Removal of front Transmission Skid Is it necessary

JFace

JFace

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Apr 16, 2019
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St. George
Planning on doing a 3 day long camp trip later this month with some family, so I am wanting to change my transmission fluid since its close to its service interval, and I'll be driving about 6 hours to the rendevous point. However, the transmission pan itself is covered with the T-shaped skid from the factory and the nutserts have stripped. No worries, I can break out the sawz-all, but my question is, that skid plate necessary? I feel liek i see builds on here all the time and dont really notice anyone else running it.

I don't really do and rock crawling, and the Jeep is 95% daily driver, and from what I can tell it doesnt support anything in the driveline. Pretty much if I cut the bolts off to remove it, do I need to bother replacing it? Apart from the obvious answer of added protection i mean.

Skid Plate Highlighted.jpg
Skid Plate side.jpg
 
You can drive without it, but personally I would replace it with something as soon as I had the chance. One badly placed stick of wood, a piece of road debris, or anything else could easily leave you stranded.
 
jjvw said:
When is the last time you dragged that skid?
Click to expand...

Honestly don't think I ever had. Considering the wheeling i get up to, I doubt I ever would. My main concern was that if Jeep put it there its most likely for a reason. However, if apart from protection it doesn't provide support to anything I might ditch it after removal. I suppose I can always add an aftermarket skid later if I need to.
 
Ya, does nothing except protect the pan. I wouldn't worry about running without one if my skids looked as nice as yours. The factory transmission pan isn't tin foil, it just can't support the Jeep.
 
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