Skid plate
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6th Gear
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Skid plate
I’ve got an 02’ f350 super cab, cab and chassis, 4x4 that is my service truck. It has a 9’ Omaha service bed. I use this for farm equipment service. It sees a lot of tough terrain. I would like to protect the transfer case but I can’t find a plate made for the cab / chassis 34” frame. Is there such a critter or do I need to fab my own.
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I’ve got an 02’ f350 super cab, cab and chassis, 4x4 that is my service truck. It has a 9’ Omaha service bed. I use this for farm equipment service. It sees a lot of tough terrain. I would like to protect the transfer case but I can’t find a plate made for the cab / chassis 34” frame. Is there such a critter or do I need to fab my own.
The frame rails of your chassis cab are spaced the same as any pick-up underneath your cab.
Therefore, you can use the transfer case skid plate for a pickup.
The only caveat is that there may not be holes pierced into the lower frame flange of your chassis cab to bolt up the skid plate, which is flange moutned.
Then you have to ask yourself, are you willing to drill holes into the lower frame flange, when Ford (and every other truck manufacturer) specifically advises against drilling holes in the horizontal flanges of the frame?
The highest amount of tensile stress in a frame is imposed on the lower flange.
If you are comfortable defying Ford's strong recommendations not to drill the lower flange, then the pickup version of the transfer case skid plate will fit your chassis cab truck frame perfectly, as the frame widths between pickup and chassis cab are exactly the same where the transfer case is located. The material thickness may differ, but the web to web width is the same.
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6th Gear
Joined: May 2002
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Thanks! That’s exactly the information I needed. I don’t want to drill. This frame is under a lot of torsional stress and truck is a mobile shop @ 10,000 with all the equipment in it. I will look at existing frame and fabricate a plate if necessary to fit existing frame holes. Good wintertime job when the field work slows down.
thanks,
chris
thanks,
chris
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There are no existing frame holes on the lower flange of the frame parallel with the transfer case on chassis cabs up to 2003.
But there is a large hole in the neutral zone of the frame web, and both the driver and passenger side frame rails, in line with the transfer case.
You can go ahead and buy (or recover from a pick and pull) the Ford transfer case skid plate, and weld asymmetric angles to the skid plate mounting tabs, where the vertical leg of the angle is high enough to reach the existing holes in the vertical web of the frame web in the neutral stress zone.
In later years, Ford began making the skid plate available in the F-450/550 chassis cabs. I want to say from 2005 until 2016, there were holes in the lower frame flange to accommodate the skid plate (still unchanged from the pickup skid plate). I don't remember if 2004 model years had those holes or not. My understanding is that you have a 2002, so I would not expect your frame to have those holes.
However, I never ordered an F-350 chassis cab, so keep that in mind.
But there is a large hole in the neutral zone of the frame web, and both the driver and passenger side frame rails, in line with the transfer case.
You can go ahead and buy (or recover from a pick and pull) the Ford transfer case skid plate, and weld asymmetric angles to the skid plate mounting tabs, where the vertical leg of the angle is high enough to reach the existing holes in the vertical web of the frame web in the neutral stress zone.
In later years, Ford began making the skid plate available in the F-450/550 chassis cabs. I want to say from 2005 until 2016, there were holes in the lower frame flange to accommodate the skid plate (still unchanged from the pickup skid plate). I don't remember if 2004 model years had those holes or not. My understanding is that you have a 2002, so I would not expect your frame to have those holes.
However, I never ordered an F-350 chassis cab, so keep that in mind.
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