Attempted to post without coffee.

 

If you plan on performing such feats on a recurring basis, then yes, as you will eventually crack your fuel tank without the appropriate armor.

If not and the tank is okay, leave it. Chicks dig scars.

 

That is nothing. You should see mine. 11 years of it and the tank has never had an issue to date. may hold less fuel its that bent up.

Count that as the first kiss. First cutest the deepest, the rest are just scratches.

 

Mine is like Doc's. It has lots of interesting contour changes and at least a 2 gal dent. I do have an additional skid over it to help keep it from getting worse (in theory) Of course, that skid is also beat to crap.

 

That one doesn't look like it will be any problem. FYI most of the after market gas tank skid plates do not replace the stock one. They cover over it. When I decided to replace mine, because it was so dented up I couldn't get a full tank of gas any more, I couldn't find one that just replaced the oem. I wanted to save some weight by swapping it out for a beefier one but they all just add to it.

I would recommend that you replace the cross member. That piece is wholly inadequate if you are going to continue with crawling over rocks.

 

That skid is ok you didn't do anything that will deem it unsafe for the gas tank.
I wheeled the crap out of my 1st Jeep for 3 years with the factory gas tank skid. Rocks dented and bent it to oblivion but it held up without a single issue. (no gashes, cuts, nothing pierced the gas tank etc etc) You’ll lose a little of gas holding capacity the more you dent it but that’s about it. It's super ligthweight and can take a beating though comestically it would look banged up.

On my 2nd Jeep I put a couple of dents on the OE one before i decided to add a little more stiffness down there. A rock had wedged up in the OE gas tank skid in the front corner, and had the the Jeep trapped for a little while so i thought maybe adding an aftermarket skid was going to help in that type of situations allowing the Jeep to glide over the obstacle a little easier.

I went with Rubicon Express REA1016 gas tank skid. $140 last year in April 2022, and it was only 40lbs if i remember correctly. See post#167 and #168 here from my build thread.

My 18 Sport S build

Picked up a used 18 unlimited Sport S from Carmax couple of weeks ago with 31k miles. Here she is in stock trim 2021-05-23_07-05-11 by RAM RSM, on Flickr I'll start doing little mods at a time, i went with led headlights, Spiderwebshade, Bestop seat locking storage, Tuffy rear cargo box, and...

www.wranglerforum.com

Not sure if the skid is available anymore and considering there is nothing else in that price range which was the main driver in my case to put one down there i'm glad i was able to pick one up at that price, i know the OE will take a beating so i wasn't looking for 100lbs-$500-$600 thing to put down there.

It's been taking hits since then, best $140 so far for that area, and the install was super easy.
2023-06-14_08-04-31 by RAM RSM, on Flickr

 

I run the same Rubicon Express skid. I beat on it like a rented mule.

 

I just put a Metalcloak skid on mine. I caught the kit on sale…
Awesome coverage!

The Metalcloak crossmember is a thing of beauty and serious beef, well all of it is actually