Ah…
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I was able to stop in at BudBuilt and had a nice chat with Bud and his team. They now have measurements, and the mounting locations for HD 70 series with an H55 transmission. The current thought is to do something similar to the skid plate that was offered by Cruisin' Offroad. As mentioned earlier in the thread, we need a minimum of 10 people to commit to a transfer skip plate for him to start the design/CAD process.
Images of the Cruisin offroad skid can be seen here:
forum.ih8mud.com
He also has measurements and mounting locations for a radiator protection plate. Same thing, he needs 10 people to commit to this before he will start fabricating them.
One thing that would be very useful is if anyone with an automatic 70 series is in the vicinity of Bud's shop and could stop by for measurements. Or, if we could get some detailed information on where the transmission crossmember is located compared to a H55 crossmember.
If you have an auto 70 series and can stop in you won't be disappointed with the time you spend at his shop. I can't say enough good things about Bud and his small team, and I had the most enjoyable 2 hours hanging out and talking story with them. Another plus is Pisgah National Forest is just down the road with loads of wheeling and camping options.
There was no discussion of costs at this point. I'm sure that is something everyone would want to know before committing to buying, but I would think it is safe to say the costs should be very comparable to similar products that are out there. Discussions for this kind of product for 70 series comes up on a regular basis so there is obviously need and desire in the community. Let's keep it moving forward.
Images of the Cruisin offroad skid can be seen here:
70 Series Skid Plate
I'm looking for photos of 70 Series OEM skid plates (both manual and automatic transmission). Any 70 Series would be suitable. ....Thanks
forum.ih8mud.com
He also has measurements and mounting locations for a radiator protection plate. Same thing, he needs 10 people to commit to this before he will start fabricating them.
One thing that would be very useful is if anyone with an automatic 70 series is in the vicinity of Bud's shop and could stop by for measurements. Or, if we could get some detailed information on where the transmission crossmember is located compared to a H55 crossmember.
If you have an auto 70 series and can stop in you won't be disappointed with the time you spend at his shop. I can't say enough good things about Bud and his small team, and I had the most enjoyable 2 hours hanging out and talking story with them. Another plus is Pisgah National Forest is just down the road with loads of wheeling and camping options.
There was no discussion of costs at this point. I'm sure that is something everyone would want to know before committing to buying, but I would think it is safe to say the costs should be very comparable to similar products that are out there. Discussions for this kind of product for 70 series comes up on a regular basis so there is obviously need and desire in the community. Let's keep it moving forward.
Are you thinking of replacing the transmission mount/crossmember with this skid plate or do like factory and have skid plate behind/after the transmission cross member?
No, not thinking of replacing the crossmember, bolting to it and similar to factory, but beefier. See photos of the Cruisin Offroad skid plate.
I was able to stop in at BudBuilt and had a nice chat with Bud and his team. They now have measurements, and the mounting locations for HD 70 series with an H55 transmission. The current thought is to do something similar to the skid plate that was offered by Cruisin' Offroad. As mentioned earlier in the thread, we need a minimum of 10 people to commit to a transfer skip plate for him to start the design/CAD process.
Images of the Cruisin offroad skid can be seen here:
70 Series Skid Plate
I'm looking for photos of 70 Series OEM skid plates (both manual and automatic transmission). Any 70 Series would be suitable. ....Thanks
He also has measurements and mounting locations for a radiator protection plate. Same thing, he needs 10 people to commit to this before he will start fabricating them.
One thing that would be very useful is if anyone with an automatic 70 series is in the vicinity of Bud's shop and could stop by for measurements. Or, if we could get some detailed information on where the transmission crossmember is located compared to a H55 crossmember.
If you have an auto 70 series and can stop in you won't be disappointed with the time you spend at his shop. I can't say enough good things about Bud and his small team, and I had the most enjoyable 2 hours hanging out and talking story with them. Another plus is Pisgah National Forest is just down the road with loads of wheeling and camping options.
There was no discussion of costs at this point. I'm sure that is something everyone would want to know before committing to buying, but I would think it is safe to say the costs should be very comparable to similar products that are out there. Discussions for this kind of product for 70 series comes up on a regular basis so there is obviously need and desire in the community. Let's keep it moving forward.
Any estimate on price cuz I would like to be one of the 10
Would be for a 1990 HZJ77 with H55
Sorry, no estimate on price at this time, and I wouldn't want to throw a number out there. As I said, I would expect it to be comparable to other Land Cruiser skid plates that are available. A search should get you in the ball park.
BudBuilt just took the measurements, and he wanted to look into a few things. I would think @Nottajeep can follow up with Bud and we could probably get an estimate once Bud has had some time to rough sketch/design something.
- Thread starter
- #27
Many thanks for getting by there.
This is very cool news.
I'll be happy to follow up next week.
