I had a 2010 Silverado with the Z71 and I remember the pretty beefy skid plate underneath the truck.

I'm looking at the 2014's now and happened to look at the skid plate and it is flimsy plastic! What is that supposed to protect the drive line from? Wind only?

I'd rather give up some gas mileage for an actual skid plate...

 

GM probably did it because 99.9% of Z71s never see any kind of use that even remotely requires a skid plate.

 

This. I was dead set on getting the Off Road Z71 package because I thought it would make the truck that much more capable, but decided against it when I test drove one and the ride blew goats, and I realized that the most off roading I would ever do was driving up the access road to the landfill once every two months or so, and parking in a grass parking lot at an event.

 

I'm 31, I've lived in "rural" areas my entire life, grew up on a farm and I can count the number of times Ive actually needed four wheel drive on 2 fingers. and I've put my 2wd trucks in some crazy places lol...

 

I've had to use 4wd in my truck almost every day. But the type of work I'm in pretty much requires it.

 

I won't purchase a truck without 4wd due to some of the winters we can get here in Ohio.

I got pretty irritated with GM when I saw this piece of plastic they call a "skid plate".

They have turned these trucks into a modern day el camino.

 

That's what I don't like about my '14, more plastic than I'm used to. Grant it my last trucks was an 86 Custom Deluxe and then a 98 Z71. The front seemed too low until I took in account that my 98 was leveled. I dook that plastic valance off the bottom of the front bumper and it looked so much better and there's a lot more room now just be removing that. Honestly I think it's more for wind to be more fuel efficient.

By the way, I had my 98 mudding the 1st weekend I had it (bought it in 04) and it stayed dirty/muddy. My 86 was 2wd and still got it more muddy than most people in lifted 4x4s lol. Z71 seems to not be that much of an upgrade, especially when most things you can just add afterwards. I just seem to happen to always get Z71s. Hell starting with the '14 model you can get 2wds with the Z71 package. I remember looking on the lot and I was looking for the 4x4s and the salesman had to tell me that just because it's a Z71 doesn't mean it's 4x4. Also my truck has Rancho shocks front and rear and I believed that's because of the Z71 package.

I do love the ride of the truck though. Even though I won't be mudding in this truck until it's paid for (learned my lesson) I've gone down a lot of dirt and gravel roads and it takes bumps pretty well. I've even gone 70 down a dirt road and it was fine. Also I'm still not used to the ride because you're going faster than it feels. You can go 70 and swear it feels like you're only going about 45. Not speed wise, just how good the ride is.

I have no complaints, just wish mine came with Bose but it still sounds good. Also it was way too quiet but I fixed it with a single Flowmaster Super 44 muffler with dual outlets and it sounds awesome.

 

Dodge and ford dont even use skid plates anymore.

Fords is a cloth plate on the F-150's, more so for air movement under the truck.

A heavy duty plastic skid plate will do the same thing as a metal one when it comes to blocking road debris and mud and rocks from hitting things. And even if you went off road and smacked the skid plate hard enough the metal plate which is not very thick would just bend anyway.

New trucks are over priced for what you get, you can buy a fully loaded dodge for over 10 grand less than a chevy/gmc. But not everyone wants something that isnt a GM.

 

F150's have a metal skidplate under the engine and a plastic one under the gas tank and a tinfoil(almost) one for the transfer case.

 

The 2011 F150 ecoboost that I had, had a felt skid plate underneath, I worked at the ford dealer for two years as a tech, I don't recall any metal skid plates on an f150.