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Everyone and their brother seems to be selling skid plates. And most of them we run across are pretty much the same. Not bad but nothing special. When we spotted these titanium skids from Great Assembly, we hoped for something out of the ordinary. Thankfully, we were not disappointed.

The very first thing we noticed was the shear heft and weight of the skids. They are HEAVY. We opted for the 3mm skids as GARC recommended them as the ultimate bashing skids. They also offer a slightly thinner set (2mm) that would be lighter in weight and more suitable for racing or in any situation where weight would be a concern. We were after the "ultimate bashing skids" so the thicker the better!

GARC did something with these skids that we have not seen anyone else do with Titanium skids. They polished them! According to GARC, the polishing process is standard equipment on all of their titanium skids. This is a really nice extra feature as most Ti skids we have seen are nothing great to look at. While not as "bright" as polished aluminum, they have their own deep metallic color and are simply beautiful. So, they have beauty...now let's find out about function!

As many of us have found out the hard way, some skid manufacturers forget all about the ever important access holes. Not GARC. They did an excellent job with a-arm pin access holes in the front and rear plates (note the slots in the skids in the pictures). This may not seem like a big deal until you have to pull plates to change a simple hinge pin. Thanks GARC!

The bends and angles are all in the perfect spots. The skids are nicely notched for full a-arm movement and the screw holes are countersunk to the perfect depth. We opted for a set of stainless screws from RC Screws to hold these bad boys on. All the holes lined up perfectly. Skids this thick and strong will not tolerate any wimpy hardware. In fact they will eat soft screws for breakfast. Dave at Great Assembly suggested when installing these skids to skip the Loctite. "Skip the Loctite?"...hmmmm. Then it dawned on us. These skids are so tough that if anything is going to break, it is going to be the hardware or the bulkheads (if you are using plastic bulks). So by skipping the Loctite, if your screws break they will be easy to get out. Makes sense to us! Although in our moderate to heavy slam sessions with these skids, no hardware or other damage occurred. We'll get to that in a minute.

The skids are designed with a upward bend that serves as a bumper. In fact the bend/lip is a bit farther out than the stock bumper configuration. We felt that the angle of the skids looked good and would promote "glancing". That is, allowing the skids to glance over an object rather than slam into it. We opted to leave the bumpers off during our testing. We put these plates through a number of severe beatings. In fact we even broke an engine mount during a cartwheel (there were a number of cartwheels and endos going on - something was bound to break). Simply put, these plates do NOT give. No flex. We can't imagine how hard you would have to hit something to get these to bend.

The only thing we wish we could change on these skids would be the weight (minus one star). They are pretty heavy when compared to aluminum skids of the same thickness (obviously as they are made from 3mm thick titanium). Keep in mind that this is not an issue for the heavy basher and if weight is a real concern, go for the 2mm skids.

They normally go for about $100 a set which is a little bit steep but when you factor in that they will probably be the last skids you will ever buy, that's not too bad. Especially when you think about this: The 3mm GARC skids are about $45 each. Hardcore sells their 2mm skids for $42 each! Extra bonus: GARC has them on sale for about $90. A solid deal just got better. We asked Dave at GARC about the cost and he tells us that the material cost alone doubles when going from 2mm to 3mm! So, even though the cost is a bit high (minus one star), the value is very high. Everyone knows, you get what you pay for. Buy cheap and you will buy again.

If you are looking for a set of skids that could possibly last longer than the rest of your truck, these are what you are looking for. Buy them and stop buying replacement skids....period. We hate buying a "hop-up" only to have it break just like the stock part and once again, you have to spend your jing-a-ling on the same part. Not cool. Get your grubby mitts on these skids and you can spend your money on other hop-ups.

Visit the Great Assembly RC web site and get yourself some rock crushers...I mean skid plates!