🛡️ Black Rugged Ridge 16597.30 Skid Plate for Dana 30 Differential Review

I completely bent the factory diff cover while crawling over rocks in my jeep. As an add-on, I installed another original cover with this protective plate. I found the steel to be quite thick and well secured, I don't see a scenario where this skid plate would be bent or dented. The screws provided were adequate and I doubt people complaining about over tightening them or using unnecessary Allen keys. Just use a dab of Loctite if you're worried the screws might come loose in any way.

The lid is perfectly aligned. Installation was very easy, literally 15 minutes. The finish looks good and the steel looks pretty beefy. The only thing I didn't like was the mounting hardware, which was hex head screws and felt pretty boring. I only reused the factory bolts as they were the same length as the ones that came with the kit. Worked great, just had to use an open end wrench to tighten the filler cap bolt. If they cut 1/16 inch of the material I could mount a socket on it. For the…

I bought this to fit when changing transmission oil. I received the skid quickly and installation was easy. This thing is powerful and I'm sure it will protect my D30 diff. The first thing I noticed is that the welds aren't very nice, a bit sticky if you get me. In addition, the supplied screws have a hexagon head. You cannot reuse the factory ones as they are not long enough and a small allen wrench may not be enough to tighten them to the required 30 feet. I went to a hardware store and spent

Overall a good buy for the price. Welding could be a little cleaner. The only problem with this item is that the screws provided do not tighten to specification and they BREAK when you try to tighten them. They used hex bolts because they didn't really leave enough room to mount the bushing onto the hex bolt. Be sure to purchase the correct screws before installation: 5/16" (width) - 18 (number of threads) x 3/". 4 inch (length) stainless steel. You need 5 screws total and it only cost me $2 at