A friend from church has a 2019 F150 Ecoboost and has torn two of these fiber undertrays in a similar way to the linked picture. He likes the idea of the tray and what it does but hates the tearing and paying for replacements. I suggested buying a new tray and fiberglassing the areas where bolts go through.
Any better, proven fixes? Any better alternatives?
Thanks
Following. I just did the first oil change on my 21 Expedition, which is when I learned these were a thing.
Maybe someone makes an aluminum off'road skid plate for those years of F150 that can be adapted?
My 2012 F150 Ecoboost has a metal plate.
Could also get some aluminum plates cut, sandwich the corners, then rivet the three layers together? Might be more resilient than fiberglass.
Would also be able to sell kits to other people and make a little scratch on the side.
On our company trucks (including my '21 F150), our mechanic just tosses them at first service. For what little that's worth.
He also removes and tosses the retractable front air dam, too.
Spearfishin said:On our company trucks (including my '21 F150), our mechanic just tosses them at first service. For what little that's worth.
He also removes and tosses the retractable front air dam, too.
Sounds like there's some saleable parts in your dumpster!
glyn ellis said:Spearfishin said:On our company trucks (including my '21 F150), our mechanic just tosses them at first service. For what little that's worth.
He also removes and tosses the retractable front air dam, too.
Sounds like there's some saleable parts in your dumpster!
I removed the damaged panel / undertray on my Ford E350 and immediately noticed a +5-7 degree increase in coolant temperature above 70mph. Reinstalled it and the temp came back down.
I'd dive that dumpster to retrieve the air dam to retrofit onto my van.
They're on some sort of 4 year leases that seem to somehow have no financial ties to mileage or condition. They regularly service them with a fairly open wallet, but 5 deg of coolant temp increase isn't going to be a thing anyone worries about.
God, how I hate those berkeleying things. My Expedition has that fibersorb crap with a thin aluminum underside on it. Because of where the oil filter is, it's unavoidable that some oil runs onto the thing at every change. At this point, the thing is absolutely saturated with dirty engine oil. I've been planning on pulling it off and power washing and drying it to try and get rid of some of it. But I'm not going to get rid of it. Ford wouldn't spend the money to put it there if it didn't serve a purpose.
Tell your friend to go do a little research on F150 forums. I'm sure there's a metal equivalent. On my '23 F150 Tremor there was a fibersorb cover under the cats and transfer case. Someone posted a thread that the Raptor of the same generation had a nice stamped steel cover in the same spot. It cost about $100 for the cover and hardware. It's a hell of a lot more study and might actually protect the transfer case from rock damage.
I think the FX4 package replaces that panel with a solid panel. Would assume the tremor and raptors do as well
edit:
google led me to an F150 forum that offered the part numbers for the FX4 pieces
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