u bolt skid

i'm very interested in u-bolt skid plates, are they worth the money?

 

I wouldn't leave home without them
I am not a 'crawler, but I use them
been on a long time
always amazed at the dents/nicks/gouges out of the bottom plates
ymmv

 

i would like to order some but i have a question about the front axle. they sell skids for 46-71 front and also sell for 72-75 front, i have a 1970 cj5 with a dana 30. which one should i order???

 

for the front couldn't you just use the pass. skid on the driver side and vice versa? wouldn't that then put the shock mounts at the front of the axle?

 

never mind duh i forgot that the pass. side has 2 diff. u bolt sizes!

 

I emailed JKS today about B3's for the front. They came back pretty quick with the answer - "not possible". I was thinking more like "more challenging".

Someone here could do it I'm sure . . . .

 

Not really worth the money they cost. If you have a welder and a drill, you get more clearance from running square u-bolts and putting the plates and shocks on top.

Of course if you have a personal machine shop, you could do this:
http://members.tcq.net/jnutter/CJ2AUboltplates/
Friend of mine built some out of solid steel for his 2a.

 

Now that's just cool.

What I do is add a thin jam nut below the regular nut and just cut the bolts off flush.

The flipped u-bolts, skid plates, or cut off method don't give as much clearance as the JKS B3 plates. I really want these for the front.

 

wow those jks B2's look good but sure are big $$$

 

I need to look into making a bunch of the ones Chuck gave the link to, those things are cool and I can make them at home on my lathe and mill. If anybody is interested I might make some of them after Tellico.

 

I like anything that smoothes out the JEEP. top or bottom. I would have to check my reciepts as to where I got mine, but I don't recall any installation hassles. I don't think they would be terribly hard to make if you have a welder or a pal with a welder.

 

If someone can get me some drawings/plans I can take a look at making some... got a full-fledged machine shop at my disposal here.

 

I've got a nice set of skids for a CJ-7 for sale. The front ones fit the 30 and have thread on shock mounts front and rear. On a CJ-7 the front mount is for the sway bar links. The rear skids fit a 44, but are 2.5 inches wide. All four for $65 plus ship. Thats what I paid, but decided to go SOA instead, so I don't need them now.

 

The ones we used to sell ath the dealership had shock studs front and rear. They were the welded type that are dissed on the JKS site. If you made the JKS style plates, they could be drilled front and back and would work for early, intermediate and dual shock apps.

Simplest mod is to cut the excess length of the ubolts off. Any exposed thread will get mangled. Takes a little while with a hacksaw, but it'll help ground clearance ... plus if you mangle them, you have to cut the ends off to remove them anyway.

 

i would be greatly interested in ones for the front of my jeep. i need alot of ground clearance on the front. if anybody makes a set for the front, like the b3 skid i'll buy.

 

Not sure what the name brand is but my jeep has them and they do look cool and very protective of the ends of the bolts.

 

Found an install instuction sheet in my folder from when I put the 71 together. It appears mine came from Con-Fer as did my shackles. Couldn't find anything more than that. Try them. I don't recall having any trouble with the install but, that was a number of years ago now.