BT Skid Plate installed--summary

Evan,

Thanks for the quick response. That is what we were thinking as well. Using the plastic front clip with the main metal body from BT would allow complete airflow like the OEM piece. And the plastic will take high curbs and sidewalks better if I accidently park to close .

With the metal protecting most of the engine I feel much better about all the major components and the plastic front piece will still take quite a bit of abuse I think.

I hit a large piece of truck tread on I-20 in GA awhile back and cracked the front piece of plastic in front of the driver's side tire pretty good. That may be why the front piece seems so flimsy to me and it is also what had me concerned enough to get the metal plate from BT.

Thanks again for all the help. Have a great evening.

Chris

 

Evan,

It was a great idea but unfortunately the OEM plastic piece is to long to connect to the BT main skid plate. I will need to cut and drill new holes in it or fab a new chin piece myself.

I'm a little disappointed in BT considering they are only 1 for 3 in fitment of their parts. At least the stiffening plate fit I guess.

I will post an update when I decide how I want to proceed and what I end up doing with the front chin piece.

Happy driving,
Chris

 

Evan,

Here is an update on the BT Skid Plate issue we were discussing. I went ahead and used the OEM plastic chin piece and modified it slightly to fit better with the main BT Skid Plate.

What I did was trim the back 1" or so off of the OEM plastic piece and then added a piece of weather stripping all along this back edge. Then after attaching the front with the OEM piece originally on the car I zip tied the outside of the plastic chin piece to the two outer holes which aren't used on the BT Skid Plate. This pulled the back of the OEM plastic piece up tight again the metal skid plate and the weather stripping is acting as a gasket/noise reducer.

The center section of the plastic piece is a little "saggy" but I road tested it and don't hear any wind noise or slapping of plastic on metal. Since this is attached with the zip ties at the back there isn't any stress on the front clips or plastic as there is with the metal piece. And as we discussed earlier there is no gap so the airflow across the bottom should be better.

If you wanted to, rather than using weather stripping you could probably use double sided automotive tape and actually stick the entire length of the back edge of the plastic piece to the metal skid plate. I would still zip tie both ends as added support just to be safe.

I took a couple of pictures but they are to big to be posted here. Thanks for all the help and the great "Tutorials" on various installs.

Chris

Update - I guess the photos aren't to large to be added so here they are.

 

I realize that it would make the box bigger for shipping, but what about having 1 single long plate, instead of having the two seperate plates? Also, Why does it seem that the OEM under plate is much larger than the metal skid plate?

The Steaks

 

So, does this skid plate replace the existing stock plastic one on the Prius?
I need to replace mine because it got all busted up due to a pot hole and has been hanging down for a while.

Thanks,

Future

 

*As I mentioned in another forum...* Yes, this would replace the stock plastic one.

The Steaks

 

Get some of those thick rubber grommets like they use on sway bars for old cars. Put them in the bolt holes where the plate is mounted. It'll keep the plate firmly attached but, like a motor mount, will prevent vibrations from permeating the plate which will prevent any damaging harmonics from building up over time.

 

Evan or anyone else who has a BT Skid Plate,

Over the course of the thousands of miles that Ema has taken since the skid plate was installed the vibration/wind/bumps etc... has caused the tapped threads for the covers to strip. This of course means the bolts holding the covers fell out and the cover has come off. I think I lost mine on I-94 between Milwaukee and Chicago if anyone is interested, LOL.

I was wondering if anyone had removed their skid plate and tack welded nuts to the upper side of the plate so the cover bolts have something more substantial holding them? I didn't think about it at the time but the 2-3 threads that are in the skid plate itself aren't really enough to hold it from an engineering stand point.

I will probably attack this job at the next oil change but was curious if anyone else had already done something similar.

Happy driving,
Chris

 

Evan,

Thanks for the response. Yeah I am talking about the two circular covers. I lost one of the two and the threads on the main skid plate are non-existent now so I would need to retap them larger if I just wanted to use it to run a bolt through.

No, I am not talking about welding anything to the engine block or frame or anything on the Prius at all. What I am talking about is removing the skid plate, and tack welding three nuts to the engine side of it over the current cover holes. Welding the nuts to the skid plate that is. In this way when I make a new circular cover the new bolts would go through the new cover, main skid plate and into these nuts. With a little loctite on them this would eliminate any chance of them vibrating or bouncing lose. Blue loctite of course, LOL. Since I would have the main skid plate off I would probably do all six holes (3 on each cover) all at the same time.

I may decide to just leave the hole open as you suggest. I doubt anything could bounce up in there but after my experience with the truck tread on I-20 in GA I'm a bit leery of that.

Thanks again,
Chris

 

That should do the trick. Epoxy might work, too - if you're careful not to glue the nuts to the bolts - and would be easier for the average DIYer.

 

JB Weld. Make sure you scuff up the surface and clean it well - tack welding may be difficult as isn't the plate aluminum?

The other option is to use rivet nuts. These are designed for getting nuts into sheet metal.

 

Hoping someone has insight on if the BT skid plate can be installed without the wheel well wings, as mine didn't come with such.

Would be great if I could also find a close up of the bag of hardware used for mounting, or an image/link to those black pieces (nuts?).

Maybe someone has an old skid plate, or just a pair of metal wheel well wings laying around, that I could borrow/buy/etc ?