I self tapped mine on and have had no problems.I have drug it over some pretty serious rocks and downed trees and have had no issues.I did use 3\8 self taps.

 

Using sheet metal screws to attach a skid plate is a bad idea, IMHO. You have forces concentrated on a small area of thin sheet metal, where a nut strip disperses the force over a large area, and therefore is far stronger. You may have gotten away with it for awhile, but it will work loose over time, and make the holes in the sheet metal even weaker. The exhaust bracket is a piece of hardware installed in the unirail, and not involved with the mounting of the gas tank skid in any way. It is spot welded in place, and actually, quite hard to remove. HTH!!

 

you can totally make your own with flat stock if you got some and a welder or can tap holes in it, if you are gonna tap holes i personally would use 1/2'' thick, but i welded nuts on and used 1/4'' and it held up great