FJ Cruisers of Northern California

Steel or Aluminum Skid plates?

Well gang what are your thoughts? Steel are powder coated, alum anodized... Bud Built or Ricochet?

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Permalink Reply by Sonof40 on February 13, 2013 at 8:05am

Totally depends on how you want to use your FJ.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Oliver on February 13, 2013 at 8:14am

I run Ricochet skids. Painted them myself with Rustoleum so I can make any touch ups cheap and easy.

I've used them for over a year on monthly outings and they have held up very well with minimal upkeep. I don't for see the need to move to full metal skids any time soon.

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Permalink Reply by Back in Black (FJ4 Tahoe) on February 13, 2013 at 12:04pm

I need custom skids for my rig..I have a ProComp 6" lift and none of the venders supply undercarriage skids for a Procomp lift...anyone out there willing to fab some skids for me? I would prefer aluminum, my FJ is too heavy

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hope on February 13, 2013 at 6:26pm

I am looking at Ricochet for several reasons; 1) lighter than steel; 2) 6061-T6 is hard enough for off-road; 3) with a nice epoxy primer and a cheap rattle-can top-coat, chip repair is easy, not so with anodizing, that is harder to match. 4) For me on the West Coast, Ricochet shipping aluminum from Utah is way cheaper than motor-freighting Bud from S.Carolina, but thats a last resort reason.

Steve Hope.

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Permalink Reply by GHOST on February 13, 2013 at 6:28pm

It really depends as others have noted, what you plan to use your rig for. If you don't plan to play in the rocks often, then aluminum will do just fine. But if you plan to play in the rocks steel will hold up better. I had steel plates and those bent but I played in the rocks alot. I could not imagine having aluminum skids while playing in the rocks.

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Permalink Reply by tsy87 on February 13, 2013 at 8:08pm

you should really look carefully at the weight difference between the aluminum vs steel skids. From what I have seen, its not a whole lot while the strength and durability differences is quite significant between the two. Another thing to note, depending on your model year, is that the standard ricochet skids simply go on top of the factor skids. The HD skids replace the factory skids but they do not have access panels for oil maintenance.

I ended up going for shrockworks skids. I haven't had a chance to install them yet but they seem very nice... they are fairly active on the blue room and they also sell a pretty sweet front bumper... I already have a metal tech thoughh :)

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Permalink Reply by Mike Oliver on February 14, 2013 at 7:27am

Not true, I have the ricochet HD skid and have oil access!

I'm also running an 08, so its on the older end of the fj's

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Permalink Reply by tsy87 on February 16, 2013 at 10:46am

for the 2010 and up FJ you have to drop the skid completely as there is no access.. sorry, I'm always thinking in terms of my model year when talking mods! haha

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Permalink Reply by Mike Oliver on February 16, 2013 at 12:33pm

Really? I had no idea. I figured the issue would be with older model fjs, not the new ones. You learn something new everyday!

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Permalink Reply by Scott Serl on February 14, 2013 at 1:55am

I had originally planned to put the Ricochet skids on my FJ, but changed my mind after seeing what happens to aluminum skids on our tough, rocky trails. If you do not plan to take tougher trails, then I think they would be ok. I think the ATRAC contributes to skid abuse as we have to give so much throttle to get over an obstacle that we can end up slamming down hard on the rocks.