88 Fuel Tank Skid Plate

[SenorNoob]

My skid plate hasn't lined up right with the my tank in forever (maybe when I bought the truck, can't remember). The addition of the dent from the LBL trip has me interested enough to try to fix it. But what am I missing? It doesn't look like either can move.

Front

Back

Driver Rear Mount

Driver Front Mount

Front Passenger Mount

Rear Passenger mount

Does it have the wrong tank or skid plate? I know there were a few options for size of tank. Did they have different skid plates?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

There is a plastic shield that is supposed to wrap around the front.

In reality it just traps debris and rots out the front of the fuel tank.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Hmm…

There are different skid plates for the different tanks, but I believe it’s a lot more obvious that it’s not the right skid plate. I have both the smaller and larger tanks here and a skid plate for the smaller. I did have the larger skid plate out and it only required a glance to tell them apart.

There is that dumb plastic nosecone thing for the tanks which you appear to be missing. Perhaps that’s an aftermarket tank which may or may not match OEM as well.

Any tank I replace anymore is plastic. Too many rust issues around here. Sometimes their contours make them fit better than the metal ones. They aren’t cheap, but considering the last new steel tank only lasted about a year before a bump on the seam with a wrench split it open (literally a bump because the wrench was between the tank and frame rail), a plastic tank is worth not replacing a ton of tanks. Plastic and rocks don’t really mix much better than metal though. Perhaps time to consider building a skid plate to protect that area? Looks like the factory one got crunched into the tank anyway so apparently you need something stronger there?

 

[SenorNoob]

I had forgotten about the little plastic thing, but it hardly seems normal for the tank to be in such hard contact with the edge of the skidplate...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I had forgotten about the little plastic thing, but it hardly seems normal for the tank to be in such hard contact with the edge of the skidplate...

OE skidplates are not really the gold standard all skidplates are measured against either...