Bro-coma.. getting unbro-d

[Wainiha]

Not only is the light build impressive,  the write up is equally so!

[-Matt-]

finished my skid

[Wainiha]

How much does it weigh? 

[-Matt-]

hell if i know, its heavy though. probably 55lbs. trucks gonna be heavy all together. but most of the big weight will be low center of gravity. its really hard to build body protection light weight. cuz if you dont make it somewhat beefy it will just get destroyed. then you just waste time and money re doing it all

[yota_krawler]

looks awesome matt

turned out sweet. covers cases, batterey, and compressor?

[Dingman.]

Looks sick matt.

I think i would prefer a couple holes so it would be easy to drain the oils if need be.   Or do you think that would just be something else to get caught up on and be more of a pain in thr ass instead of beneficial?

[HogCanyonHopper]

Man what a sweet build  When my Tacoma grows up, I hope it approaches being that nice.

[Nimyad]

curious why you didn't just build a frame and attach uhmw to it?

[-Matt-]

Thanks guys

There is no drains in that area its mainly my 2 piece driveline. Drain plug that I would use is on the addapter. Plus it would be hard for oil to  cleanly free fall straight through a small hole. Only takes a minute to pull the skid.  It's more of a skid than just protection. Just don't wanna get Hung up on rocks in that area.

Compressor could still take a hit. But its so far tucked up it would be extremely rare. The point was to still have enough room to reach hands in there and inspect everything without removing anything. I could have easily taken it to the frame also... Blocking everything off but I didn't want that .

[Dingman.]

It looks awesome man

[-Matt-]

curious why you didn't just build a frame and attach uhmw to it?

they both have their ups and downs. i would have spent more money on uhmw. i would have had to support it more and actually tie the supports into my subrame... instead of just being able to weld stiffeners on the plate like how i did. i couldnt have done the little wing sides easily with uhms. it would have had to be thicker. and you cant beat how steel plate slides on rocks. the only upside to the uhmw would be it would save me probably 30lbs...which is a good amount. but just not worth it to me.

the uhmw is a cool approach... but im not really a fan of it. dont think it has enough pros over cons. if you were to build a buggy and have double the surface area im covering with the plate then it would be worth it to try and go with the lighter approach. im just looking for something thats a simple done deal. dont have to ever worry about it.

[yota_krawler]

im just looking for something thats a simple done deal. dont have to ever worry about it.

i think you got it then

[95toyrunner]

Sick build man. I must have missed it but how long are your links and panhard?

[-Matt-]

panhards 41" eye to eye. and links are about 42" eye to eye

[pumkin toy]

skidplate looks sick dude!  I like it alot

[THK Matt]

that thing better make it into a magazine bro

[Bigdaddynandez]

Nice truck, good luck with build

[-Matt-]

finished making my rock lights. im flush mounting 2 of them on top of my skid, putting one up front on top of the radiator skid and then one in the rear somewhere. all i have to do it drill a hole through the skids when i want to mount them to let the light shine through, should be pretty slick. i dont think they will get taken out by anything since the led will be pretty tucked up in the small hole. worse comes to worse a pointy rock makes it inside and destroys the 10$ led. (would be easy to swap out and i have a lot so it shouldn't be an issue)





also the swag off road air over hydraulic mount just got here so i can mount it to karls bender and finally start bending everything up.

found out profenders out of 16" shocks with reservoirs for a long time so i decided to hit taco runner up and get some radflos. cant wait, hes gonna custom valve them and adjust the piston slightly to work with my build. since hes got a lot of experience in this stuff it should make for an awesome setup. plus he will go out of his way to help you and make the setup right.. even if we dont get it right the first time. i will for sure end up getting a set of radflos to replace the front in the near future. nothing against profender as im impressed with their products, but i would rather have something thats more easily tunable/easier to get parts, and better tech to customer interaction. plus the price didn't end up being much different.

[Dingman.]

Damn man.  wanna make me some led's? 

[-Matt-]

Damn man.  wanna make me some led's? 

haha they are fun to build and tweak with but im glad these and the light bars are done, getting tired of building that kind of stuff. i have a lot of work into them. probably took me 8 hours from start to finish to complete the 4.

[locked 4x4]

What are the specs on those led's?

[-Matt-]

Same stuff I used for the light bars. Just left over parts. Should be around 17 watts each on high mode.  And put out 875 lumens each. Probably the brightest led rocks lights out there. 4 should be perfect. I'll post pics when I install them

[-Matt-]

front bumpers almost done, just been completely winging it bar by bar. not shooting for any certain design.. just hugging it tight and makin it flow. haven't done any of my own serious tube work before so its slow getting use to.

[Nimyad]

Bumper looks sweet. Are you going to run supports through the grill to give it rigidity?

[Dingman.]

Matt. That  is awesome!!!    So jealous.

[-Matt-]

thanks guys and ya im adding support, not done with it yet. just thought id post some progress pics.

[Nimyad]

Just making sure. I'm definitely jealous of how clean it is

[yota_krawler]

are you going around the fenders?

[-Matt-]

are you going around the fenders?

no the lower bar on the bumper im gonna cut flush with the same angle as my fender. the upper bar thats left long im hoping to take the bend way ferther and dive the tube in through the fender around the top corner of the running light and tie it into the shock hoop area. hopefully it will all work out. im not doing a full exo. its gonna be a simple clean cab exo. with a tubed out backhalf. dont want the huge full bodied exo look.

[THK Matt]

thats the cleanest front bumper dude. an old military silver paint job with like fo-rivits painted on.... would look sick