Intro/skid plate question/exhaust question.

[CanadianAR]

Hey,

My name is Andrew, I live in Ontario, Canada. I’m picking up my first hmmwv Thursday. An 87 M998.
It had a rebuild in 2007 by Maine National Guard it looks like. I’ve been a truck and heavy diesel tech for 19 years, specializing in emissions and electronics.

Question #1

Does the OEM skid plate/guard cage kit require drilling? If so how much? I love the idea of the kit, as we have lots of rocky logging trails nearby, but don’t want to necessarily drill 40 holes in the truck. So if anyone knows how painful it is, I’d appreciate it, Do some trucks have the holes and others don’t?

Question #2

My garage is like 2” too low, has anyone ever taken a few inches out of the exhaust stack? I don’t need the fording kit, as I don’t plan on submersing my pride and joy to that level, but all the cool tech and ideas were what made me fall in love with these decades ago. So I just think it’s neat but also looks really cool.
I don’t have a stack hands on but it looks like you could probably chop saw a piece out, reattach the curved tip, and then tack mesh back down.
Any reason this is a bad idea? Anyone done it?
I’m looking at the complete kit from one of the dealers.

Thanks guys! I have started buying paper manuals and downloading others so hopefully I can answer a lot of my own questions.

 

[juanprado]

The underbody protection kit does require the cross members to be drilled. Most holes are easy. One was challenging. I used a step drill bit. Most of the kit is bolt on to the frame with brackets utilizing existing holes. Not a crazy difficult install. Some pics on my Juan's m998 thread here.


The stock non fording exhaust is a simple side pipe by the tire so you should be ok with that instead of the tall fording pipe and exhaust guard.

 

[CanadianAR]

The underbody protection kit does require the cross members to be drilled. Most holes are easy. One was challenging. I used a step drill bit. Most of the kit is bolt on to the frame with brackets utilizing existing holes. Not a crazy difficult install. Some pics on my Juan's m998 thread here.


The stock non fording exhaust is a simple side pipe by the tire so you should be ok with that instead of the tall fording pipe and exhaust guard.

Thank you, How long would you say it took to install? Are there any template for drilling or just place the piece, mark and drill.?

i know the existing exhaust is fine…..I’m just a idiot who really wants the stack. Hahahah maybe from working on trucks forever

 

[BLK HMMWV]

Thank you, How long would you say it took to install? Are there any template for drilling or just place the piece, mark and drill.?

i know the existing exhaust is fine…..I’m just a idiot who really wants the stack. Hahahah maybe from working on trucks forever

I cut my fording exhaust pipe to fit under my garage door header.

 

[CanadianAR]

I cut my fording exhaust pipe to fit under my garage door header.

Any chance you could take a photo for me?

 

[BLK HMMWV]

Any chance you could take a photo for me?

Not much to photograph really. I just cut a section of it off above the wire cage and then re welded.
At the moment the fording exhaust is off the truck due to a recent parade. Didn't want exhaust blowing on the people in back of HMMWV so I but on normal exhaust pipe.

 

[CanadianAR]

Not much to photograph really. I just cut a section of it off above the wire cage and then re welded.
At the moment the fording exhaust is off the truck due to a recent parade. Didn't want exhaust blowing on the people in back of HMMWV so I but on normal exhaust pipe.

interesting, it didn’t look like much room to chop any out, would you happen to know the height after? Or what your door was?

I just want to make sure I can work it before freighting the stuff to Canada. Lol

 

[juanprado]

Thank you, How long would you say it took to install? Are there any template for drilling or just place the piece, mark and drill.?

i know the existing exhaust is fine…..I’m just a idiot who really wants the stack. Hahahah maybe from working on trucks forever

Yes, the kit has detailed instructions and can be done in segments.
The front cage (do you have a winch?) ,
Main cage., differential plate, gas tank plate, rear differential cage.
I pieced my kit together individually . Maybe 5 hours total if all done at one time. Dont really recall .

Let me see if I can find the directions so you can look at for a reference.

From what I remember:
3 holes for front
6 holes for main
2 holes for differential
6 holes for rear