Ordered last night and already shipped. Pretty impressive--I am just down the street (more or less) so should have them tomorrow or early next week.
Excellent, looking forward to your report!
Did the RCI rig also have their fuel tank skid?@CarbonSteel Ford offers skids for the fuel tank and transfer case on certain models but yes. I’d expect Sasquatch to come with them and it does not unless you have the right trim
My Big Bend Sasquatch did not come with them, I ordered them from Ford separately and installed myself.
Just got back from the Rubicon. 16 miles, 2 days, I used my sliders and transmission skid as much as possible on purpose.
Sliders are as much a tool as they are armor. Lots of options out there, not a lot of good ones. We had Metaltech 4x4 and Califabrication sliders. Both are frame mounted, use DOM and incorporate kick out panels. We came down hard on them, used them to pivot on rocks (an old trick before trail turn assist was cool), a few times I dropped the whole Bronco on them. I even wedged myself between two large boulders on the sliders. No issues on either set
I also wanted to try my Factory fuel tank skid with transfer case skid. Surprisingly the factory transfer case skid was just fine. It bent in of course but kept the rocks off my case! Factory fuel tanks skid was awesome and still going strong.
I also beached the Bronco on my Talons Garage transmission skid. It held with no deforming. Landed on it at least twice and scraped it a bunch.
Other Bronco had full RCI belly skid system and he was on 35’s so he hit more then me. System we beat on but held up and didn’t appear to shift much. Everything did well actually. No sliders bent into the body as I’ve seen Metalcloak, Rock Slide and DV8 all do on the same trail. We went hard on them too.
Biggest pet peeve regarding hardware cheapness/ poor fitment... weird place to save $10 and leave the buyer with an unnecessarily diminished view of your product.Installed the RCI skids today (except for the fuel tank--need to get it down to below 1/4 tank).
I have to say the overall quality of the skids and the fitment is top notch. I installed the front, engine, transmission (with catalytic guards), and transfer case skids. Everything fit very well together and it was an easy one-man job--nothing like the Metal Cloak skids under my Wrangler.
If I had to ding @RCI Offroad for anything it would be the fasteners--they are complete $hit and are too long in most places. It is almost like someone went shopping in Home Depot/Lowe's and said "Ehh...that's close enough". For the price of the skids, RCI needs to seriously step up their game on the bolts and nuts and supply grade 8 or grade 10.9 hardware.
Lose the silly lock washers and nuts and supply flanged top lock nuts (not nylon ones). Provide flanged bolts everywhere and upgrade the flat washers that come with them to something much thicker. Choose either zinc yellow-chromate plated or similar because the grade 5 garbage that comes with the skids will be rusting in no time. I already replaced some of fasteners and will replace the remainder in time. Last, but not least, the instructions are not the greatest, but you can muddle your way through.
Here is an example of bolts that are too long--the first one that could impact the exhaust pipe because it is almost touching.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Installed:
Agree--I am in the process of ordering new MUCH higher quality hardware to replace all of it. They also mixed metric bolts with SAE washers so it is SLOPPY to say the least.
As a fellow Wildtrak owner, the cost-effective way is to buy https://accessories.ford.com/steel-...4-door/?fmccmp=marketplace-gs-cta-accessories versus the skid alone.
