to a 3/16" steel plate that was bolted to the sub frame. The only down side of this is if you were to scrape the truck over rocks going in reverse... It could potentially create a spot were the skidplate would snag or hang, but being it's only 1/4" thick, I doubt it could become a real issue. For the fabrication time and material saving, i know it is worth it.

 

Hope I answered everything you asked.

 

Cheers.

S.

Edited by fleurys
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And is that a new lift in your garage? :lmao:

yep.. All USA made Bendpak.. I just love it...

 

This garage is a life dream that I realized with a mezzanine and office, AC and heat, tv, overhead 1 ton crane that I designed, etc.... One day I should make a video of it...

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Do you have an est on cost. I like the weight savings of aluminum vs steel.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

not yet, but will have next week. I am waiting for the powdercoating costs. Also, I will probably do a pre-sale here on npora before making them available on my website. This will make sure that the npora community gets the first ones delivered to them in january 2017

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Any posibility for sets without powder coating?

 

I guess it's a possibility, but you need to know that raw aluminium sheets have regularly scratches on them when I receive them.... So this is why I decided to powdercoat them... If customers are aware and ok with this, then the cost could be lowered a bit.

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I guess it's a possibility, but you need to know that raw aluminium sheets have regularly scratches on them when I receive them.... So this is why I decided to powdercoat them... If customers are aware and ok with this, then the cost could be lowered a bit.

 

Like, surface scratches? I doubt they're all that bad if powercoating hides it...however I can understand your preference to hide them, as some customers may not be very understanding. As far as I'm concerned, it's a skidplate; scratches will happen anyway! If you could offer an option to have no powdercoating, I'd probably take that over powerdercoated. The only one that I would prefer powdercoated is the front, as it is fairly easily visible and black just looks better than silver.

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  • 2 weeks later...

your how to vid's are great for a screw driver mechanic like me they help a lot and I will be getting a set of those skid plates soon I wish I would have seen your lift kits before I bought mine the way you threaded the spacer is fantastic I had a heck of a time putting my pathy back together alone if I had your spacers it would have made it so much easyer cant wait to see what you make next

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your how to vid's are great for a screw driver mechanic like me they help a lot and I will be getting a set of those skid plates soon I wish I would have seen your lift kits before I bought mine the way you threaded the spacer is fantastic I had a heck of a time putting my pathy back together alone if I had your spacers it would have made it so much easyer cant wait to see what you make next

Thank you , that was the goal with the videos... I'm not very comfortable doing them yet, but i guess it will come with time. English is not my mother tongue and unfortunately it shows in the videos.

 

As for the spacers, threading them has been the best feature ( i think). Like you saw yourself, re-installing the strut without this feature implies alot more fiddling then necessary...

 

Stay tuned for more products for the R50!

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