CJC Offroad 4th gen 2500 air dam delete/skid plate sturdiness

[DonRam240]

I’ve torn off one corner of the factory air dam in deep snow once, replaced fasteners but would like to delete the plastic air dam and replace with something that will tolerate bucking a bit of bumper-deep snow without damage. Has someone installed the CJC Offroad “skid plate” aluminum intercooler protector and had experience in snow to know if it stands up? It’s 1/8” aluminum plate as I understand it, so it seems likely to be good for this but your actual experience would be welcome. I’m not imagining moving chunks of ice with it, just fresh deep snow that the truck can handle with chains, but hits the bumper at times. Thanks.

 

[AH64ID]

I’ve read lots of good things about it and would likely have one if it was compatible with my front receiver.

 

[DonRam240]

So far no brute experience from the field. Ordered anyway, received, photos:

1/8" aluminum plate as advertised, nicely powdercoated. Enough triangular gusseting effectively included in the design to make it look very sturdy, should do what is needed.

 

[AH64ID]

Have you ordered the 2500 bumper brackets yet?

 

[DonRam240]

The CJC Offroad skid plate (with its brackets) is installed. It tucks up under/behind the bumper nicely, and looks both neat and very sturdy in place. The openings for air to the intercooler are large enough that medium-size rocks could pass through them, so I’m glad I have the aftermarket steel mesh protector from Geno’s Garage in place, with its smaller openings (roughly 5/8-3/4 inch I believe) to catch such rocks and window screen sandwiched with it for bugs and smaller stones. The instructions, as noted elsewhere, are not as easy to follow as they could be. They are only accessible by scanning a QR code on a business card-sized note packaged with the hardware, which opens them partially, then you must click on an “upload” symbol in lower right corner and choose a browser to open and see all pages. It liked Safari better than Chrome on my iPhone. The photos of important details are so close-up without broader context, that it took some head scratching to figure out what they were trying to show. That probably added 20 minutes to the job, which otherwise went well. Pretty sure we’ll be happy with this when snow season arrives and we deal with the occasional drifted snow. The badly cracked plastic air dam is headed for the trash.