Anyone out there made a skid plate for their 4EAT trans pan?

 

I have my oil pan and rear diff protected, but the trans pan is still open to bombardment. Where did you mount yours to?

 

-Ben

I don't believe it would be hard to make a skidplate for the 4EAT. Usel a flat piece of 1/4 plate cut to the size of the pan. Then replace 4 of the pans corner bolts with studs. Use a nut on the stud to hold the pan lip. Then put a sleeve over the stud long enough to clear the pan, then bolt the plate onto the studs with the sleeve as a spacer. With the combined thickness of the pan and the plate you would never punch it hard enough to bust through. Espescially if you welded some ribs to it.

bolting a skidplate to the tranny is a bad idea....assuming you're actually going to use it.

 

the smart thing to do, would be something bolted to the engine crossmember, and then to a custom crossmember behind the tranny somewhere....

What about the tranny rear crossmember? it might need some extending or something or a weird shaped pan, but it seems stout enough since its holding the tranny in place.

bolting a skidplate to the tranny is a bad idea....assuming you're actually going to use it.

 

the smart thing to do, would be something bolted to the engine crossmember, and then to a custom crossmember behind the tranny somewhere....

 

Better than no skid plate. It would keep you from puncturing the pan. I try NOT to use the skidplate and if you pick a proper line you won't. I just worry about being belly deep in ruts sliding on a mud ridge in the middle, then oops a rock! Making essentially a beefier pan would prevent damage in that case. I'm not talking bout Rubicon style rock crawlin here. Just protection from the occasianal buried rock in the mud or snow.

Better than no skid plate. It would keep you from puncturing the pan. I try NOT to use the skidplate and if you pick a proper line you won't. I just worry about being belly deep in ruts sliding on a mud ridge in the middle, then oops a rock! Making essentially a beefier pan would prevent damage in that case. I'm not talking bout Rubicon style rock crawlin here. Just protection from the occasianal buried rock in the mud or snow.

 

 

I think the problem would be that if you do hit something you might actually break the case where the extended bolt went into.

Naaaa... I think it'd be fine if you made the attachments tough. This is how I am gonna setup mine

it could work, but it still makes me extremely nervous.

 

had a guy in the North Shore Wheelers in his Cherokee get hung up on a rock on his tranny skid (which was essentially just a reinforced pan), which ripped his tranny mount, tipped the whole assembly forward, and his rad fan punched a huge hole in his radiator.

it could work, but it still makes me extremely nervous.

 

had a guy in the North Shore Wheelers in his Cherokee get hung up on a rock on his tranny skid (which was essentially just a reinforced pan), which ripped his tranny mount, tipped the whole assembly forward, and his rad fan punched a huge hole in his radiator.

 

Seems like more extreme conditions than I would be facing. And with the placement of the Engine and trans balanced on the crossmember I can't see the engine tilting like a long jeep 4.0 or V8. If I was going seriously hard core offroad/crawling I would do a bit beefier design, seperate from pan. But the title of this thread is "pan protection" not "how to make a soob indestructible"