best rock sliders for 16 tacoma?

After 40 years in mechanical engineering I was always surprised at how many people who should have known better, didn't really understand the difference between strength and stiffness, though obviously you know this stuff. On the other hand, I didn't know (or maybe forgot 30 years ago) that the DOM process hardened and thus strengthened welded tubing, so it's a reminder that learning is a lifelong process. I thought it just controlled roundness and wall thickness more precisely. BTW, I'm a new Tacoma owner and just starting to see all the different vendors and products out there. Your stuff looks very nice, especially the front recovery bar. It looks very useful without cantilevering 200 lbs of steel off the front. Have you considered a variant with an additional curved plate on the front, extending wider on each side to form a "bash plate" to protect the plastic. Less total weight and overhang than a plate bumper, for those like me who don't want a winch, or would use a receiver winch.

My previous T100 had no aftermarket support so this is all new to me. Sliders will probably be my first $$$ mod though, to keep my rocker panels in good shape. I learned the hard way with my old 80-series ...

 

Very happy with my BAMF sliders.

 

Still a newb here, any Texas fab shops making sliders that you guys know about?

 

Also interested in this I try to support local business when possible.

 

This is not entirely right. Bending stiffness is a function of the the moment of inertia and the modulus of elasticity. The real world is 3D, and your first statement is oversimplified. Residual stresses, alloys, and load path all seriously com into play, not just the cross-sectional geometry. I don't work frequently with steel, more aluminum and Ti, yet we design our structures knowing certain aluminum alloys perform better in tension caused bending, and some perform better/longer in compression induced by bending, buckling resistance, fatigue life, etc. This is independent of geometry and selected for more qualities than just machinability or weldability. Carbon steel, nickel steels chromoly...each alloy or variant has a different young's modulus therefore performs differently in stiffness and strength.

With that being said, someone needs to make sliders out of AR400. That stuff is as good as bullet proof.

 

You must also work in the aerospace industry

 

I was taught at a world-class engineering school that all steel alloys have the same Young's Modulus or modulus of elasticity (aka E). But that was 40 years ago Obviously yield strength, tensile strength and other properties related to strength and endurance, thus affecting permanent deformation, or static or dynamic/fatigue failure, are alloy-dependent. But I still believe that in this application it's geometry (i.e. moment of inertia) that differentiates designs, not the steel alloy, for deflection in the elastic zone. That said, the only sliders I've owned, ARB's on my 80 series, deflected into the plastic zone and stayed there the first time I used them.

 

I just got some Apex sliders delivered yesterday. They are absolute beasts, 75 Lbs each side (DCLB). Im taking the afternoon off to get them prepped and painted with Herculiner. Ill report back after they are mounted.

 

You can say that as a "rule of thumb", but it is an oversimplification, even in the elastic zone. The_Modulus_of_Elasticity_of_Steel_Is_it_200_GPa.pdf. Does it matter? Not in most cases.

 

What angle did you go with? That doesnt look like the standard 20*

 

I did a little follow up and found a paper from 1996 that suggests that Young's Modulus for steels can indeed vary. It begins by stating that it's always been assumed to be a single value for all alloys (200 GPa), but in fact their testing shows minor variations, though it seems some of that is due to plating on the sample, thin gauge materials, which essentially makes them a laminate of steel and non-steel. It's interesting that 100 years after the basic principles of Strength of Materials were locked down, that new stuff is still being learned. That said, I still think that going to a high strength steel is far less important for rock sliders, than a good structural design, to limit deflection. And how the sliders attach to the frame, and transfer loads into the frame rails, is perhaps even more important.
https://www.researchgate.net/file.P...61d&assetKey=AS:272164811411459@1441900555204

 

Oops, I posted a link to this paper before seeing that you did. Yeah, I think this is academic and irrelevant to sliders, but I stand corrected and am glad to continue my engineering learning here on TW!

 

I'm going with the bud built beefy bump out sliders with the partial tread plate. I have them on my 4runner and I love them.

 

Our sliders are now available on our website. www.c4fabrication.com Other 3rd gen products coming soon. check out this thread for some of our other stuff
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ts-by-c4-fab-bumpers-sliders-bed-bars.433888/

 

Definitely. Leaving the textbook definitions behind, the structural design and manufacturing/fabrication processes will be way more important than what alloy of steel is being used, especially in this application. I simply had to correct the fellow who said "steel is steel is steel" because my job would not exist if that were true!

 

Came for sliders, got a lecture.

 

MMMM sliders!!