ROCK HARD 4X4 Front Control arm skids.

[swang]

I just bought a set of these LCA skid plates. Question... if the ears are bending in at 190 ft-lb, can I just add a washer to the provided spacer to fill the void, thus preventing the ears from bending?

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[Chocolate Thunder]

I just bought a set of these LCA skid plates. Question... if the ears are bending in at 190 ft-lb, can I just add a washer to the provided spacer to fill the void, thus preventing the ears from bending?

Yes. The spacer should have been a mm or two thicker.

 

[gato]

Quick update. These skids are good as far as protection. But they do interfere with the proper torqueing of the control arms. I have had clunks on my rear right and front right at different times and had to retorque them to fix. I still get an occasional clunk coming to a stop or pulling hard from a stop.

My recommendation is that if you get any noise, retorque. I think instead of the bolt yielding and getting to proper torque, it is the skids bending that give you the impression that they are torqued to spec. After you drive a while or off-road hard the they loosen up.

 

[swang]

I plan on installing my front and rear LCA skids soon. What’s the best way to keep the bolt holes aligned? I’ve read the following suggestions:

• Park on a flat surface
• Chock the wheels
• Use a punch to “plug” the bolt holes during (dis)assembly
• Use ratchet straps
• Rock the Jeep back and forth

 

[swang]

Also, I bought the MetalCloak UnderCloak skids. Does it matter which I install first, the LCA skids or MetalCloak?

 

[Jarg1]

I plan on installing my front and rear LCA skids soon. What’s the best way to keep the bolt holes aligned? I’ve read the following suggestions:

• Park on a flat surface
• Chock the wheels
• Use a punch to “plug” the bolt holes during (dis)assembly
• Use ratchet straps
• Rock the Jeep back and forth

I was able to do this by placing a jack behind the upper mount and lifting until the holes align. You can also put a chock in front of the tire and drive up against it with the same result.

 

[gato]

I plan on installing my front and rear LCA skids soon. What’s the best way to keep the bolt holes aligned? I’ve read the following suggestions:

• Park on a flat surface
• Chock the wheels
• Use a punch to “plug” the bolt holes during (dis)assembly
• Use ratchet straps
• Rock the Jeep back and forth

If you are adding skids to control arms that are already installed (vs putting new control arms at the same time you add the skids), there is no reason for your arms to move/misalign.

1 - Park on lever surface in 4HI. Hand brake on and in gear or park. Chock front wheels front and back.

2 - Do one side at a time. This is critical whenever doing control arms on the ground.

3 - You can can use a shortish punch (what I did) or even the the OEM bolts to help align things as you insert the longer Rock Hard bolts. But really nothing should move as you pull the bolt out.

4 - Note that (specially the front) skids are side specific. despite the installation instructions saying otherwise. The side tabs must engage the bend on the front LCA lip. I torqued mine to 190 ftlbs (front) and I think 85 ftlbs rear. and retorqued when they started making noise. Been quite after the third retorque.

P.S. Those bolts from Rockd Hard are all rusting like an SOB. They are the only rusted out bolts on my entire build. I'd spray some rust protectant on them if I was doing it all again.

 

[swang]

Thanks for the info Jarg1 and gato! Gotta love these forums.

Is the OEM torque spec for the rear only 85 ft lb?

Wonder if it’s worth sourcing my own bolts versus the ones provided…

 

[swang]

4 - Note that (specially the front) skids are side specific. despite the installation instructions saying otherwise. The side tabs must engage the bend on the front LCA lip. I torqued mine to 190 ftlbs (front) and I think 85 ftlbs rear. and retorqued when they started making noise. Been quite after the third retorque.

Is the OEM torque spec for the rear only 85 ft lb?

 

[gato]

Is the OEM torque spec for the rear only 85 ft lb?

The factory specs are 74 ftlbs + 50 to 80 degrees depending on the which bolt of the rear control arms. The ones where the skids go on LCA to axle are ~85-90 lbs.

I tend to use the Mopar lift kit torque specs....

 

[gato]

@ROCK HARD 4X4

A quick update. My RH rear lca arm skid started causing the rear right to clunk again.

In researching the torque values, it sounds like RH has had at least 3 versions of the installation instructions.

The three versions have the same torque values for the front and rear LCA skids.

It was 100 ftlbs.

Then changed to 130 ftlbs (same as the JK instructions)

Now (on the web site) it is saying 190 ftlbs front and rear.

So clearly, there has been reported problems with clunking, and they have been increasing torque specs. 190 ftlbs is very much at the limit of what an M14-2.0 class 10.9 bolt can take.

Also I have seen different pictures from posters with more recent rear skids that look different (forum member with 392) having a bracket that contours to axle.

I'll attempt one more time to increase the torque on my rear ones to see if the clunking stops. (I just spend 2 hours re-checking the torque on every bolt on the Jeep). Only now I realized they change the rear torque specs to 190 ftlbs as well (mine are at 130). Will go up tomorrow and see.

 

[gato]

Here is a picture from a member recent install:

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...our-jeep-jl-today.3033/page-2796#post-1747576

Here are the pictures of the original and the one I have - as you can see they do not index to the axle to prevent rotation.

 

[swang]

The rears I purchased several weeks ago DO index to the axle.

Do you think I should replace the Rockhard bolts with yellow zinc plated 10.9 bolts?

 

[swang]

P.S. Those bolts from Rockd Hard are all rusting like an SOB. They are the only rusted out bolts on my entire build. I'd spray some rust protectant on them if I was doing it all again.

I bought my own 10.9 yellow zinc hardware and I’m so glad I did! Looking at what comes supplied from Rock Hard there’s no wonder it rusts so quickly. Especially the homemade washers . I had Rock Hard oil pan and transmission skids on my 2016 JK and I don’t recall the same issue.

 

[gato]

I bought my own 10.9 yellow zinc hardware and I’m so glad I did! Looking at what comes supplied from Rock Hard there’s no wonder it rusts so quickly. Especially the homemade washers . I had Rock Hard oil pan and transmission skids on my 2016 JK and I don’t recall the same issue.

I wish I had looked closely at the HW, and like you used better grade stuff. I too had Rock Hard skids on my 2016 JKUR and had no issues.

P.S. Make sure you tighten front and rear skids to 190 ftlbs. Rock hard updated their instructions 3 times. always bumping the torque number. My control arms would start clunking after driving for a while. Had to tighten it a few times, until I finally did 190 ftlbs in the back and clunking stopped.

All good now, except for the rust.

If I had the courage to unbolt those 190ftlbs skids, I'd change my HW also. I assume Rock Hard must be having supply chain issues, so will not knock them. I generally like their products.

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