I thought I would tell the board that my fullskid plate was getting a little loose and started to sound like a howl or whine in the front differential. After I tighted it up it went away. It was pretty confusing foe a while because that sheet of metal reflects the sound up at the driver and it would get a harmonic howl at a certian rpm in each gear. The Rancher was OK just a little maintence. These plates loosen when we compress them after stump and rock encounters. By the way I don't think I would ever go with out one, I sure hear a lot of things ding it and the Rancher was wide open from the ground up in the front part of the engine. Just a heads-up.

 

I put skids on my Recon, and I suddenly became aware of a lot of gear whine. As you said, the metal reflects the sound up toward you. My skids resonated so bad at certain RPM's, it about drove me nuts. Probably due in part to the transverse engine layout. I unbolted the skid, and took some old radiator hose sections of about 1 1/2", and put them over the frame to cushion the skid plate in 4 places. It seems to have helped.

 

Have ya ever tried putting a piece of foam like they use for sound reduction, between the skid plate and frame??????