Let's see your homemade rock sliders!

[rube bonet]

sorry for not elaborating, i mean doing a rocker-replacment. cutting them in like this.

should be fine for a body-on-frame right?

For light duty use, and assuming tied correctly into the body structure, it will be fine. Generally, the body mount connections are what start to fail over time and harder use, even on lighter vehicles like jeeps and such. I still strongly prefer frame mounted on bigger, heavier fullsizes, especially considering the weights some of the campers on here are hauling around.

I find frenching the rockslider into the body especially helpful for fixing smashed up unprotected rocker panels...

My wife's taco (and, for the record, I would have done frame mounted if the rocker wasn't smushed already.)





The rec tube (2x3) is welded up into the factory a,b,&c pillar structure, along with the pinch seam.

 

[4x4junkie]

2x3" .120 wall tubing with a 1/8"x1" 'bash strip' welded along the outer edge underneath. Bolted to the body mount brackets on the frame (there's a nice thick crossmember behind them that runs across the frame, makes a nice rigid point for mounting them).
Bottom of rocker is trimmed up to just below the doors, which necessitated welding in new support brackets for the lower front fenders.

 

[crazy]

I made some rocker sliders/steps up for my Excursion using an aftermarket tube step and 3"X3" square tube steel as a starting point. Seam welded everything together, added some gusseting and reinforced the vehicle mounting points with welded in plate steel. So far they have held up to the occasional scrape and hit.

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If you have more detailed close-up pictures, can you post them?

 

[bjm206]

If you have more detailed close-up pictures, can you post them?

I will take some more images this weekend.

 

[crazy]

Thank you.

 

[n2deep]

Here is a set I built - coated them with bed liner and have saved my ******** a couple of times

 

[bjm206]

If you have more detailed close-up pictures, can you post them?

Sorry about the dirt...no way to get them clean this time of year. I do not have a way to get images of the plates that were welded to the inside of the sills to better tie the floor and lower pinch weld together and strengthen the mounting points for the sliders.

There are some more images available here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjm206ksw3/sets/72157629873895229/

 

[daddyusmaximus]

Sorry about the dirt...no way to get them clean this time of year.

Really? We ain't worried about dirt. Hell, my truck is an "outdoor" girl. She only gets washed when it rains, or if I get her muddy.

Have your sliders taken any impacts? I want to build some, but I'm leaning to frame mounted.

 

[bjm206]

No problem with dirt...just would have liked to get some clearer images. I have had a few hard strikes over the years but mostly just light sliding scrapes. Bending the pinch weld once made me realize that something was needed before I did some real damage.

I thought very hard about frame mounting them but was concerned about the ability of the frame to support the 20 inches of cantilever required in the event of a really hard impact. I bet a good metal worker would know how to make this work.

 

[colodak]

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Sorry about the dirt...no way to get them clean this time of year. I do not have a way to get images of the plates that were welded to the inside of the sills to better tie the floor and lower pinch weld together and strengthen the mounting points for the sliders.

There are some more images available here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjm206ksw3/sets/72157629873895229/

how are you keeping dirt/moisture from getting inside the tubes? I had to scrap my tube side steps after they rusted from the inside out and failed (wife almost fell on her butt), breaking in half?

 

[4x4junkie]

I thought very hard about frame mounting them but was concerned about the ability of the frame to support the 20 inches of cantilever required in the event of a really hard impact. I bet a good metal worker would know how to make this work.

Put the slider's mounting points right next to your frame's major crossmembers (also have the mounts span over the full width of the side of the framerail). This will minimize issues with the frame flexing with the slider. I've smacked down on mine hard enough to actually bend the slider itself slightly without any damage occurring elsewhere.
Your rig is heavier but should also have a thicker frame and crossmembers. Just step up proportionally the size of the material you use for your sliders & mounting (.180" wall tubing should be good under your Excursion).

 

[Wh1t3nukle]

Agreed on making attempt to coincide the runner/legs with cross member locations.

Definitely look to see what your frame rail configuration at the desired runner locations. Sometimes they will be closed and other times open channel. Open channel can be mitigated by boxing it in provided there is clearance.

I generated the following calculation to get a feel for slider deflection with respect to weight. This is only applicable to a cantilever beam off the frame, more specifically for a welded (rigid) connection. This does NOT take into account the frame geometry/size. This is only to compare round tube and square tube size/thickness in terms of deflection. This becomes important to see approximately how to account for gap with the body. Many people worry about locating the rail close to the body for clearance, yet not account for taking fully loaded rail (suspended) and how much it will move to possible ********** the body.

Again...this does not take into account frame movement, which also plays into the above.

Check out my sheet on Google Drive acct. and certainly provide any input if it deems useful BeamSliderCalc

Also please let me know if its viewable. There is an image pasted into the spreadsheet to show the basis of the calculation, Roark.


This was used to help size and locate the gap on a neighbor's Sequoia:

The owner surprised me and decided to cut/bend the pinch portion at each runner location for extra margin. :sombrero:

I can't seem to find picture of checking frame flex after install. This was done by floor jacking up one side.

 

[crazy]

@bjm206

Thanks for those pictures.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

I like the notched pinch seam.

 

[arveetek]

Thanks for all the ideas! They look great!

I hope to take this pile of steel:

and turn it into body armor pretty soon. That's 2 x 4 tubing, 3/16th thick. I already had it laying around.

Casey