MF 1734 Skid plate availabilty?

[V65ozzie]

After having the belly tanks pretty much ripped off for the 3rd time, I'm looking for a belly skid plate for my 1734. It's a poor design, the factory guard is just tin, combine this with the fact it's a rental unit, and it spells problem$. I've looked into building one, but 1/4 inch plate is at a premium apparently. Anyone? Beuller, beuller? Web searches have proved fruitless so far.
I'm also relocating the coolant line that attached to the right side of the frame, and I've relocated the rear lights so they are inboard of the ROP bar.

Rental customers apparently are under the belief you can push 4-6 inch trees over, and then chop them up with the bush hog.......that's not working out too well.......

 

[V65ozzie]

It appears you can't purchase a skid plate. So I went ahead and built one. Got about 250 bucks in materials in it. Pics availabe if anyone wants to see. It 'aint pretty, but it's been on 3 rentals so far with no damage to the tanks.
Note, the sheet of 1/4 plate was the bulk of the materials, at around 220 bucks, the rest of the stuff was sourced from the scrap bin at my shop, the scrap bin at my local steel supplier, and I had most of the nuts and bolts in my bins. I had to purchase some all steel lock nuts and some longer bolts. All my cuts were done with a sawzall and/or a cutting torch. Welding pushed my little Hobart 140 to it's limits, basically due to the extended duty cycle times I was pushing, but it came through like a trooper. The tractor is currently at the dealer for a particulate filter problem, it will be interesting to see what they say about the skid plate.