Gas tank skid plate replacement

Daveeli

Daveeli

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Joined
Oct 9, 2020
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33
Location
Virginia Beach, Va.
Has anyone out there replaced their gas tank skid plate? Mine has rusted through. I don’t want to cover it up. I have a Rough County skid ready to install but can’t find much info on the install. Main concern is what holds the tank up. Don’t want it to drop when I remove the old skid plate.
 
Thanks guys. That helps.
Hope to get in contact with someone on here who has actually dropped the skid. I am going to run as much gas out of the tank as possible before I do the install. Just looking for confirmation about whether the skid bolts also hold the gas tank in place or not.
 
Did you loose your plate because of the Atlantic (salt air)? Saw a Y tube of a 2009, they peeled the skid plate off like burnt cheese on a New York Za. Up here, we are only hammered during the winter months with salt. All Good.
 
Daveeli said:
Thanks guys. That helps.
Hope to get in contact with someone on here who has actually dropped the skid. I am going to run as much gas out of the tank as possible before I do the install. Just looking for confirmation about whether the skid bolts also hold the gas tank in place or not.
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I used a ratchet strap to hold the tank while replacing the skid plate
 
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This is interesting that the tank is held up by the skid plate. I wanted to take my skid plate off and re-finish it as there is surface rust on it. But now it seems this is not that easy
 
This vid shows how this guy used a couple straps to hold the tank while removing the old skid.


Rock Hard 4X4 Fuel Tank Skid Installation - RH4X4 -RH-6001 - 2015 Jeep Wrangler JK Unlimited JKU​

 
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Resurrecting this because my factory fuel tank holder is on it's last leg. I suppose there is a chance that I can put one of these over it, but it is so rusted out that probably all it would be doing is keeping the tank from moving around. It's -5 out today so I'm not going to crawl around and take pictures right now, but it's pretty bad.

So I need to get this fixed, but I also can't spend a ton of money on it right now. One of the $180 would be doable price wise, but trying to figure out what to get has me stumped. A $500+ replacement is completely out.

So I'm curious what you all think. I realize getting a better idea of how bad the current one is going to be important, and I may need to drop it anyway just do what I can to repair it as much as possible. Has anyone here installed one of these over a rusted out OEM just to reinforce things?
 
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MacGuyver said:
Resurrecting this because my factory fuel tank holder is on it's last leg. I suppose there is a chance that I can put one of these over it, but it is so rusted out that probably all it would be doing is keeping the tank from moving around. It's -5 out today so I'm not going to crawl around and take pictures right now, but it's pretty bad.

So I need to get this fixed, but I also can't spend a ton of money on it right now. One of the $180 would be doable price wise, but trying to figure out what to get has me stumped. A $500+ replacement is completely out.

So I'm curious what you all think. I realize getting a better idea of how bad the current one is going to be important, and I may need to drop it anyway just do what I can to repair it as much as possible. Has anyone here installed one of these over a rusted out OEM just to reinforce things?
Click to expand...
Rust is like a cancer. Once you slap another piece of steel over a rusted piece of steel, it's going to migrate.
Unfortunately, most fuel tank skids are in the $500 range, if not more. But, there is the Rubicon Express sold by Quadratec for about $175.00. It's 3/16" like about all of them, so I'm not sure what the diff is?
 
Anybodyhome said:
Rust is like a cancer. Once you slap another piece of steel over a rusted piece of steel, it's going to migrate.
Unfortunately, most fuel tank skids are in the $500 range, if not more. But, there is the Rubicon Express sold by Quadratec for about $175.00. It's 3/16" like about all of them, so I'm not sure what the diff is?
Click to expand...

Slave labor in China, mostly.
 
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The problem i seem to be running into, which is not spelled out very well by the products, is apparently most of these are designed to be in addition to the factory one. I guess they allow the tank to move too much or something. Like I said, not spelled out very well. "skid plate" is used for everything in this category, as the OEM one holds the tank up, but not all of them do.. or something...annoyed.

So what I'm looking for is somebody that has done what the OP @Daveeli was looking to do. I would have liked to order something today, but until I get the full picture I can't.
 
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MacGuyver said:
The problem i seem to be running into, which is not spelled out very well by the products, is apparently most of these are designed to be in addition to the factory one. I guess they allow the tank to move too much or something. Like I said, not spelled out very well. "skid plate" is used for everything in this category, as the OEM one holds the tank up, but not all of them do.. or something...annoyed.

So what I'm looking for is somebody that has done what the OP @Daveeli was looking to do. I would have liked to order something today, but until I get the full picture.
Click to expand...

Maybe you could get someone local to fab you up some gas tank straps/bands as a temporary solution.

Lot of cars just have bands holding in a plastic gas tank so shouldn't be illegal or anything.
 
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So, doing some reading. This is the OEM gas tank retainer/skid plate (it acts as both):
1643923649465.png


The video shows the guy removing this part, cleaning it up and reinstalling with an aftermarket skid plate bolted on top of it. This OEM part alone is over $500. I would be concerned that putting a skid plate on top of your gas tank retainer/skid plate in the condition it's in will only lead to rusting out a perfectly good skid plate in no time.

I concur with the Vman and would also suggest as a temporary fix is some steel or aluminum straps that you can bolt into the same locations as the OEM bracket/skid.
 
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Did mine. Had a couple of small rust holes in it and had completely rusted the outside bracket completely into. I cleaned it up best I could with a wire brush first. Prep is everything. Then put some fiberglass patches over the holes. After that I coated that mother from front to back with a product called rust doctor. It held the fiberglass in place no problem. That stuff is amazing. It turns blue in a matter of minutes. After that it turns black and sets up so hard a cat couldn’t scratch it. Covered it up with the Rubicon Express skid plate. Only had to pull 4 bolts to install it and drll 2 holes. Had a buddy that works for beer so made it a lot easier. The new plate replaced the bracket that had rusted off. Cost me case of beer but is all good now. Take your time with it. Not bad at all. Let us know how it goes. Keep jeepin.
 
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MacGuyver said:
The problem i seem to be running into, which is not spelled out very well by the products, is apparently most of these are designed to be in addition to the factory one. I guess they allow the tank to move too much or something. Like I said, not spelled out very well. "skid plate" is used for everything in this category, as the OEM one holds the tank up, but not all of them do.. or something...annoyed.

So what I'm looking for is somebody that has done what the OP @Daveeli was looking to do. I would have liked to order something today, but until I get the full picture I can't.
Click to expand...
I'm in the same boat; my factory plate is rusted in half; noted that most aftermarket are to be installed over the factory - even ROCK HARD. Are there any aftermarket fuel tank plates that can be installed alone?
 
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I ended up tracking down a new tank plate for around $300.. I think... and putting that one, and the aftermarket skid plate that I originally bought. I can lift the jeep up by the gas tank now, but I wasn't what I was going for.

I don't think there are any aftermarket skid plates that work. You don't need to get OEM but you do need to get one that looks like it. I got mine from JEGS High Performance, and it went up over $100 not long after I got mine. Quality is great.

In looking around for a few mins, it looks like it may still be the cheapest out there, not by much anymore, but still cheaper.

I can tell you after doing this last year, you just need to the one that is like the OEM and hope all your bolts come out. The aftermarket plates are to protect the tank, the OEM one holds it where it is supposed to be. It's an expensive pill to swallow, but you have to swallow it. JEGS was $413 when I looked. They took quite awhile for me, but I think that was related to the price I payed. I think it was listed wrong on the website but they honored it and changed the price as they shipped it to me.

The whole operation was a pain in the butt, but I'm happy not fearing my tank is going to fall off every time I hit a bump.
 
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