2015 Lower Air Dam Removal

Silverado-Hareek · June 2, 2015

It would have sheared off the bolts just as the plastic did.

No way the plastic basically ripped. Metal wouldn't have done that. But agree to disagree. I'll never be satisfied with plastic skid plates

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crushNchowda · June 2, 2015

No it wouldn't have. We're talking that little bit of hard snow from melting slightly during the day and then re freezing. You may lose some of your wax coating but metal will destroy it. No way a metal skid plate would rip like that.

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Science lesson - water is can be a vapor, liquid, or solid - in solid form (ice) its essentially a mineral like any rock. It is absolutely tough enough to rip off a metal or STEEL skidplate or crush your entire truck like a tin can if you hit it hard enough

My entire truck got hung up on a compacted snow/ice bank exactly as described, supported the entire front end and it was "snow" the day before I had driven over it, but once frozen may as well have been slate. I had to get pulled out by a jacked up modded wrangler (embarrassment x20)

Silverado-Hareek · June 2, 2015

Science lesson - water is can be a vapor, liquid, or solid - in solid form (ice) its essentially a mineral like any rock. It is absolutely tough enough to rip off a metal or STEEL skidplate or crush your entire truck like a tin can if you hit it hard enough

My entire truck got hung up on a compacted snow/ice bank exactly as described, supported the entire front end and it was "snow" the day before I had driven over it, but once frozen may as well have been slate. I had to get pulled out by a jacked up modded wrangler (embarrassment x20)

I'm not trying to be rude with this response but I don't need the science lesson I'm a civil & structural engineer by major. We're talking about 2 very different degrees of ice hardness here. Yes in certain cases you're right ice can be just as hard as rock. In other instances, it's not that hard. My basic point in this thread is that a metal skid plate will stand up to a lot more than a plastic skid plate will. These plastic plates are fine for small sticks and stones but won't provide the same level of protection that aluminum or steel will.

Separately, I'd argue what that user in the link above faced that ripped his plastic skid plates down would not have affected aluminum or steel skid plates at all. I'm basing that argument on the fact that nothing else on his truck was adversely affected in any way, just the crappy plastic "skid plates." The evidence suggests metal ones would have kept going just fine.

crushNchowda · June 2, 2015

I'm not trying to be rude with this response but I don't need the science lesson I'm a civil & structural engineer by major. We're talking about 2 very different degrees of ice hardness here. Yes in certain cases you're right ice can be just as hard as rock. In other instances, it's not that hard. My basic point in this thread is that a metal skid plate will stand up to a lot more than a plastic skid plate will. These plastic plates are fine for small sticks and stones but won't provide the same level of protection that aluminum or steel will.

Separately, I'd argue what that user in the link above faced that ripped his plastic skid plates down would not have affected aluminum or steel skid plates at all. I'm basing that argument on the fact that nothing else on his truck was adversely affected in any way, just the crappy plastic "skid plates." The evidence suggests metal ones would have kept going just fine.

Yeah I was just remarking it Ice > metal in some circumstances

I think ALL "off road, all terrain etc." vehicles out there are laughable w/ a few exceptions being Jeep wrangler, certain land rovers when equipped correctly, Ford raptor, toyota FJ/landcruiser/4 runner, TRD specialty versions of Tundra/Tacoma, nissan Xterra - and those last few would be stretching it truthfully.

Silverado-Hareek · June 3, 2015

Yeah I was just remarking it Ice > metal in some circumstances

I think ALL "off road, all terrain etc." vehicles out there are laughable w/ a few exceptions being Jeep wrangler, certain land rovers when equipped correctly, Ford raptor, toyota FJ/landcruiser/4 runner, TRD specialty versions of Tundra/Tacoma, nissan Xterra - and those last few would be stretching it truthfully.

Yeah true most of them are just marketing ploys to sell trucks to yuppies like me that will buy them haha. I definitely wanna replace my shocks with bilstiens and eventually find some way to fabricate a metal skid plate if I can.

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tnchevy · June 3, 2015

Yeah I was just remarking it Ice > metal in some circumstances

I think ALL "off road, all terrain etc." vehicles out there are laughable w/ a few exceptions being Jeep wrangler, certain land rovers when equipped correctly, Ford raptor, toyota FJ/landcruiser/4 runner, TRD specialty versions of Tundra/Tacoma, nissan Xterra - and those last few would be stretching it truthfully.

You ought to come hang out with me on one of my normal days of work or anybody else who works in the field out of their trucks all day. I take my work trucks to places most wouldn't go in their daily driver and after 17 years of doing this it all boils down to a good set of LT AT tires, winch (I have one on the front and hitch mounted one for the rear on my work truck), and decent underbody protection. We don't have any 2014+ silverados in the fleet yet but when we do I think we will run into problems with damage that the thin plastic skid plate won't protect. I have nothing against plastic skids because my boss used to have an Explorer that had very thick skids plates and they worked fine.

Silverado-Hareek · June 3, 2015

You ought to come hang out with me on one of my normal days of work or anybody else who works in the field out of their trucks all day. I take my work trucks to places most wouldn't go in their daily driver and after 17 years of doing this it all boils down to a good set of LT AT tires, winch (I have one on the front and hitch mounted one for the rear on my work truck), and decent underbody protection. We don't have any 2014+ silverados in the fleet yet but when we do I think we will run into problems with damage that the thin plastic skid plate won't protect. I have nothing against plastic skids because my boss used to have an Explorer that had very thick skids plates and they worked fine.

These aren't very thick at all. They're pretty flimsy. I was hoping to have a buddy in Texas with a truck shop make metal ones for us but he's not responding to my facebook messages so I'm not sure what's up. I guess plan B is to get with a local metal fabrication shop to see if they can duplicate the plastic skid plate.

tnchevy · June 3, 2015

I hope the aftermarket people will get into making one (for a decent price) in the near future because I will probably be a buyer. As I mentioned I don't do much off roading in my personnel truck but a "off road" labled truck should have better underbody protection. I don't know how many of you are familiar with the early 2000's Ford Explorers but the plastic they used was very thick and went from the front all the way to the back gas tank. That grocery getter was not made to go off road but we did it anyway and gouged the plastic up pretty good but it never cracked or broke. My 2002 silverado had a nice thick skid plate made out of aluminum, wasn't very big and caught a ton of oil when I did oil changes but covered what it needed to. Good luck on the skid plate hunt!

PinoyChevy · June 15, 2015

New guy on the forum guys. Some help on how to post pics on the iPhone?

ccdies · June 15, 2015

its not a all terrain, but it looks the same

robvas · June 15, 2015

took mine off my silverado, looked great. Probably keep it on my sierra until I hit something with it and then I'll take it off (or take off what's left of it!)

fondupot · November 2, 2015

Anyone thought to slightly trim the valence instead of totally removing? So that the the sides are even with the middle part? Might look a little better, but still retain some aerodynamicism. (Hole shit thats a word).

HiggySTL · November 2, 2015

I've seen some that are trimmed instead of removed and it doesn't look bad at all. A local off-road shop here opts to trim them up shorter on the sides and rounds them off in order to fit a larger tire. It looks pretty good and is a nice alternative to removing it. I will try to find a couple pics and post them if I find some.

tnchevy · November 2, 2015

I seen a GMC that had a 6 inch lift yesterday with the air dam trimmed and cut out towards the tires like you just mentioned. Looked good. I just gone through my first tank of gas with my air dam off. I got 19.4 mpg which is about what I have been getting. I don't do a lot of interstate driving, about 70% of my driving is on hilly 55 mph highways and backroads. I keep a detailed spreadsheet of my fill ups and for the first 12 months I got a little over 19mpg's. Plan on seeing what my mpg's are for the next 12 months with the air dam off.

My truck looks pretty good without it but you do see the mounting tabs at certain angles. After my 12 month gas mileage experiment I plan on trimming mine flush to help clean it up a little.