Skidplate material?

[brendon]

I am trying to decide if I should make my new front end skid plate out of steel or aluminum.

I am thinking a full piece that goes from my new steel bumper and all the way back replacing the Mopar engine skid I am thinking 1/4" aluminum would be OK. Most rally cars are running aluminum skids. I know there is a weight difference between a rally car and the Commander, but the rally cars also hit them a lot harder, i.e. at full rally speed and coming down from air-born manuevers, and have no problems.

A friend of mine picked up a gas tank skid plate for his TJ made from aluminum as well. No problems yet!

So anyone have any thoughts either way?

[cico7]

My first thought, that would be nuts to use Aluminum...But I am anxious to see it now!

[LWM]

I think it would depend on the type of off-road use you plan. Aluminum would be fine for dirt roads or mud but not for rock crawling.

[07JeepXK]

I would go with steel.

[El Cid]

I can only tell you why 4xGuard does not use Aluminum. While it is lightweight and rusts transparently, it can't take full vehicle weight without undue thickness (costly, decreases clearance, adds the weight you're trying to save by using Al) and it is "sticky" -- by which I mean that if you hit a rock with it Aluminum will want to grab and hold the stone instead of sliding across it.

So I wouldn't recommend it personally.

[Doc in AZ]

cid makes a couple good points, but all that depends on the grade of the aluminum, just like there are different grades of steel A36 being the most common mild steel, and moving up to the iron that has high alloy content like armored plating. the more "pure" aluminums will have a lot of give to them, they flex & get hung up. as you start moving up the scale to the alloys they become much stronger, and much more expensive. steel is good and inexpensive.

this is the common grade aluminum that is just run of the mill, i use it for stuff that is not structural and certainly not for a skid plate, it will just get trashed.

5052 This is the highest strength alloy of the more common non heat-treatable grades. Fatigue strength is higher than most aluminum alloys.In addition this grade has particularly good resistance to marine atmosphere and salt water corrosion. It has excellent workability. It may be drawn or formed into intricate shapes and its slightly greater strength in the annealed condition minimizes tearing that occurs in 1100 and 3003. Applications: Used in a wide variety of applications from aircraft components to home appliances, marine and transportation industry parts, heavy duty cooking utensils and equipment for bulk processing of food.

T-6 is what i used when i was building baja racers.

6061 This is the least expensive and most versatile of the heat-treatable aluminum alloys. It has most of the good qualities of aluminum. It offers a range of good mechanical properties and good corrosion resistance. It can be fabricated by most of the commonly used techniques. In the annealed condition it has good workability. In the T4 condition fairly severe forming operations may be accomplished. The full T6 properties may be obtained by artificial aging. It is welded by all methods and can be furnace brazed. It is available in the clad form (“Alclad”) with a thin surface layer of high purity aluminum to improve both appearance and corrosion resistance. Applications: This grade is used for a wide variety of products and applications from truck bodies and frames to screw machine parts and structural components. 6061 is used where appearance and better corrosion resistance with good strength are required.

[07JeepXK]

English please

[Sal-XK]

English please

LMAO I felt the same way dude

[07JeepXK]

Im glad im not the only one. I felt stupid the entire time I was reading that.

[El Cid]

That's why I tried to keep it simple instead of copy-and-pasting a big old block of text from Aluminum sales sites on the Internet.

The gist of it is that there ARE Aluminum alloys that will work. But there's usually a drawback of one kind or another. Typically, the drawback comes back to cost (of material, manufacturing, or both). So we tend to use steel.

After all, if perfection were wanted and money was no object, we'd make parts out of a high-grade Titanium alloy. Would be most spectacular.