I don't think I'll need to as the forces against the x-member are upward and it is against the bottom of the frame rails

I was more worried about dropping it on a rock and bending it up. 

The brackets are 1/4" angle iron and the skid is made from 3/8" plate plus there will be sliders protecting the area but I will reassess the area after the protection is in place

1/4"  Nice, it didn't look quite that thick.  It is probably more then enough, I just like adding braces.  They look shiny. 

Well I got the motor all in and hooked up so I started working on other things like getting driveshafts in and shifters in place, just making up a new trans tunnel top then I'll get pics of that.
Got my trans cooler and p/s cooler in and plumbed and got the p/s pump press bumped up as well as my oba pump in but not plumbed.

Next I decided to start modifying my front bumper and partial cage from my old rig to fit on the new one. I made up some 1/4" plates and glued them in then attached the bumper to the brackets. I made some "L" brackets to mount the bottom of the bumper to the front x member but forgot pics of those.

After I got the bumper mounted up solid I gave it a shot of rocker guard to cover it all up. It's turning out nice I think. Next up is fender trimming and rocker panel repair so I can mount up my sliders and rear bumper then I can tie the cage in to everything.

What tube size are you using? Looks alittle on the big side.

I'm using 1.5" sch 40 pipe. The trees and rocks up here lay a good beating on the cage

Must just be the angle of the first pic. It does look good and in my opinion 1.5" is perfect for the Suzuki.

So I got back at it recently as I had set myself a deadline and needed it done for a club campout. I got the badly rusted rockers cut out and some new metal welded in then sealed it up with some sikaflex and coated everything with rocker guard and some rattle can black. Also got the rear bumper cut into place and welded.

Once that was done I got busy mounting some sliders on the truck

I decided to bling up the inside as I had to cut up the tunnel a bit to fit the new shifters in so I dug out a piece of material I had left over from another project and bent it to fit. I'm just waiting for my G/F to make some vinyl boots for the kicker box shifter and the auto shifter.

I didn't get any pics of while I was building the cage as I had my head down and ass up with a grinder in one hand and the welder in the other but here are some pics of where it sits now. I still need to add some more pipes for triangulation and strength but this gets me on the road so I can break in the new gears and motor. I had to add on the flares and mudflaps to keep the po-po off my back. The flaps detach with one pin and get tossed in the back for wheeling.

Of course the next logical step was to take it out in the bush for some field testing. Again I didn't get much for pics but I did stop for the obligatory poser shot. Let me just say that I am VERY IMPRESSED with the way this thing hooks up and climbs. To put it simply "IROK's ROCK"

During the course of the day a couple problems cropped up. One is that the center pin in my front double carden driveshaft is loose so will need some attention. The other is that the stock bushings in the rear lower control arms are screwed and therefore my pinion angle is moving all over the place so I'm off to see if I can find some better bushings to replace them with until I can gather up the stuff to make new arms with a hiem in them.