TOMKEN GAS TANK SKID PLATE INSTALL

Next, I needed to protect the gas tank from the damage I kept inflicting on it. The answer was a gas tank skid plate. I chose Tomken, but looking around at what others have, I should have chosen a Kilby. The Kilby gives you about 2” more clearance instead of loosing 1/2" with the Tomken. Installation went fairly easy. The only problem I had been getting the skid plate to fit around the previous damage I did to the stock gas tank skid plate. (Another bonus to the Kilby, is you remove the stock skid plate.) After a bunch of well-positioned applications of a hammer, everything fit just fine. Again the delay cost me valuable time. This project took about 2 hours.

Here is the driver’s side damage. I soon learned I need better protection than the stock skid plate offered.	Here is the passenger’s side damage. All you can see is the crease in the side of the tank.
This is a rear view before the installation.	The first thing you need to do is support the gas tank. You will be removing the nuts holding the front of the tank on.
Kind of tough to see, but the front bracket is installed.	Now you position the skid plate and push it under the tank. You then loosely connect the front to the bracket.
Then you loosely attach the two rear brackets. They attach to the bolts holding on the rear bumper.	Then you bash the hell out of the stock gas tank skid plate to get it back into shape. I used the floor jack to force the Tomken skid plate up into position.
You have to be sure the top of the back of the skid plate goes on the inside of the stock gas tank bolts	Here is the finished product from the driver’s side.
And the passenger side.	And the back. I jacked the rear wheels off the ground with this skid plate.

Now I am protected in the rear. I lost about 1/2" of clearance but half of that is the thickness of the new skid plate. That is a loss I can definitely live with. I spent about half of the 2-hour installation time repairing damage and taking pictures. With a clean install and no pictures, this is a 1-hour project. I have “used” the skid plate heavily many times and the only damage it has received was some scratching to the coating.