Best skids / armor?

Captain Overkill

Captain Overkill

New member
Hi all. First post here. We are on a couple other forums, but recently heard of this one. Been watching Eddie's great informative "how to" / instructional videos for a bit now, and they are the best teaching tools we have found out there regarding anything mechanical. More recently, we found out about this forum, so we signed up. I used to "off-road" with my '89 Bronco, as my former job as a Geologist in the field often called for it. Now, we'd like to off-road for fun, and recently got our first Jeep. Being almost 59 and 60 years old, and as ones who typically follow the buy once / cry once philosophy (but not always), we bought a 392.
..... So, we are currently doing some additions, etc., and we have a question about skids / armor. We noticed that the Artek skids are currently 20% off. Any opinions on these, ... or others? Also, we saw that Next Venture now uses the stronger 7075 aluminum with UHMW coating on their 7000 series skids. A bit pricey, bit seem to be bulletproof from tests. Anyone have any real world experience with the Artek or the the Next Ventures 7000 series, ... or any others that you love or wish you had saved your money? Looking to get full belly pans, plus likely LCA skids and maybe diff skids. Probably also a protector skid / box for the muffler that hangs way out there on the back of the 392 just looking to be crunched. Much thanks!
 
Captain Overkill said:
Hi all. First post here. We are on a couple other forums, but recently heard of this one. Been watching Eddie's great informative "how to" / instructional videos for a bit now, and they are the best teaching tools we have found out there regarding anything mechanical. More recently, we found out about this forum, so we signed up. I used to "off-road" with my '89 Bronco, as my former job as a Geologist in the field often called for it. Now, we'd like to off-road for fun, and recently got our first Jeep. Being almost 59 and 60 years old, and as ones who typically follow the buy once / cry once philosophy (but not always), we bought a 392.
..... So, we are currently doing some additions, etc., and we have a question about skids / armor. We noticed that the Artek skids are currently 20% off. Any opinions on these, ... or others? Also, we saw that Next Venture now uses the stronger 7075 aluminum with UHMW coating on their 7000 series skids. A bit pricey, bit seem to be bulletproof from tests. Anyone have any real world experience with the Artek or the the Next Ventures 7000 series, ... or any others that you love or wish you had saved your money? Looking to get full belly pans, plus likely LCA skids and maybe diff skids. Probably also a protector skid / box for the muffler that hangs way out there on the back of the 392 just looking to be crunched. Much thanks!
Click to expand...
Happy to hear you enjoy our videos and if you really find the information I have to share as being informative teaching tools, allow me to say that aftermarket skid plates are a complete waste of money. I literally have ZERO aftermarket skid plates on any of the Jeeps I own and use for hard trail use. They trap heat, make it difficult to maintain your Jeep, are near impossible to remove on the trail and even the aluminum ones add a lot of unnecessary sprung weight. Yes, the factory skids can and or will get beat up depending on how hard you actually play but that doesn't mean they're bad or that they've failed in what they are supposed to do - protect what needs to be protected.

Of course, I would never pretend to know more than what you can read on other forums and really, I'm just a mall crawler.
 
The skids might be used as a reasonable argument to deny factory warranty service (e.g. due to heat buildup). Even if it is not denied, it would be problematic for a dealership to remove and replace this stuff in order to provide factory warranty service and they should charge you for it, if they are willing to do it at all. If the skids have seen impact it might be difficult to take them off, and the holes may not line up properly to put them back on.
 
Captain Overkill said:
Hi all. First post here. We are on a couple other forums, but recently heard of this one. Been watching Eddie's great informative "how to" / instructional videos for a bit now, and they are the best teaching tools we have found out there regarding anything mechanical. More recently, we found out about this forum, so we signed up. I used to "off-road" with my '89 Bronco, as my former job as a Geologist in the field often called for it. Now, we'd like to off-road for fun, and recently got our first Jeep. Being almost 59 and 60 years old, and as ones who typically follow the buy once / cry once philosophy (but not always), we bought a 392.
..... So, we are currently doing some additions, etc., and we have a question about skids / armor. We noticed that the Artek skids are currently 20% off. Any opinions on these, ... or others? Also, we saw that Next Venture now uses the stronger 7075 aluminum with UHMW coating on their 7000 series skids. A bit pricey, bit seem to be bulletproof from tests. Anyone have any real world experience with the Artek or the the Next Ventures 7000 series, ... or any others that you love or wish you had saved your money? Looking to get full belly pans, plus likely LCA skids and maybe diff skids. Probably also a protector skid / box for the muffler that hangs way out there on the back of the 392 just looking to be crunched. Much thanks!
Click to expand...
Just go drive the Jeep. Chances are, you don't need skid plates and the only way to find out is to take your Jeep off-road. If you start to consistently scrape something, you should have enough experience under your belt to know if skid plates are wanted.

Personally, I think you should be looking at rock rails to protect the rocker panels.
 
I've run skids and PIA to deal with when doing maintenance; always had to remove them if I had to take it to the dealership for recalls or any dealer work as well as any mechanic shop.

In the time I had the skids installed, I never saw any marks that wouldn't have been protected from the factory skids.

Last time I took the aftermarket skids off, I left them off.

With a 392, just go faster and fly over the obstacles 🤪
 
This thread just reminded me to put my factory transfer case skid back on haha

As others have stated, factory skid plates do their job well. I can tell you having to work on jeeps with full belly pan skids is a complete pain in the butt, even on a vehicle lift. So I can only imagine having to deal with them while trying to do a trail repair. Stick with factory and spend that money somewhere more worthwhile.
 
OverlanderJK said:
You’ve never taken your Jeep offroad have you? Fully belly skids are a complete waste of money and not necessary. You’re in Florida, so I would get no skids and save your money.
Click to expand...

Thank you, as mentioned the Jeep was a recent purchase, but I have taken the Bronco off-road many times, as it was part of my job. I went where no Jeeps (or any other vehicle) had ever been, often needing to chainsaw down some trees in front of me. (Tree huggers - Don't freak out. It was part of the job on land that was going to be cleared shortly after that. We cleared trails to get the drill rigs in to do the geological engineering test bores.). .... Off-road for me was not a "rough trail". It was no trail. I literally made my own trail several times. Most of that was in Virginia. I caught few stumps that I had wished I had cut shorter, but never punctured anything. So, maybe skids are not needed. As far as being in FL now, we travel frequently, and most of our travel involves long road trips. ... some 3 to 4 weeks long. So, we get out of FL a lot, and will be taking the Jeep out of FL ... hopefully on a lot of great trips.
Much thanks for the input.
 
Last edited:
wayoflife said:
Happy to hear you enjoy our videos and if you really find the information I have to share as being informative teaching tools, allow me to say that aftermarket skid plates are a complete waste of money. I literally have ZERO aftermarket skid plates on any of the Jeeps I own and use for hard trail use. They trap heat, make it difficult to maintain your Jeep, are near impossible to remove on the trail and even the aluminum ones add a lot of unnecessary sprung weight. Yes, the factory skids can and or will get beat up depending on how hard you actually play but that doesn't mean they're bad or that they've failed in what they are supposed to do - protect what needs to be protected.

Of course, I would never pretend to know more than what you can read on other forums and really, I'm just a mall crawler.
Click to expand...

Much thanks for the reply. A good buddy who frequently wheels very hard swears by skids, but it is great to have more input. Much appreciated!
 
bobfriesenhahn said:
The skids might be used as a reasonable argument to deny factory warranty service (e.g. due to heat buildup). Even if it is not denied, it would be problematic for a dealership to remove and replace this stuff in order to provide factory warranty service and they should charge you for it, if they are willing to do it at all. If the skids have seen impact it might be difficult to take them off, and the holes may not line up properly to put them back on.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I have heard that they can be difficult to remove and even more difficult to put back on after they get bent up. Much thanks for the input!
 
Mike Pierson said:
I wheel a lot, and I’ve run some difficult trails, Fordyce being the most difficult and I have done it a few times. My factory skids did their job and are still working great. They definitely have taken a serious beating. If you feel the need to cover every element under your Jeep with “protection” then I’d suggest maybe not go wheeling at all. 🤷🏼‍♂️
Click to expand...

Much thanks for the input.
 
Disciple Off Road said:
This thread just reminded me to put my factory transfer case skid back on haha

As others have stated, factory skid plates do their job well. I can tell you having to work on jeeps with full belly pan skids is a complete pain in the butt, even on a vehicle lift. So I can only imagine having to deal with them while trying to do a trail repair. Stick with factory and spend that money somewhere more worthwhile.
Click to expand...

Much thanks for the input.
 
Captain Overkill said:
Thank you, as mentioned the Jeep was a recent purchase, but I have taken the Bronco off-road many times, as it was part of my job. I went where no Jeeps (or any other vehicle) had never been, often needing to chainsaw down some trees in front of me. (Tree huggers - Don't freak out. It was part of the job on land that was going to be cleared shortly after that). So, off-road for me was not a "rough trail". It was no trail. I literally made my own road several times. Most of that was in Virginia. As far as being in FL now, great news ... the state recently took down the wall at the northern border that locked us all in, so we are free to travel outside of FL now. ;) We travel frequently, and most of our travel involves long road trips. ... some 3 to 4 weeks long. So, we get out of FL a lot, and will be taking the Jeep out of FL a lot.
Much thanks for the input.
Click to expand...
if you travel frequently, more reason for no belly skid plate
 
Disciple Off Road said:
This thread just reminded me to put my factory transfer case skid back on haha

As others have stated, factory skid plates do their job well. I can tell you having to work on jeeps with full belly pan skids is a complete pain in the butt, even on a vehicle lift. So I can only imagine having to deal with them while trying to do a trail repair. Stick with factory and spend that money somewhere more worthwhile.
Click to expand...
Always reminds me of JKX 2013 and when one of the rigs broke the transfer case shifter linkage bushing after a day playing in Sand Hollow. Of course, the stupid skid plates made it impossible to reach the linkage and or work on anything being that they were screaming hot even 2 hours after we got off the trail. Of course, all the allen head bolts had been mashed in and so we couldn't even get them off. Long story short, we worked until 2 am trying to remove what bolts we could, bending down what skids we could just to fix a $2 part. The whole thing was just stupid.
 
wayoflife said:
Well, we all have our own ideas of what "frequently" and "very hard" is. And again, anyone who knows me knows that I'm just a mall crawler and so there's that.
Click to expand...

I don't know the accuracy of the difficulty ratings for the Badge of Honor trails, but I know he does some 9's (out of 10). He says he wears a multi-point harness for some tougher ones, as well. He probably drives _over_ the other vehicles at the mall for his mall crawling during Christmas shopping season. ;)
 
Captain Overkill said:
I don't know the accuracy of the difficulty ratings for the Badge of Honor trails, but I know he does some 9's (out of 10). He says he wears a multi-point harness for some tougher ones, as well. He probably drives _over_ the other vehicles at the mall for his mall crawling during Christmas shopping season. ;)
Click to expand...
LOL - he says he wears a multi-point harness for some of the tougher ones? Cool.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom