Rubicon Express Gas Tank Skid Plates

This REA1015 fuel tank skid plate almost was super easy to install. Except that the 2 nut plates they give you for the rear will be lost when you remove the bolt. Almost for sure, they will be lost when you remove that bolt. The nut plate will instantly slip down between the plastic gas tank & the factory skid, way out of reach, where you def can NOT retrieve without removing the whole gas tank. IF they had just made the nut plates a bit longer & with a bend, they wouldn't be able to slip down there and get lost like that. So thats how I made mine. Except for losing the nut plate, which cost me about an hour to make a new one, it's an easy install. I did it by myself. Def use a rolling floor jack to support the skid & tank, especially when drilling the 2 holes in the rear. Not a bad idea to consider how you can not lose that nut plate. Maybe drill a small hole into it & attach a wire leash to the factory skid. The Rubicon Express instructions are pretty basic, and leave out a lot of helpful tips. Like I needed to remove the pass side rear wheel so I could drill that support hole. Like you're going to 100% lose that nutplate if you ever remove that bolt. Like push up gently with a floor jack on the new skid before you drill the 2 holes in the rear. This REA1015 definitely goes on under the factory skid. The factory skid is def required to support this new skid.I have a late JK with the 3.6 liter engine. Maybe it's different for an early JK? If you don't have a good factory gas tank skid anymore, then this skid will not solve your problems. There is a lot of talk about supporting the factory skid so the tank won't fall down when you have the 4 bolts out that hold up the factory skid & tank. You need to remove those bolts because they will soon hold up the new skid. Some people said to support the tank & factory skid with a webbing strap. Good if one end of the strap doesn't have a hook, makes it a lot easier top pull out afterwards. Yeah very nice idea, and I did that, but then realized that the factory skid is held up by different bolts, not those. IF you look up next to the tank, you'll see that there are several half cylinder depressions in the side of the factory skid. At the top of those are the bolts that really hold up the tank & skid to the body. I could be wrong, check it out. A got my gas tank as empty as I could before doing this install. Just in case the tank wanted to fall & I would have to muscle it back up there. But all that went fine. No problems. I was disappointed that this Rubicon Express gas tank skid left some plastic tank exposed. The same leading edge that the factory skid doesn't cover. So lame, I just can't understand it. They could have easily protected that part of the plastic tank. I was also surprised at how FLAT this skid is. I thought the photos looked like it is way more 3 dimensional, esp near the front. But the shipping box is about 3" thick. I dabbed on a little bit of anti-sieze grease onto each bolt before assembling. Can't hurt & may help. Anyway, except for losing the nut plate, this is not a difficult job, even for you without help.

This is a great product. I wish someone would have made a note on website that you need to have the transfer case skid before you can install the gas tank skid

Inexpensive 3/16" thick skid plate with no reinforcements. Mine arrived with no hardware or instructions and a destroyed box. Easy enough to pickup the hardware. However, I would suggest purchasing a button head bolt for the back bolt by the drive shaft. I purchased a 3/8" Grade 8 bolt and sheared it off the first run, including destroying my drive shaft. This inexpensive skid plate turned out to be very expensive. I also welded on 3/16" x 1.5" strips at a 30 degree angle along the flat sides to reinforce the plate. Without this, this skid will bend fairly easy. If it were not for the expensive damage to my driveline, I would recommend this skid. However, if you do not do any hardcore wheeling and want some extra protection without fabrication this should work well. Otherwise, I would plan on some fabrication. This was originally purchased as a short term skid while I had a custom 1/4" skid plate fabricated.

Heavy duty. Easy install. Need two people or a jack, plates are heavy and hard to hold up amd bolt up