Hi Guys.

It's been a while since posting, but I'm just about ready to start making my own sliders. I was talking with a friend of mine who has some mechanical engineering experience about sliders. He was saying that the way they are commonly attached, by welding or bolting to the side of the frame, provides a cantilever beam which would provide quite a bit of torque that could potentially bend the frame. The best bet that we came up with was to attach the sliders to the frame by the welded in cross-member. That takes care of one attachment point but leaves two or three others.

I have seen tons of pictures where they are just attached to the frame rails, but is the frame really stiff enough to resist bending if the truck rests on one of the sliders?

Thanks in advance.

Chip

The metal of the sliders will bend before your frame does. I have never seen a bent frame from sliders.

Ok, thanks. The tubes are 2.5" square with 3/16 wall, so I think they'll be plenty stiff, which is part of my concern -- are they going to be so stiff that the part that ends up bending will be the frame.

Nah I doubt it, ive seen plenty of sliders made out of similar materials. I think 1/8 inches might be better imho if your worried about them bending your frame. However i think its perfectly fine in 3/16 inches.


This guy wrote the book on alot of Toyota modifications and is an engineer to boot-here is his page on rock sliders. He uses 1/8 and 3/16 is an option.

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/RockSliderZ.shtml#Specifications

Thanks again! It looks like I should be ok. I think I'll put one of the mount points next to the cross-member but for the most part won't worry about bending the frame. If I do start seeing things that make me worry, I may add a cross-member between the slider mounts such that it will clear the drive shaft, muffler, etc. whatever happens to be in the way. I'm in the final design stages so I'm not 100% sure about the final locations of the mounts.

Chip

Cool Chip.

I would say you should have 3 mounts to the frame and make sure you brace the sliders inbetween the 2 bars a few times. Otherwise you wind up like my friend who bent his slider b/c it was only welded at each end.

Ideally looking something like this:

TRUCK
frame mount [] [] []
slider ----------------
supports [] [] []
slider ----------------

I've never seen a bent frame from sliders either, but I have seen dents every once in a while when they were mounted without any reinforcement and bent upwards.

2.5" x .188" wall tube is SUPER SUPER SUPER overkill. Its a whole lot more weight and cost than needed. Remember that the frame you are welding them to is only .120" at best. No use adding an extra 150-200lbs to your truck when you don't need to.

.120" wall 2" OD tube is plenty, especially if you use DOM, which is a bit harder and tougher. If you plan on slamming down on them really hard and worry about denting the tubes, you can use something slightly thicker wall on just the outer tubes like 1.25" or 1.5" pipe (~.140" wall).

On a long slider like a T100 will require, you might consider using 4 frame attachments instead of the usual 3 to spread the load out more.

One other tip- mount them at least 1" from the body to keep them from contacting because there is a lot of movement between the frame and the body.


There are some pictures and info the last set I built here:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showpost.php?p=8349177&postcount=261

They are holding up well and are much lighter than my previous set built from 2x2x.188".

I'm definitely going with 4 mounts to the frame and will also have some diagonal cross bracing between at least two of the four legs.

I already have the 2.5x2.5x3/16 material, which means either keeping it for another project (bumpers perhaps) or using it.

For the clearance between the sliders and body itself, I got some 1" square tubing that I was going to weld to the top of the 4 mount posts to go up behind the pinch weld and run the length of the cab. The intent is to support the cab evenly against the sliders.

Thoughts?

Chip

I agree that 3/16" seems unnecessarily thick and heavy. No matter what material or mounting method you use, be sure to use gussets above the legs at the mounts.

I'm a fan of having the pinch weld 1/2"-3/4" or so above the slider legs to provide support above the sliders with hard hits. That just limits the amount of flex by the frame and sliders. Any less than 1/2" clearance would mean you'll occasionally hear vibration or contact. Your idea for a 1" square tube for spreading out the impact area on the body would go along with this concept well. Seems like overkill though. They won't self-clearance if you put that tube there, so err on the side of extra clearance. I have semi-circular dents in the pinch welds above the legs, which is fine by me.

Assuming you have a set of real and strong sliders (as opposed to the tissue paper junk most are), the frame will not be damaged from resting on the slider. However, the frame is not strong enough to handle slamming the slider into a rock. Then the frame box will get bent and perhaps torn.