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Updated with resolution: JCR Off Road Cat Skid Plate: Poor fitment/rattle

NoVaJimmy

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Just tried installing the JCR Off Road catalytic converter skid plate and there's not enough clearance. The exhaust rattles on it. No amount of adjusting could get it rattle free unfortunately. I took video and I'll be reaching out to JCR to see what they say but hopefully this is just an isolated issue with my skid plate. It rattles so bad and so loud that it's undrivable. I'll update when I hear from them.​
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fossil

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Did you take a look at the exhaust hangers?

I had a heck of a time eliminating a exhaust rattle after a Steeda panhard bar install on my Cobra. I "adjusted" two hangers with a 2# hammer and got a shorter rubber hanger from Auto Zone, rattle gone.

If it's rattling it's close but not touching at rest. Might just need a little tweak.
 
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NoVaJimmy

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Did you take a look at the exhaust hangers?

I had a heck of a time eliminating a exhaust rattle after a Steeda panhard bar install on my Cobra. I "adjusted" two hangers with a 2# hammer and got a shorter rubber hanger from Auto Zone, rattle gone.

If it's rattling it's close but not touching at rest. Might just need a little tweak.
It's actually fully resting on the skid plate.
 
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NoVaJimmy

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Just to update this, I was at least able to get it to where the cat isn't resting on the skid plate. I've tried adjusting the fasteners and brackets every which way and this is the least problematic setup. The issue is that any kind of pothole/speedbump/etc causes the cat to clunk against the skid plate and it's loud and annoying. I don't want to bend the arms supporting the cat and I haven't received a response from JCR unfortunately. I'm going to wind up grinding the opening slightly lower and then I'll have to throw some POR15 on it to keep it from rusting. Pretty disappointing.
 

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Just to update this, I was at least able to get it to where the cat isn't resting on the skid plate. I've tried adjusting the fasteners and brackets every which way and this is the least problematic setup. The issue is that any kind of pothole/speedbump/etc causes the cat to clunk against the skid plate and it's loud and annoying. I don't want to bend the arms supporting the cat and I haven't received a response from JCR unfortunately. I'm going to wind up grinding the opening slightly lower and then I'll have to throw some POR15 on it to keep it from rusting. Pretty disappointing.
I'm still waiting for their engine cover to arrive. Based on the price and your cat cover review, I'm wondering how this will go....
 
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NoVaJimmy

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Just thought I would post a photo of the issue.

How the skid plate fits on the Maverick. Notice how close the cat is to the rear opening:
IMG_1508.jpg

IMG_1521.JPG


How it looks on their website, apparently the Bronco Sport catalytic converter sits further forward than on the Mav
BSSD-CAT_4_1024x682.jpg
 
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fossil

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great, I was thinking the cat was hitting the flat portion. point to check and adjust as needed at install, thanks.
 
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NoVaJimmy

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Well, one thing I found out this weekend is that when the rubber exhaust hangers are warm they stretch so when I actually drove with the skid plate on for an extended period the exhaust went back to just resting on the skid plate. Nothing like having your less than 2 year old truck rattle and clunk like a jalopy in every parking lot every time you hit the slightest undulation in the pavement. Not a good look for the Ford Maverick as people looked over completely puzzled why a newer looking vehicle would be making such horrible noises. I removed the skid plate today. I reached out to JCR again last week and they got back to me Saturday, I sent them some photos and haven't heard back again.
 
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NoVaJimmy

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great, I was thinking the cat was hitting the flat portion. point to check and adjust as needed at install, thanks.
Unless they made changes to the exhaust I don't see how this would fit on any Maverick, there is no room for adjustment short of using spacers to lower the whole skid plate in which case you're just further eating into ground clearance since you lose a little with the skid plate on.
 
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Unless they made changes to the exhaust I don't see how this would fit on any Maverick, there is no room for adjustment short of using spacers to lower the whole skid plate in which case you're just further eating into ground clearance since you lose a little with the skid plate on.
For this farm raised gear head, if there is a will there is a way. Our definition of "adjusting" is certainly different with mine involving modification. Others should take this as a warning that it might not fit and they should be capable of dealing with that or having an installer that could. Exhaust systems are not precision built so there may be variances. I'd be willing to bet it did fit on JCRs test truck.

You found your way to make it work, maybe not the way I would have but it worked. Now you can legit call it a build.

It does suck that it wasn't a error free bolt on for you but that describes about 50% of aftermarket toys I've bought over the years. Most recently a Steeda strut tower brace that wouldn't clear the distributor with out a lil cutting and welding. Maybe my fault for buying that aftermarket billet distributor but who knows. Or the Dynaflow exhaust system that needed tweaking.

Losing GC with skid plates, the way of the world, I would never lower a skid plate.
 
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NoVaJimmy

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For this farm raised gear head, if there is a will there is a way. Our definition of "adjusting" is certainly different with mine involving modification. Others should take this as a warning that it might not fit and they should be capable of dealing with that or having an installer that could. Exhaust systems are not precision built so there may be variances. I'd be willing to bet it did fit on JCRs test truck.

You found your way to make it work, maybe not the way I would have but it worked. Now you can legit call it a build.

It does suck that it wasn't a error free bolt on for you but that describes about 50% of aftermarket toys I've bought over the years. Most recently a Steeda strut tower brace that wouldn't clear the distributor with out a lil cutting and welding. Maybe my fault for buying that aftermarket billet distributor but who knows. Or the Dynaflow exhaust system that needed tweaking.

Losing GC with skid plates, the way of the world, I would never lower a skid plate.
Good luck. I'm not willing to cut or bend anything like you suggested which will just preload other parts of the exhaust causing issues.

It's clear to me that they either just test fitted it without road testing or just made an assumption but either way it's pretty terrible to market something for a vehicle it clearly doesn't fit. I'm also dealing with the HRG skid plate that has instructions seemingly written by a five year old and requires drilling into the subframe which the instructions make no mention of at all.

I bought a lot of high quality parts for my focus st and didn't have to "adjust" anything to make them fit. I guess that's what I expect for any aftermarket mod but we don't have a lot of options for the Maverick unfortunately.

As a disclaimer I will also say (knowing what I know about Ford changing parts) that Ford very well could have changed the exhaust to include a different location or size on the secondary catalytic converter so there's always the possiblity that the Maverick that JCR tested their setup on was different from mine. I know they removed the muffler at the rear and went to the mesh RFP setup so anything is possible
 
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NoVaJimmy

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Just to update the saga, JCR Offroad says they have one of these on their in house Tremor.

Here are photos of the undercarriage of a Tremor and a regular Maverick AWD. They look the same to me but I suck at those "spot the differences" games. Anyone notice anything significantly different?

Mav FX4 undercarriage:
Mav Undercarriage.jpg

Tremor Undercarriage:
Tremor undercarriage.jpg
 

fossil

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Just to update the saga, JCR Offroad says they have one of these on their in house Tremor.

Here are photos of the undercarriage of a Tremor and a regular Maverick AWD. They look the same to me but I suck at those "spot the differences" games. Anyone notice anything significantly different?
Other than your Mav is an earlier model with the umungus resonator, probably no difference.
Might be some other minor dimensional differences as well.
IMG_1383.JPG
 
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NoVaJimmy

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Other than your Mav is an earlier model with the umungus resonator, probably no difference.
Might be some other minor dimensional differences as well.
IMG_1383.JPG
Everything about mine looks the same underneath. Here's the spot where the cat was resting on the skid plate.
IMG_1530.JPG
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