Mazzulla Offroad Skid Plate Installed 2016 Silverado Z71

Timmyboy188 · August 27, 2016

Got my skid plate installed today. I took it in chunks getting ready to put on. I had to remove some things to make it fit, but nothing I was too worried about. It came in a brushed aluminum finish, so I painted it black.

Edited August 27, 2016 by Timmyboy188

Waaazooo · August 27, 2016

Looks great, does it relocate the recovery hooks or do you loose them all together?

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HoosierZ · August 27, 2016

Looks awesome.

Just needs the bolts painted black and trim the bottom of the fender liners

Timmyboy188 · August 27, 2016

I had to remove the tow hooks, as well as chop the horseshoe mounts off the frame. No matter though, since those are useless once the vehicles frame is assembled. Yes, I plan to cleanup the bolts and the wheel wells.

HoosierZ · August 27, 2016

Would it be possible to add cut-outs for the tow hooks?

Waaazooo · August 27, 2016

I had to remove the tow hooks, as well as chop the horseshoe mounts off the frame. No matter though, since those are useless once the vehicles frame is assembled. Yes, I plan to cleanup the bolts and the wheel wells.

The recovery hooks are useless?

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Timmyboy188 · August 27, 2016

No, sorry, punctuation would have helped there. I meant the horseshoe mounts are useless. Recovery hooks would have been nice to hold onto. I would say yes, you could cut out spots for the hooks to come through, but honestly, if I need pulled out, I can hookup to the rear. I don't really do much that would get me into a situation where I need them.

SouthernSilveradoGuy85 · August 27, 2016

No, sorry, punctuation would have helped there. I meant the horseshoe mounts are useless. Recovery hooks would have been nice to hold onto. I would say yes, you could cut out spots for the hooks to come through, but honestly, if I need pulled out, I can hookup to the rear. I don't really do much that would get me into a situation where I need them.

Well sometimes you don't have the choice and sometimes have to use the front. I know it's easy to say you won't get into a situation where you'd need them, but you really never know.

Timmyboy188 · August 27, 2016

This is true. But I'm rolling the dice on it. I mean I guess I could just put a tool pack together and keep in the truck with the hooks, so if I needed them that bad I could install them. It would take about 20 minutes total to remove the plate and mount the hooks back up.

SouthernSilveradoGuy85 · August 27, 2016

This is true. But I'm rolling the dice on it. I mean I guess I could just put a tool pack together and keep in the truck with the hooks, so if I needed them that bad I could install them. It would take about 20 minutes total to remove the plate and mount the hooks back up.

That would work as long as it's not a situation where it would be hard to do that, like in deep snow in a ditch or a mud hole. Just thinking of the worst scenarios, but I guess that's a very low chance lol. I've just had a time in my old truck a '98 where I got out of a mudhole without help, but as I was backing up it slid into a rut and well the frame and hitch were both literally on the ground (not lifted, but it was leveled). So if that happened to you then you wouldn't be able to get those rear bolts off. I'm sure you won't get into a situation where you couldn't take the plate off, but I guess I tend to think of the worst situations.

I know you can hook to the frame itself, but sometimes spots just aren't meant to have a lot of horizontal stress like it would be if you had to be snatched out. I know that because for some odd reason my '98 Z71 didn't have tow hooks on it so for a long while I would just put the hook in a hole int he frame. Well snatching sometimes bent the metal and even tore to the point where it had to be welded. I think the part that tore wasn't the frame itself and was a cross member and that time I didn't have much to chose from since it was buried in the mud. Ironically enough I finally decided to get factory tow hooks after that incident where the metal tore and well never needed them after that since I decided to not go real mudding anymore for awhile, then got rid of the truck for my '14 lol. As I've mentioned on this forum I was very hard on that truck and plan on taking care of this one. I do want an old truck to play in and I would probably put a front hitch on it and then get a winch with a hitch mount so I can put it on the front or rear with quick disconnects both front and rear to just plug it up real easy and quick.

austingta · August 28, 2016

I agree with the sentiments above. If you need a skid plate, don't you need recovery hooks?

Timmyboy188 · August 28, 2016

You guys are really getting too hung up on tow hooks! I did this for mainly a cosmetic mod, I don't do any kind of rock crawling. Service roads are about the roughest terrain I drive on. It's my daily driver in Phoenix AZ, lol. Not much snow or mud in my routes. Thank you for the concern though.

SouthernSilveradoGuy85 · August 28, 2016

I do like how it looks, how it makes it look a little like a pre-runner going from the bumper to the brace and looks factory. I guess I'm just one of those people that even though I do think about looks, I just won't sacrifice function and practicality for looks. Just giving my opinion on this stuff I guess, not bashing your decision on it. If they made one for a '14-'15 that allowed you to keep the factory tow hooks then I would most likely want it.