Chassis Skid

[Stickman400]

I have a Pro Armor chassis skid that bolts up using half-clamps that hold it to the frame. But it doesn't work too well for my riding style because I've snapped the heads off the bolts and it rattles to hell even with rubber strips in between the frame and it. It also scratched the powder coating off my frame because of the way it mounts. Does anyone know of a chassis skid that wraps around the front frame rail and uses the factory bolt locations to attach it? Like a 450R skid?

[buck440]

any mettalic skid plate will rattle like a mofo and will remove some powder coat unless you use a plastic skid plate like maier. if i had a chance to do it again i would use a light plastic one.

[Stickman400]

Well the reason I asked is because my friend has a Blingstar chassis skid on his '05 450R, it wraps around the front lower frame tube and then uses the stock bolts locations and doesn't rattle. Its the best way to mount a chassis skid that I've ever seen, but they don't have them for a 400. I'll look into a plastic one I guess. I'm running nothing now. I don't bash over rocks, but it's always nice to have something there.

[7.5L_STX]

i have the same skidplate and when i got my frame powdercoated i didnt want to ***k it up so i took some foam tape and put it on the skid everywhere it would touch the frame and i even put it under the stupid half clamps that hold it on to the frame. i havent had any ride time yet as im waiting on finishing my suspension to be finished so i cant tell you how it holds up. seems like it should work good though.

[250x_kyle]

i feel as if you going to have issues with powder rubbing off no matter what you have. dirt and vibration is like taking a real low grit vibrating sander to your powder. i used small peices of radiator hose where it rubbed the most and it took a lot of the rattle away.

[Stickman400]

Well I think I'm gunna get a Maier skid. They look really good and have clamps that are coated in rubber to attach it to the frame. There's also a review on this site that says they are well worth the money. But I can't seem to find one in black. All I can find is red and yellow. I think they are discontinuing them. Anybody wanna help me look for one? I might call Maier and see whats up. If anything I'll get a red one since I'm doing a red/black theme.

[05DodgeDakota]

man they are on closeout for only $30, but it says it won't fit a 2008+. I wonder why not, other wise I'd pick one up

[CJM]

I looked at it for the heck of it, shame they only have yellow left.

Anyways the trick to making sure you dont scratch your frame is to put foam tape near or on any part that is gonna contact the frame. Then to make sure it doesnt come loose you use blue loctite. My swinger skid is on there very good once I realized I needed loctite to resist the vibration so the bolts dont come loose.

[7.5L_STX]

damn, i forgot the locktight lol.

[duneslider]

Where are you finding it for $30?

[05DodgeDakota]

on the maier website

[Stickman400]

Well I got my Maier skid today. It looks pretty solid, instructions look straight forward (and a bit old) and the mounting brackets (which are coated in tough epoxy) look leaps and bounds better than those crappy aluminum half-clamps that Pro-Armor has. It also has 2 drain holes for the oil tank AND crankcase, unlike my Pro-Armor that only had 1 for the oil tank, and it wasn't even in the right place. Anyway here is some pics, I'll review this when I finally get my wheeler back together and running (which is going to be awhile). But if you think you may want one you better get it NOW because they are discontinuing them. And you can ONLY get yellow, I'm gunna paint mine and see how well that holds up.

http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv192/Stickman400/Quad%20Pics/IMAG0398.jpg
http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv192/Stickman400/Quad%20Pics/IMAG0399.jpg
http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv192/Stickman400/Quad%20Pics/IMAG0400.jpg

[CJM]

Looks ok, the clamps dont look all that great tho. nothing more than some bent sheetmetal I coulda fabbed out of stuff form home depot. Guess your gonna find out how they hold up.

As for paint it with will come off no matter what since its plastic and will flex and be scratched up

[Stickman400]

Well I'd rather have all black and a little yellow showing through than all yellow. Especially since the rest of my 400 is a Red/Black color combo. I don't go scrapping over rocks and drag my frame on very many things anyway, so it should last a good while.

[buck440]

looks like someone drew the instructions :)

[Honda4life05]

The clamps used there are some of the best out there in my opinion, their simple. All of the others you have to worry about stripping them out. I have the motoxperts poly skid and the clamps are the same, never had a problem. I'm afraid your going to be stuck with yellow, ANY paint no matter how good it is will come off on the bottom, It's a skid plate.

[duneslider]

What about dying the skid black? You can use Rit dye and get pretty good results. There is a good write up on doing it with gas tanks on thumpertalk. The tough part would be finding a container large enough to fit the skid. It is a process but when done the color goes fairly deep and will hold up to scratches too.

Just something else to think about.

Krylon fusion would work okay too, you can just touch it up when it scratches.

[buck440]

bedliner maby. scuff it up and paint a thick coat on it. as we all know it's tough stuff and they have many colors.

maby ever that plastic dip stuff that comes on tool handles, cover it in that.

[Stickman400]

We're gunna scuff it up really good then put self etching primer or adhesion promoter on it. If that don't work I'll probably try bed liner.

[buck440]

a little off topic but i was thinking when i fliped my quad i seen that the previous owned made the skid plate out of a "welcome to illinois" sign lol. it fit perfectly too.

[CJM]

Originally posted by buck440
a little off topic but i was thinking when i fliped my quad i seen that the previous owned made the skid plate out of a "welcome to illinois" sign lol. it fit perfectly too.

Thats awesome....

As for painting it like that-trust me it wont hold up. Ive painted tons and tons of plastic things, soon as it gets scratched or comes in contact with chemicals that eat plastic its done.

RIT dye would be the best or Ive had decent success with rustoleum plastic paint. Krylon fusions ok, but it scratches very easy and is NOT chemical resistant at all (1 drop of gas in my case on my side panel plastics its done for!)