Dammit!!! I was hoping I was first!!! Mine's here too!!!
ASFIR Skid plates and front bumper
- Thread starter viducce
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
I installed the front before I even had the ARB and all I had to do was to elongate the front and rear holes slightly to make it easier to install. Also, I remember having to buy a little longer bolt for the center mount. But since then I have installed a TT diff drop and have decided not to bother running the center mount bolt at all
Safe to assume the gear skid crossbar. Is steel? If so, guess it needs some paint. Guess install willl have to wait till I get it painted.
I just knew they'd show up!
Have you chased the mounting holes with a tap? That eliminated a lot of likely frustration for me.
If you wonder about having the time to mount them before your trip I would suggest starting with the bracket for the transmission plate - if that goes on easily you should have smooth sailing.
The front plate should be effortless.
If you have a longer middle bolt for the front plate leave it loose to allow the rear edge to droop for supporting the front of the transmission plate while you attach it to its bracket.
Have you chased the mounting holes with a tap? That eliminated a lot of likely frustration for me.
If you wonder about having the time to mount them before your trip I would suggest starting with the bracket for the transmission plate - if that goes on easily you should have smooth sailing.
The front plate should be effortless.
If you have a longer middle bolt for the front plate leave it loose to allow the rear edge to droop for supporting the front of the transmission plate while you attach it to its bracket.
Last edited:
Take a close look at it ~I'd expect it to be galvanized.
I didn't need longer center bolt initially but it was tight. Is this going to make me need a longer bolt with the mid skid?
Definitely ~well, definitely save you aggravation.
Been out doing work stuff for a few hours so now I can finally start on these.
There is a long bolt included for the front skid I think.
There is a long bolt included for the front skid I think.
Well, I'm a grade A dumbass. I didn't buy the gear and transfer skid this time to avoid the wife from getting wise, so I figured I'd be slick and buy just the gear skid. Well, in my rush and excitement, I ordered the gear. So, I'm good in front and good on the transfer case, but the gear area will be unprotected for now.
I trimmed my stock middle splash guard to use it with the ASFIR front skidplate for a while.
What was your trick for getting the cross-bar fitted under the U-bolt for the sliders? I'm trying it right now, and there's no way I can see the U-bolt wrapping around the arm. I took the U-bolt to the bench grinder to grind it a little thinner on the bottom side, no dice.
I'll be dead in my tracks today if this one thing can't go on. I've been messing with it for an hour now. Loosened up all of the other U-bolts so the slider just hangs loose.
FWIW, I have WK sliders.
I have OPOR sliders and the U-bolt just made it over the base of the bracket for me.
Did use a jack to hold the bracket tight against the frame during installation (of the bracket)
You might want to simply measure the clearance inside your U-bolt. IIRC the ones from Metaltech that came with my sliders were 7" inside. If you don't have that I'd say it won't go.
Did use a jack to hold the bracket tight against the frame during installation (of the bracket)
You might want to simply measure the clearance inside your U-bolt. IIRC the ones from Metaltech that came with my sliders were 7" inside. If you don't have that I'd say it won't go.
Last edited:
The post above answers this perfectly. I just had to loosen them up and then used a hammer to tap each side into place.
I have a 2006 LC with AHC and Slee Sliders. I ordered the ASFIR front skid and installed Several months ago. with no mods to the skid, but I did have to buy a longer center bolt. The one they supplied was too short to get started with the washers. Great product and great company! Leonard was very responsive and the shipping from Israel is fast.
I decided to order the middle gear skid and it arrived today...again very fast. Crawled under my truck to install expecting an easy install like the front. Not this time. There are two issues:
1) The Slee Slider u-bolts are right on top of the frame holes where the bracket goes. Maybe I can move the sliders a bit but doubt that much to allow full insert of the screw.
2) I see on this thread that bolt on sliders with a wider 7” u-bolt might allow the bracket to fit underneath but I would need to get two new u-bolts As mine are tight around the frame rail.
Anyone figure this out with a similar setup?
One option I am considering is to cut the back 2-3” off on both sides of the ASFIR bracket and Attach the front bracket to the frame with the frame bolt and the back where I would cut it would attach using a u-bolt on the frame for both sides. I think I then would not need to mess with the sliders. Thoughts?
I decided to order the middle gear skid and it arrived today...again very fast. Crawled under my truck to install expecting an easy install like the front. Not this time. There are two issues:
1) The Slee Slider u-bolts are right on top of the frame holes where the bracket goes. Maybe I can move the sliders a bit but doubt that much to allow full insert of the screw.
2) I see on this thread that bolt on sliders with a wider 7” u-bolt might allow the bracket to fit underneath but I would need to get two new u-bolts As mine are tight around the frame rail.
Anyone figure this out with a similar setup?
One option I am considering is to cut the back 2-3” off on both sides of the ASFIR bracket and Attach the front bracket to the frame with the frame bolt and the back where I would cut it would attach using a u-bolt on the frame for both sides. I think I then would not need to mess with the sliders. Thoughts?
In what I think of as "the ASFIR skidplate thread" the fellow had the u-bolts between the frame and the back leg of the middle skid bracket and used spacers in a variety of places to firm it all up.
Getting larger U-bolts isn't going be a simple fix as the feet of your sliders must have holes spaced to match your current U-bolts.
If you shorten the rear legs of the skid bracket I would suggest drilling it and the frame in a couple of spots, threading the frame side and bolting it that way.
You could even leave the trimmed back legs unattached to the frame ~once the skid is mounted at the front, rear, and to the bracket the bracket doesn't seem very likely to move and I would expect it to still be just as good taking compressive (upward) loads.
When I first got the OPOR sliders I was really put off that the U-bolts were oversized by at least an inch compared to the height of the frame. I may yet put something between the rear u-bolt and the frame to keep the back of the slider from moving upward.
Getting larger U-bolts isn't going be a simple fix as the feet of your sliders must have holes spaced to match your current U-bolts.
If you shorten the rear legs of the skid bracket I would suggest drilling it and the frame in a couple of spots, threading the frame side and bolting it that way.
You could even leave the trimmed back legs unattached to the frame ~once the skid is mounted at the front, rear, and to the bracket the bracket doesn't seem very likely to move and I would expect it to still be just as good taking compressive (upward) loads.
When I first got the OPOR sliders I was really put off that the U-bolts were oversized by at least an inch compared to the height of the frame. I may yet put something between the rear u-bolt and the frame to keep the back of the slider from moving upward.
Some good thoughts in here. There definitely needs to be some work done to get it to work with my particular sliders, I guess. I tried all kinds of tricks to get the leg of the bracket to squeeze between the u-bolt and frame but couldn't do it.
Using spacers hadn't occurred to me. I do have some aluminum spacers from another diff drop that might do the trick. Will have to try that out when I get back from the trip, no time now.
I did get the front skid on. As mentioned, leave things loose until the bolts are all in place. For the ARB, I did need to trim the most forward tabs at the top of the skid to clear the ARB's bottom cover. No biggie. With the trail tailor diff drop, there was a little warbling needed with a drill to get the holes of the skid lined up. Just about 1/8" short rearward.
So, so far, a little more than just bolt on but I like the product. The construction looks good and the plates are stout for sure.
Here are some notable posts from the other thread pertaining to the fitment and tricks.
I see you went over the ARB plate with the Asfir. I went under.
That was the warm-up. the middle cross member was also "just off" by about the same margin. It also needed to be shimmed to clear the U-bolts of my MetalTech sliders. There's really no way around this: either get wider u-bolts and modify the slider feet, or weld the sliders on, or shim down the cross member. I chose the latter.
After wallering out (yes, that's a technical term) the 4 mounting holes, I was finally able to get this to bolt up- used some spacers I had around on the back holes, and ended up re-using the front skid plate spacers from the stock front skid, since the new front one doesn't have those side ears I had 2 extra. Plus tilting the cross member "back" just a little made it easier to get the bolts to start when poked through the skid plate.. that was 2 hours of messing around condensed into about 1 minute...
View attachment 581619View attachment 581620View attachment 581621
I see you went over the ARB plate with the Asfir. I went under.
Last edited:
I placed spacers in the very front (3) and along bracket of middle of the gear skid (3) and that helped support everything without causing any significant flex in the plates.
