For the last five or six months I’ve been driving my 3rd gen Tacoma around with basically no real engine protection, because my stock skid plate got absolutely wrecked on my Colorado trip. The factory “paper thin” skid took some good hits, bent into the bolts, and even started rubbing near my lower control arm skids. It did its job enough to save things underneath, but it was time for something way more legit. In this video I install the RIVAL 4x4 1/4-inch (6mm) aluminum engine skid plate setup from TacomaBeast. I went aluminum on purpose to cut weight, and the quality right out of the box is super nice—clean machining, solid thickness, and access for maintenance. I walk through the tools you need (15mm, 17mm, torque wrench), the crash bar bolt removals, and the step-by-step mounting process—plus the real-world headaches like bolt alignment, leaving everything loose first, and how I solo-install skids by resting the plate on my stomach so I’m not fighting it in the air. Once it’s on, I mark hardware with Sharpie so I can track if anything loosens over time, and I’ll be testing it on trails to see how aluminum holds up on rocks.