Beware!! - EVO Protek Skid Plates

JeepFan said:
Drove the JK today and noticed a rattle coming from under the Jeep on light acceleration. This is what I found...

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One of the tabs on the EVO oil pan skid sheared.

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The tab that's still attached has no visible cracks.

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I guess I'll be removing the oil pan skid at the next oil change...:rolleyes:
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That sucks. Looks like the same exact break that I had. Hopefully you get a warranty and it won’t take three months.
 
Maybe its a new thing. I've had my protek skids on for 8 years almost and no issues whatsover...and they've taken a beating.
 
After looking at the Pictures looks to me like the welding process got the tabs to hot and changed the material properties, when working with cold-rolled steel you’re dealing with work- or strain-hardened steel, these failures usually happen in the HAZ (heat-affected zone) right next to the weld joint, not directly in the joint. It gets worse if you splash water to cool it down too fast
This is especially true for rolled aluminum, rolled steel & wrought iron. When working with these materials, joint design is critical, and you must take into account the amount of stress the finished piece will experience in service. Post-weld heat treatment can correct this or just let it cool down slowly because this is just a Skid Plate
When you get the replacement Skid grab the tab with Vise Grips and see if it breaks this will be you NDT non destruct test.
 
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Kenney said:
After looking at the Pictures looks to me like the welding process got the tabs to hot and changed the material properties, when working with cold-rolled steel you’re dealing with work- or strain-hardened steel, these failures usually happen in the HAZ (heat-affected zone) right next to the weld joint, not directly in the joint. It gets worse if you splash water to cool it down too fast
This is especially true for rolled aluminum, rolled steel & wrought iron. When working with these materials, joint design is critical, and you must take into account the amount of stress the finished piece will experience in service. Post-weld heat treatment can correct this or just let it cool down slowly because this is just a Skid Plate
When you get the replacement Skid grab the tab with Vise Grips and see if it breaks this will be you NDT non destruct test.
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All true, but I doubt Evo is going out of their way to buy cold rolled for their 3/16 skid plates. Much more likely they would purchase good ol hot rolled A36. And they would never have any reason to quench it with water.

I’d say embrittlement is much less likely than the fact that they just got a couple crappy pieces of steel. I doubt they source mill run quantities or even require MTRs. It’s a freakin jeep skid plate.

Most likely though, I bet they just didn’t take cyclical loading into account when designing the joint. If the tab was 1/2” I bet you’d never see a break.



H8ROADS said:
Maybe its a new thing. I've had my protek skids on for 8 years almost and no issues whatsover...and they've taken a beating.
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Prolly just a couple bad ones out there, honestly.
 
Cousin Clyde said:
All true, but I doubt Evo is going out of their way to buy cold rolled for their 3/16 skid plates. Much more likely they would purchase good ol hot rolled A36. And they would never have any reason to quench it with water.

I’d say embrittlement is much less likely than the fact that they just got a couple crappy pieces of steel. I doubt they source mill run quantities or even require MTRs. It’s a freakin jeep skid plate.

Most likely though, I bet they just didn’t take cyclical loading into account when designing the joint. If the tab was 1/2” I bet you’d never see a break.





Prolly just a couple bad ones out there, honestly.
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Very possible that these tabs were out sourced and not A36 hot roll I had some tabs break after tig welding just like these that I got off Ebay. Now I only use tabs from reputable source ORW.
Pic are Baja design 40in light bar 3/16 tab
 

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Kenney said:
Very possible that these tabs were out sourced and not A36 hot roll I had some tabs break after tig welding just like these that I got off Ebay. Now I only use tabs from reputable source ORW.
Pic are Baja design 40in light bar 3/16 tab
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Yea we’re saying the same thing. Whether it’s HR A36 or not, shitty steel is shitty steel. EVO likely got a bunk batch. Someone further up the supply chain from them cut corners on production process and QC.

Nice looking buggy👍 Hope you were able to find a fix for the light bar.

EDIT: are the ones in the picture the new ones?
 
I do want to be clear, though, since there are a few different ideas floating around in this thread relating to the evo skid plate breaks.

1. The welds didn’t get good penetration: False. The plate literally sheared in both circumstances, with the little nub of plate being held to the other plate by the weld. Sign of great penetration.

2. The weld was too hot and made the plate brittle, so it snapped. False. Any farmer mig welding a piece of 3/16” plate with a 3/16” fillet can do it without heating the plate to the point of failure. You really have to be trying to mess that up. And EVO runs this size weld on this size plate constantly and makes arguably the best quality products.

3. The steel was shitty so it broke. Entirely possible.

4. The tab was designed a little long and thin and the vibration / force of the larger plate that was bolted to it, caused the tabs to snap. Entirely possible.
 
Cousin Clyde said:
Yea we’re saying the same thing. Whether it’s HR A36 or not, shitty steel is shitty steel. EVO likely got a bunk batch. Someone further up the supply chain from them cut corners on production process and QC.

Nice looking buggy👍 Hope you were able to find a fix for the light bar.

EDIT: are the ones in the picture the new ones?
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Maybe it wasn’t necessarily someone up the line that cut the corners. Just a thought.
 
During the covid freakout alot of manufacturers were forced to go with any metal they could get their hands on. The chromoly axle tubes on my rear Dynatrac 60 have some unsightly tooling marks in spirals around them, when I asked about them (when I picked them up) I was told, "that's all we can get our hands on right now, but they meet our specs for strength"...we shall see..
 
OverlanderJK said:
Maybe it wasn’t necessarily someone up the line that cut the corners. Just a thought.
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Maybe it was the installer? There's a difference between critiquing steel and quality control and bashing a vendor. Why don't you clearly articulate which one you're doing? Just a different thought.
 
H8ROADS said:
Maybe it was the installer? There's a difference between critiquing steel and quality control and bashing a vendor. Why don't you clearly articulate which one you're doing? Just a different thought.
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Why don’t you fuck off? And I didn’t even install it so nice try there.
 
H8ROADS said:
Maybe it was the installer? There's a difference between critiquing steel and quality control and bashing a vendor. Why don't you clearly articulate which one you're doing? Just a different thought.
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Wtf
There is zero difference if that’s the steel they CHOSE to use.
How about let’s point out it ALL sucks? Fucking non existent customer service, mounts breaking and worst of all.
Weirdo fan boys coming up with these random reasons for a company who has the ability to speak for themselves. Yet hasn’t.
 
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