i put some blue masking tape where the edges of the stock skid were. the ps skid is a little wider at top, but tapers down on the sides. the ps skid mounts a litle further away from the drive shaft. here are those pictures:

 

i knew if i were going to have problems it would be getting the wiring and tube connectors off of the evap cannister. the ps instructions are written for the earlier jk's, and the 2012's are different.

the electrical wire connector has a flat folded tab on the driveshaft side. i put a flat screwdriver in the fold, twisted it to open the clip on the cannister end and it came of easily. it seems like all wiring connectors on the jk have a locking tab of some sort and this one does.

next i put a flat screwdriver at the base of the rubber hose connector and pushed it up into the rubber some, wiggled it and it came off pretty easily. it wouldn't just pull off without doing that. it was probably easy since my jk is only two months old.

the 2012 cannister has two white plastic tube connectors on the driveshaft side. took a while to figure out how to disconnect them. they're very hard to get to so after struggling on the large one, i undid the bolt underneath the stock skid that bolts into the evap cannister so i could slide the cannister back and get better access to them. they have plastic c-clamps that hold the connectors on the cannister behind the boss on the cannister connections. i broke the small one trying to get it off, went to the dealer to order one and as you'd expect, you have to buy the whole tube for around $70 just to get the connector. so i decided to try making it work without buying a new tube. i think the trick is might be to use a small angle allen wrench to push the ends of the c clamp down and out to unhook them, after they're unhooked you can use a flat screwdriver or your fingers to pull them out. here are the connector pictures including the broken one for the smaller connector at the botttom:

 

installing the ps skid wasn't easy for one person. it's heavy, and it takes some real contortions and two hands to get a front bolt into the crossmember.

so i used my stack-on stool with 3 2x10 scraps that for my 2" lift held the ps skid up to the crossmember to align the skid holes with the front bolt holes. i used two hands to get the front two bolts in and hand tighten them, leaving them fairly loose so the back end of the ps skid would drop down some.

then i put the evap cannister on the skid from the rear and connected all of the wiring and tubing, using the broken clip on the small white connector and some electrical tape around it to keep it from coming out, seemed to work OK. you do all of this before putting the strap on that holds the cannister to the skid and before you put on the back bracket. you can't access anything very well with the back bracket on. the skid is longer than the cannister fortunately, because there's no skid cutout on the back end to let the lower tube with the white connnector pass through. so i slid the cannister forward as much as it would go and there was room for everything to make a good entry into the cannister. the two tubes on the driveshaft side are very stiff, not flexible at all, the skid being shorter in height makes it worse, so having the cannister forward helps for that. that's why you don't want to wait until the back bracket is on to connect the tube with the rubber connector like the ps instructions say - the cannister needs to be too far forward to do that well.

getting the back bracket on wasn't easy. it's hard to get the nuts on the bolts behind the back bracket - things are in the way and its another contortion exercise with little room to maneuver. it would be better if the nuts came attached to the back side of the bracket. the nyloc lock nuts are pretty stiff making it hard to turn the bolts into them, a ratchet with an allen tip would be best to use.

then i installed the strap to hold the cannister in place. the cannister really wants to slide around on the smooth skid surface and you don't want to tighten the strap too tight. so i tightened just to the point where the cannister stopped slidiing.

after it was all done, i'm really pleased with the poison spyder product and i'm pretty sure it will resolve the torn driveshaft boot problem.

if anyone has an aftermarket drive shaft - smaller diameter - and want's a 2012 stock evap skid, i've got one!!!

 

Glad to see it worked out for you on the 2012. The PSC skid is much stronger than the other brands.

 

thanks, i know it will be helpful for the 2012 owners. for the 2012 2drs, maybe they could drill a hole in the bottom of the skid and bolt the cannister like it's done on the stock skid, cut off the bracket for the strap boltdown - maybe that would eliminate the interference with the muffler? don't know. it would be nice if psc would make a 2012 version with that mod

 

its purrty...got a price?

 

just go to the poison spyder website for their price, no forum discount according to dusty. they were having a discount on them when i bought mine, not sure if they still do.

if you mean my stock one that i took off, i don't recommend you use it unless your replacing a damaged one and know that your driveshaft boot won't hit it.

 

Link and free shipping from David at Northridge 4x4: (Worth every penny, I had the rock hard one before and the PSC one feels like you could drop the whole weight of the Jeep on it...

http://northridge4x4.com/proddetail....d=PS-17-56-010

 

Daaaaamn. I need to purchase some under armor in the next month or so. Would LOVE a 2dr version. If I knew that this was in the works, I'd put a hold on the armor purchases until this was ready.

PSC, give us a shout if this is in the works. Inquiring minds want to know...

 

Pretty sure that evap skid is universal.....