Trail Damage - 2.7 Cross Member

[huey]

I beat up my passenger-side 2.7 cross member over the weekend (either from high centering and dragging or falling onto a log faster than I'd like). The lip is curled over and there is a region concaved in.

I'm assuming this is still "doing it's job" even though heavily beat up. Thoughts? Is cross member armor worth further loss in ground clearance?

tough to say from the pics you posted - clean it up, look for broken / cracked welds. IF all good knock off loose coating and touch up with a good underbody paint. I would definitely reinforce it though. That x-member took a hell of a whack

The welds should run the full length side to side(welds shown purple)
IF the welds are good don't worry about the lip that is folded over, but the reinf. plate (light green) it should be flat. yours has been modified lol

the 1B x-member is welded in so replacing it is a massive task

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[chtucker]

How well is the UHMW holding up on regular sized vehicles? I did a quick search on YouTube to find some examples of usage and durability on rocks, but seemed like most uses of the material were on those smaller UTV 4 wheeler type vehicles.

Fantastic. I spent a week at Trail Hero dragging my Bronco over everything, I hadn't done a lift/left after having added winch, mount, sliders, skids and recovery gear.. So I was about 1" lower than stock.

The only damage I had was from hitting a rock at 40mph. Ground an edge of the leading UHMW plate (still very usable) and destroyed my front factory bash plate which has now been replaced with a NVM aluminum bash plate.

 

[RC Bronco]

Anyone know how well the RCI skids protect the catalytic converter from theft? My father's RCI skids covered his cat completely, but that's on an F150

I'm interested in pulling the trigger on a couple of their products

EDIT: read in another thread that on both 2.3 and 2.7 they’re tucked up high enough that it would be difficult to steal with or without skid plates. Love to hear it, I’m without mine at the moment so I couldn’t check myself

 

[Bronc6g22]

tough to say from the pics you posted - clean it up, look for broken / cracked welds. IF all good knock off loose coating and touch up with a good underbody paint. I would definitely reinforce it though. That x-member took a hell of a whack

The welds should run the full length side to side(welds shown purple)
IF the welds are good don't worry about the lip that is folded over, but the reinf. plate (light green) it should be flat. yours has been modified lol

the 1B x-member is welded in so replacing it is a massive task

I'll clean up and inspect before painting. No obvious cracking at the moment. My plate is certainly arched now. Arches are stronger than flat plates yeah?

 

[huey]

I'll clean up and inspect before painting. No obvious cracking at the moment. My plate is certainly arched now. Arches are stronger than flat plates yeah?

lol arches are good, too bad yours has no radius in the middle .

Kidding aside that will likely be the weak point, right where the metal bends and is creased. I wonder how out of spec dimensionally the c/m is - just out of curiosity. You definitely felt that one lol

 

[Dannebrog53]

Anyone know how well the RCI skids protect the catalytic converter from theft? My father's RCI skids covered his cat completely, but that's on an F150

I'm interested in pulling the trigger on a couple of their products

EDIT: read in another thread that on both 2.3 and 2.7 they’re tucked up high enough that it would be difficult to steal with or without skid plates. Love to hear it, I’m without mine at the moment so I couldn’t check myself

I went with the JCR Transmission/CAT Skid in steel on my Wildtrak because it covered it all https://www.jcroffroad.com/product/BR6SD-TRN.html

 

[swooshdave]

Anyone know how well the RCI skids protect the catalytic converter from theft? My father's RCI skids covered his cat completely, but that's on an F150

I'm interested in pulling the trigger on a couple of their products

EDIT: read in another thread that on both 2.3 and 2.7 they’re tucked up high enough that it would be difficult to steal with or without skid plates. Love to hear it, I’m without mine at the moment so I couldn’t check myself

I crawled under and they are up there.

 

[Tex]

How well is the UHMW holding up on regular sized vehicles? I did a quick search on YouTube to find some examples of usage and durability on rocks, but seemed like most uses of the material were on those smaller UTV 4 wheeler type vehicles.

There's a whole lot of KOH guys running UHMW on all classes. It holds up really well to being bashed against rocks and generally abused, it protects the metal skid behind it, and you can replace it cheap and easy.

 

[DefNotBuddyLee]

@ICUGAZN , are you polishing those aluminum skids each time you go out?
JK, I love my Asfir skids and they were really the only way to go for me since I have the plastic bumper. Just about any other skid meant I would lose my front recovery points.
I did go the RCI route on the cross member skids but mostly because shipping at the time from Asfir was pretty pricey (but their product pricing was hard to beat). I am happy with the steel on the RCI cross members because they are definitely the low point on the belly.

 

[ICUGAZN]

@ICUGAZN , are you polishing those aluminum skids each time you go out?
JK, I love my Asfir skids and they were really the only way to go for me since I have the plastic bumper. Just about any other skid meant I would lose my front recovery points.
I did go the RCI route on the cross member skids but mostly because shipping at the time from Asfir was pretty pricey (but their product pricing was hard to beat). I am happy with the steel on the RCI cross members because they are definitely the low point on the belly.

I haven’t been on any rocks since I installed them . Where I go the cross members do take a beating, it will be interesting to see how the ASFIRs hold up.

 

[SROC3]

I have the FULL RCI skid system under my Bronco - love it and it has saved me already - punched a hole in my front bash plate hitting a massive rock at 35mph....plate took all of it and saved me. I have the cross member skids as well. I highly recommend you get the STEEL versions, not aluminum.

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