I did not get the fuel tank skid plate. Thinking about going with the Ford FX4 one eventually.
RCI Skid Plates
- Thread starter KFordEx8
- Start date
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Got the t-case skid plate on today. It’s on but sits crooked. Looks like a modification to the hole on the plate where it is attached to the frame will make it sit better.
The difference between the two versions
The difference between the two versions
Trainmaster
Old School Member
Ford probably makes a set of skid plates that are standard on their Special Service Vehicle (police) Package. On the 3rd Generation trucks they are a little dinky and the fuel tank plate is plastic. Certainly no match for the RCI ones, but another option.
By this time there should be some wrecked cop cars in the junk yards for them. I put them on my '08 and the whole set cost maybe $300 new from Tasca Ford.
By this time there should be some wrecked cop cars in the junk yards for them. I put them on my '08 and the whole set cost maybe $300 new from Tasca Ford.
5280tunage
Full Access Members
And you can see why I actually drilled a single hole and added another speed nut for that plate, just to make sure there were two!
5280tunage
Full Access Members
to follow up on my previous post, I'll try to pull up on some ramps, take some good pictures this weekend, and consolidate all of the parts I used to try and make this easy. here's the thing, I've done a ton of rock crawling with my jeeps over the years. These are some of the tougher skids I've used over the years and do they line up perfect with every Ford, no. if you saw the size of the RCI shop, you'd probably be a little more impressed. Given the crap cardboard on these $80K+ "SUVs", these gave me a little more piece of mind.
The entire install, even trying different things out, was probably 3 hours, by myself, on ramps. If you have access to a lift, should be half that (although you may need help holding the parts up), my chest and stomach became my helpers during install, lol.
I will say this, these things proved themselves useful about 6 months ago for me. Traveling 75+ on the highway, had a big rig re-tread blow up and I had no choice but to drive over it. I could hear it inside the car nail the plates and luckily no damage. I did find rubber under there, so I know they came in contact. The crappy cardboard would have been shredded. This is precisely why I bought these, I don't plan on rock crawling in this thing, but I want to protect the undercarriage.
The entire install, even trying different things out, was probably 3 hours, by myself, on ramps. If you have access to a lift, should be half that (although you may need help holding the parts up), my chest and stomach became my helpers during install, lol.
I will say this, these things proved themselves useful about 6 months ago for me. Traveling 75+ on the highway, had a big rig re-tread blow up and I had no choice but to drive over it. I could hear it inside the car nail the plates and luckily no damage. I did find rubber under there, so I know they came in contact. The crappy cardboard would have been shredded. This is precisely why I bought these, I don't plan on rock crawling in this thing, but I want to protect the undercarriage.
okidoki
Member
FYI: I ordered my full skidplate set with RCI on Thursday, was shipped on Friday. Ordered the newer F150 set.
5280tunage
Full Access Members
Okay, finally ready to post this. Essentially, here's what I ended up with. At the end of everything, I have the entire F150 kit, but I have changed one of the plates out. Essentially, I initially ordered the 15+ F150 complete package, and for the most part everything fit very well. The only piece I had issues with was the first plate (from intercooler back to second plate). It seems as though it was about half an inch too short, it actually still worked but I didn't like how it fit. The brackets were also fine but as you'll see in the pictures, I modified them a bit. For me, I found that the first plate was perfect when I used the 09-14' model year front plate, with the other three pieces as part of the 15+ kit. RCI will build this out for you if you contact them, they very well might remember working with me.
I still had to drill a few holes and modify a few things just to get it how I want it, but no one really would HAVE to in order to make it work. here are some pictures to help, with some descriptions.
In Picture One: you can see in this picture, at the red arrow, where I cut about an inch to an inch and a half off the back of the bracket. I didn't like that it would sit on top of the intercooler bracket and I didn't want the intercooler bracket to sit lower. I also drilled a whole at the orange arrow and put in a second self tapping bolt, just for added strength and to prevent the bracket from rotating at all.
In this second picture, you can clearly see the required bend in the third plate (red arrow), that connects to the cross member, if that's not in there, you have the wrong third plate. The orange arrow is where I added a third hole and bolt, into a factory speed nut, as there was already a spot there in the cross member where the speed nut was easy to install.
This picture is the final plate, that covers the tcase. Again, the red arrow shows the critical bend in the plate that makes sure it sits properly between the crossmember and the frame on the right. the orange arrow shows where I drilled a second hole and added another speed nut. the normal hole (towards the rear of the vehicle) lined up fine for me, but I added another one to be extra secure.
This picture shows the second and third plates coming together on the crossmember between the suspension components. you can see the access panel for the oil drain plug. this is where I put a fumoto valve, to make it so the oil always drains straight down. these two bolts line up just fine.
This picture shows the first plate and the second plate coming together. In this picture, you can see where I added a third bolt in the center into the cross member with a speed nut. Since the two plates site about 1/3rd of an inch or so away from the cross member, I put an aluminum spacer in there, to make sure the plates to rattle against the chassis and to make it more rigid. Not required but it helped me feel better. The red arrow again shows a critical bend in the second plate, that must be there for the plate to clear the mechanical/tranny pieces.
Hope that helps a little, feel free to share links for this if you need to when it comes time to order if you do, but ultimately this is how things went together for me, and the folks at RCI were very helpful and accommodating while working through this.
I still had to drill a few holes and modify a few things just to get it how I want it, but no one really would HAVE to in order to make it work. here are some pictures to help, with some descriptions.
In Picture One: you can see in this picture, at the red arrow, where I cut about an inch to an inch and a half off the back of the bracket. I didn't like that it would sit on top of the intercooler bracket and I didn't want the intercooler bracket to sit lower. I also drilled a whole at the orange arrow and put in a second self tapping bolt, just for added strength and to prevent the bracket from rotating at all.
In this second picture, you can clearly see the required bend in the third plate (red arrow), that connects to the cross member, if that's not in there, you have the wrong third plate. The orange arrow is where I added a third hole and bolt, into a factory speed nut, as there was already a spot there in the cross member where the speed nut was easy to install.
This picture is the final plate, that covers the tcase. Again, the red arrow shows the critical bend in the plate that makes sure it sits properly between the crossmember and the frame on the right. the orange arrow shows where I drilled a second hole and added another speed nut. the normal hole (towards the rear of the vehicle) lined up fine for me, but I added another one to be extra secure.
This picture shows the second and third plates coming together on the crossmember between the suspension components. you can see the access panel for the oil drain plug. this is where I put a fumoto valve, to make it so the oil always drains straight down. these two bolts line up just fine.
This picture shows the first plate and the second plate coming together. In this picture, you can see where I added a third bolt in the center into the cross member with a speed nut. Since the two plates site about 1/3rd of an inch or so away from the cross member, I put an aluminum spacer in there, to make sure the plates to rattle against the chassis and to make it more rigid. Not required but it helped me feel better. The red arrow again shows a critical bend in the second plate, that must be there for the plate to clear the mechanical/tranny pieces.
Hope that helps a little, feel free to share links for this if you need to when it comes time to order if you do, but ultimately this is how things went together for me, and the folks at RCI were very helpful and accommodating while working through this.
VaderGator
New Member
Just installed them on my 2007 Navigator. The transfer case plate contacts the fuel tank and doesn't reach the frame rails. Everything else went right on.
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Expedition Dave
Full Access Members
Dang it. So no one has a fully "turn-key" one for the Expy? It seems all of these needs some extra drilling, tapping and bending...?
5280tunage
Full Access Members
Hey All, I wanted to respond to this thread and bring it up to the forefront for a minute. I realize many of you don't like the fact that RCI doesn't have a "turn key" solution for the Expy, but in reality not only do I think they do, but they just kicked some real tail and added some great functionality to this package. These are currently listed only under the F150 on their website but I talked to Tim about this and we were 99% sure it would work fine. So I jumped off the cliff and decided to be the test patient here, to test the fit of the F150 Catalytic Converter Shields!
Happy to report, these shields fit. So here's the thing, for those of you that live in urban areas that are impacted by this nonsense idea of no accountability, where for example my area is commonly in the top 5 worst for car theft and catalytic converter theft, I'm constantky worried about this, especially knowing I have to frequent our capital. Enough so that I put the Ford shock sensors on my rig, but that wasn't enough. You have to make things hard for these fools.
So here we are, more than 50 F150's have been either stolen or robbed of their cats at my International airport this year alone. So I figured I would try these out.
I thought I'd post some pics for you all. As long as you have the transmission skid plate, this is super simple. This entire install would have probably taken an hour or less, but I ran into one small issue, 100% due to the fact that I have the aftermarket SPD downpipes installed. They are larger in diameter and are slightly lower than the factory ones. So I had to remove the tranny plate, remove the driver's side shield and move the holes about 3/4" towards the front of the car to clear the downpipes. The install directions say to measure 1.5" back from the front of the raised lip on the tranny plate. On the passenger side this was fine, on the driver's side then needed to be about 3/4" back. Otherwise, these fit perfect! Take a look at the pics, oh, and I still had the drop brackets in place from the factory cloth skid plates, those had to be removed, as you can see the scratches in the new shields.
Pretty simple, just take off the tranny plate (I had hoped I wouldn't need to do this) but because RCI was smart, they made these a little tamper resistant. They can really only be removed with the tranny plate off. Mark the holes, drill a pilot hole, I then used a step bit to drill the larger holes, clean the burrs, I spray painted the holes for corrosion resistance, put it together and reinstalled the plates. Man this tranny plate is heavy now, probably lost .5 mpg, j/k. I've got before photos, install, and after. Even the nice packing of the product from RCI.
I actually feel great about this, and all for under $200. Think about that, these cats could easily cost $1k for the deductible alone, or $2k probably for two new ones cash. Worth it in my opinion.
Happy to report, these shields fit. So here's the thing, for those of you that live in urban areas that are impacted by this nonsense idea of no accountability, where for example my area is commonly in the top 5 worst for car theft and catalytic converter theft, I'm constantky worried about this, especially knowing I have to frequent our capital. Enough so that I put the Ford shock sensors on my rig, but that wasn't enough. You have to make things hard for these fools.
So here we are, more than 50 F150's have been either stolen or robbed of their cats at my International airport this year alone. So I figured I would try these out.
I thought I'd post some pics for you all. As long as you have the transmission skid plate, this is super simple. This entire install would have probably taken an hour or less, but I ran into one small issue, 100% due to the fact that I have the aftermarket SPD downpipes installed. They are larger in diameter and are slightly lower than the factory ones. So I had to remove the tranny plate, remove the driver's side shield and move the holes about 3/4" towards the front of the car to clear the downpipes. The install directions say to measure 1.5" back from the front of the raised lip on the tranny plate. On the passenger side this was fine, on the driver's side then needed to be about 3/4" back. Otherwise, these fit perfect! Take a look at the pics, oh, and I still had the drop brackets in place from the factory cloth skid plates, those had to be removed, as you can see the scratches in the new shields.
Pretty simple, just take off the tranny plate (I had hoped I wouldn't need to do this) but because RCI was smart, they made these a little tamper resistant. They can really only be removed with the tranny plate off. Mark the holes, drill a pilot hole, I then used a step bit to drill the larger holes, clean the burrs, I spray painted the holes for corrosion resistance, put it together and reinstalled the plates. Man this tranny plate is heavy now, probably lost .5 mpg, j/k. I've got before photos, install, and after. Even the nice packing of the product from RCI.
I actually feel great about this, and all for under $200. Think about that, these cats could easily cost $1k for the deductible alone, or $2k probably for two new ones cash. Worth it in my opinion.
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