Skid plates: MetalCloak Steel vs. Quadratec Aluminum

[spurly]

Hey there!


Both are very well made skid plate kits! We do offer a discount to forum members on most of the parts that we sell! If you find a skid plate kit on our website that you would like to get pricing on, just send us a PM and we will get a quote together for you ASAP! Thanks and have a great day!

-Justin

Any chance that you'll offer your modular skids in a steel version?

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[ChattVol]

I have these, and so did one of the other guys this weekend. I ended up sliding off a rock and smacking the front plate pretty hard. It is now deformed, but it held up. The other guy was NOT happy about his at all. He hit the support bar and ended up tearing away part of the vertical stabilization right near the frame bolt. He was going to send the pic to Quadratec to see if they'd stand behind their product. So my personal verdict based upon my and his experience is that its probably fine if most of your offroading is NOT rocks, but if you are a fan of the rock garden, these may be a bit too tender. I'm keeping these for now, but expect that I'll likely have to replace them, and then I'll go with metalcloak or Artec?.

I was considering the Quadratec skids, but dont like how they lower your ground clearance and have a ridge between the exhaust and tranny skids. In contrast, the Artec, Rockhard, Metacloak and Motobilt all have smooth profiles for sliding.

 

[RubiSc0tt]

Thanks for the report @Dogboyslim. I do love rocks, Just haven't had time to get my Rubi out on them yet. I imagine with the change in my driving style and purpose of this Jeep, the skids will do fine until some years down the road. If they end up getting too damaged, I will probably go Motobilt as well, based on my experiences with them and their products so far. The design of that system is pretty impressive in my opinion. I'd be interest to hear your thoughts once you get them installed and get some trail time with them @rustyshakelford- definitely post some pictures if you get a chance.

EDIT: Also: shameless self promotion: If you're looking for pics and notes on the install of the Quadratec Aluminum skids, I have them in my build thread, which is linked in my signature

 

[rkv34]

Hey...looking at buying just the engine/transmission skid as well. Will you post pics? How did you integrate it with the stock transfer case skid? Did the quadratec skids mount over or under the stock t case skid? Thanks

Just installed the engine/oil pan skid without removing the stock transfer case skid. Install went smoothly, placed the engine skid under the transfer case skid. Not really worried about it getting hung up on anything and didn't want to spend another $200 to replace a skid plate that comes installed from the factory. Also had a plenty of clearance for the fumoto valve.

 

[RubiSc0tt]

Looks good. I'm actually impressed at how well those fit together. When I was putting them together I was thinking about how it's kind of a bummer that you had to order both of them. Still, I know for my own use case, I'll benefit from full coverage and reinforced cross members.

 

[Levin_tom]

Have any of you experienced a knocking sound when accelerating/braking with the Quadratec engine skid plate? I installed them on mine and sometimes hear a knocking noise but not sure if it was there before or not.

 

[RubiSc0tt]

it's been 2 years and roughly 10k mi. No knocking on braking acceleration. I have noticed occasionally that I hear a clunk that seems to be tied to body roll, but this didn't pop up until I installed the JCR sliders on my Jeep. I'm guessing it's a body bolt or something but it's been too cold to examine. The only other noise is the U Bolt from my front diff skid against the front driveshaft.

As soon as it gets warmer both issues will be investigated and corrective actions taken. I will keep you all posted.

 

[Friday2322]

Have any of you experienced a knocking sound when accelerating/braking with the Quadratec engine skid plate? I installed them on mine and sometimes hear a knocking noise but not sure if it was there before or not.

I thought it was my new lift that started making a popping sound and it turned out to be the Quadratec skid plate. A local shop finally narrowed it down and it was quiet until I took it off road and then the popping slowly came back. I torqued everything today again and noticed the washers in the last full row before you get to the back had been tightened down so much they were warped. I flipped them over before retorquing and after about 1-2 hours the popping is back. I'm going to look at again later and see if I can find a solution. On a side note, I beat on it a little bit rock crawling and put a slight bow in the center of the skid but it held up really well.

Update... After looking at the pics above I realized the stock skid bracket was below the Quadratec skid creating a gap. I moved the bracket for the stock skid to the outside of the Quadratec eliminating a small gap which is why the washers got warped torquing them. Now it's quiet as designed. Chalk that one up to installation error.

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