In my opinion, the Mopar plates absolutely suck. '99 and previous were all
metal, and not too bad, even though i thought they were pretty thin.
My Dak is a '00 so came with 2 plastic ones, and the metal one over the
tank.
Just to make a comment on Scott's remark saying that the metal one was
flimsy: The reason that there's a metal one on the gas tank is to prevent
punctures, obviously a puncture would be very dangerous in the tank. That's
why they put the stronger metal plate there.
Anyone that was at the '00 trail ride at Jon's will remember my plastic
piedes of crap hanging down from my truck. I snapped those things pretty
quick. They look sturdy to the eye, and feel the same to our hand, but they
have very little flex, and are brittle. Both of my plastic plates snapped
in a couple different spots. Metal will bend into a different shape under
the 5000lb truck, the plastic obviously didn't.
What i did was get a 7' piece of 1/4" steel plate, and 2 feet wide, had the
guys at the shop put a couple bends in it, and i used the existing holes in
the frame to bolt her up.
Now, this plate i have now can easily support the full weight of the truck,
and it barely even scratched.
Downside is that it's very heavy, probably approaching 200 lbs.
We used a little forklift to hold it in place the first time. :)
I wheel a little harder than most people, and that's why i did my full steel
plate. But if you're just going to hit the occassional mud hole, or light
trail, then those plastic jobbers might be ok. Just remember not to put all
your confidence in them, they will fail under more "XTREME" loads. hehehe
Mr. Plow
>
>I put the MOPAR skidplates on myself after I bought my '01 CC. There are
>three skidplates, engine, transmission/transfer case, and fuel tank. The
>installation is pretty straightforward on all three, the fuel tank being
>the
>most difficult due to tight quarters on some of the bolts. The engine and
>transmission/transfer case plates are very easy to install, they supply the
>bolts that go into nuts in the frame.
>
>The engine and transmission/transfer case are some sort of composite
>(plastic). They seem very robust, with molded gussets and support ridges.
>The fuel tank skid plate is metal (as I remember) and seems the flimsiest
>of
>the three.
>
>I would recommend enlarging the oil drain hole in the engine skid plate
>before you install it. It's located too far toward the front of the truck,
>and the oil stream coming out of the pan runs onto the skid plate instead
>of
>through the hole. Mopar has drain holes molded in the plate, so the oil is
>dispersed across your garage floor over a 2'X3' area. My wife was
>impressed, she never saw me move so fast to grab a bunch of rags.
>
>Scott
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