I like skids on my diffs front and rear. I have fabricated the skid on my rear and will be fabricating another for the front. My skids are shaped to enhance the "slide over" vs hang up on the casting webs etc. They heavily protect the U joint and lower part of the D shaft, I don't like what my D shaft looks like after it has a discussion with a rock. As far as reduction of clearance, OK yeah, mine are 1/4 -1/8 loss, IMO the gains are greater, smoother bottom, diff cover edges don't get hamburgered, if you want to run the stock cover you can, it protects the air lines going to your lockers (OX especially), they are not difficult to remove but you could pull the cover without removing if you wanted that oily dripping mess to clean up. Just my opinion and everybody has their own.
