Transmission crossmember braces - improve or remove?

[BAUS67]

Yes, yes it does... But, so far I haven't been able to determine if it's there for some sort of structural rigidity or just to act as a quazzi-skid. Does anyone know the answer to that question, because if it's the latter then removing it for a lower-profile solution seems like a win?

It's because of all that mind numbing torque from the 2.7

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[BAUS67]

Wouldn’t it be great if we could make our Broncos look like this underneath? pic of my rzr. Definitely would make it hard to work on. But it just glides over rocks.

Boat sides would be nice for the Bronc.

See those front LCAs. THAT is what I expected to see from the Lobo long travel, multi ball joint setup. Or maybe something like the Marlin Crawler long travel for the Taco.

 

[PEGB]

Does anyone make complete UHMW skid plates for Bronco’s yet? I have 1/2” thick ones on my RZR and they are great. And with a large sheet and enough fasteners provides rigidity and could potentially replace the need for that low cross brace the V6 has. I haven’t spent enough time under mine to see if that’s even feasible.

Yes. Next Venture Motorsport has a set.
https://nextventuremotorsports.com/collections/ford-bronco-belly-skids

 

[Tex]

Yes, yes it does... But, so far I haven't been able to determine if it's there for some sort of structural rigidity or just to act as a quazzi-skid. Does anyone know the answer to that question, because if it's the latter then removing it for a lower-profile solution seems like a win?

There's plenty of room to add flush crossmember bracing under there to replace the ridiculous boat anchors they slapped on for the V6. If you used a skidplate as a stressed skin connecting the flush crossmembers and frame together, you'd end up with something considerably more rigid than what the original crossmembers provided while gaining clearance and protection.

 

[tobyw]

There's plenty of room to add flush crossmember bracing under there to replace the ridiculous boat anchors they slapped on for the V6. If you used a skidplate as a stressed skin connecting the flush crossmembers and frame together, you'd end up with something considerably more rigid than what the original crossmembers provided while gaining clearance and protection.

My man!!! I like where your head is at, and I've already started templating my ideas for something very similar to this. I'm going to use tube connectors to maintain the removable nature of the braces, but they will be tucked inside the frame rather than below it. I have been dinking around with other menial junk like a winch mount and rock sliders, but this is coming up soon...

 

[Tex]

My man!!! I like where your head is at, and I've already started templating my ideas for something very similar to this. I'm going to use tube connectors to maintain the removable nature of the braces, but they will be tucked inside the frame rather than below it. I have been dinking around with other menial junk like a winch mount and rock sliders, but this is coming up soon...

Interested to see what you come up with. I've been meaning to do something like this since the first time I crawled underneath it and looked, never got around to it. It seems like it would be simple enough to make a near bolt-on kit for it. My idea was to use the existing swaybar mounting points on the frame and sandwich the front of the crossmembers to them between the pillow block and frame. Ideally, make a subframe spanning across both of them level with the a-arm crossmember, which would act as an additional crossmember, a spot to bolt the front of the skidplate up to, and a flat straight plane to the t-case for your skidplate. The rear of the new crossmembers would then tie into the t-case crossmember in roughly the same location as the originals, only bolted on instead of welded. Cut off the oem mounts for the old braces flush with the frame (or just trim enough to clear the skidplate), bolt up a skidplate to the bottom, maybe throw a spacer or two in if necessary, and you're in business.

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