CaliRaised Sliders

Does anyone have any feedback on these sliders from CaliRaised. Was looking at MOBtown, but the price differential is compelling. Thanks!

https://caliraisedled.com/collections/2016-toyota-tacoma/products/sliders

 

I have the step-sliders (aka not at the 25 degree angle). Love em, and believe me they do their job. Mine earned their rent this last trip.

A few things. For bolt ons- There are probably more holes in the sliders than in your truck. Also, one side of your truck could be different than the other. Just line them up and bolt as many locations as you can. Also, if you get the fill plates, and don't have Caliraised powder coat the sliders for you, then you'll have to drill and rivet the plates in yourself. This was kind of a pain because for a DCLB there are like 5 plates each side, with a minimum of 8 holes each. You might imagine, its a lot of work just to get them drilled out.

If you decide to paint yourself, don't bother with crinkle-coat type paint. Go for a textured bed-liner. I learned the hard way.

Pics for sh*ts.

 

These look like a perfect fit for form & function. Will have to look into them further for when I get my truck

 

Damn...I just pulled the trigger on DCLB with filler plates and no powder coat. I was super stoked but I thought they would come ready to paint and install. What's the story with drilling and riveting? I've never done that. Rivet gun? template? instructions?
Thanks

 

Unfortunately, nothing comes prepped. So it'll be up to you to drill and rivet the plates in place.

You'll need a punch, drill, and a rivet gun. They do supply the rivets. As far as getting the plates lined up- I'm not sure any advice I give will be of significant value as I'm learning this as I go. That said, I guess I recommend getting the plates in place (I eyeballed mine) and then maybe zip tying them, or duct taping them down. Then punch and drill. Expect this to take some time. It took me several weeks to get mine prepped, painted (I painted them myself) and installed. Also, riveting took time as well. Nothing terribly difficult, just time consuming. The pallet they come on is an excellent work space, though I'd put it up on saw horses to save your back.

For painting, preferably after you drill them out, I'd recommend cleaning with a wire brush and some brakleen. If youre painting them yourself, expect it to take a while because this time of year cure times will be longer for most paint styles.

Installation isn't terribly difficult. I actually did most of it myself until my wife got home and was able to hand me tools as I worked underneath the truck. I'd make sure your undercarriage is clean before you install. You'll want a hydraulic jack to lift the sliders into place. Then install one of the bolts on the bottom. At this point you can remove the jack and start on the other bolts. Don't expect their online instructions to be terribly accurate. One of the first bolts they mentioned for mine didn't line up with anything so I had to use something else. I did give em a ring and they told me to just line em up and bolt as many that fit.

 

I have these as well. Rather than screw around with a punch I just held each plate in place firmly and used my drill on each hole to start it. Then pulled off the plate and finished. It took far less time than what it was going to take with a punch.

 

Not sure how a punch makes much of a difference in overall time? It's just to make a divot so your drill doesn't walk around when you start drilling.

 

Out of curiosity, when you drill and rivet their fill plates into the slider tube, do you seal the rivet hole in any way? Seems like a poorly thought out design on their part and an easy way for water/moisture to get inside the slider and rust them from the inside out since there isn't a way for it to easily evaporate or drain.

Genuinely curious since it was my first thought.

 

Have you heard of BAMF rocksliders?
No drilling, and they stick out 1” past the doors to protect from parking lot idiots

 

Thanks guys...damn, I'm still trying to finish up the custom roof rack. The rain and in-laws are stretching this project out too long and this one looks to be lengthy too.

Teegs-much appreciated on the write up.

 

I looked a the ones from Bay Area, but they are more in line with price of MOBtown, and I am relatively close to them so I dont incurr the shipping. Also, from what I recall, they have a crazy long lead time.
Look good on your rig

 

Just an FYI if people didn't know. These are the APEX fabworks sliders if you are searching for install information and details that maybe aren't on the CaliRaised site

 

Yep...lead time, cost and especially shipping costs killed a lot of the options for me. I actually really like the concept of the caliraised sliders that I bought. The 0 degrees that double as steps are perfect for my needs. I have kids and dogs going in and out all the time too so I opted for the filler plates, I just didn't know there was going to be a ton of prep work, no worries it will get done eventually (probably well before the lead time of all the other guys anyways).

 

@CaliRaisedLed
@MojaveMadman
Maybe can answer that.

 

Lead time was what tipped me over on these.

I might have had mine done a week earlier if I had opted to paint them with bed-liner, rather than crinkle coat. As it stands, the crinkle coat didn't work for shit and I ended up basically painting the rails twice, once with the crinkle coat, and once with bed liner.

Believe it or not, the color matching paint was actually very easy to apply. Just took time because you had to put several layers of each: primer, paint, and clear coat.

 

I'm going straight black. Was planning on self-etching primer (3 coats) then 3 coats of spray paint. You think the clear coat is necessary?

 

This should definitely be considered. The set that were on my truck when I bought it were spitting rusty water at highway speeds and holding a little water as well. My plan was to either drill a weep hole or replace the rivets with another fastener that would hopefully create a better seal. Plans changed when I was shown the 25 degree sliders.

 

Hey guys, Chris from Cali and Apex here. Here are some answers to your questions. I am not on here as much as Jake from our main page, but I will do my best to answer questions in a timely manor.

Thank you for the feedback. The instructions on the website are for DCSB and Access cab only. I am working on instructions for the DCLB now. I am waiting for an install we have scheduled in two weeks to get some quality pictures to complete them. If anyone needs any help please reach out me on here or shoot us an email and it will get forwarded to me.

But yes basically you line up the slider, get one bolt in to hold it in place, then fill the holes. The long slider doesn't use the same locating hole on the bottom like the short ones do. There are two holes on the bottom of the frame that line up with two holes on the slider frame plate. I use those to locate the slider and put one bolt in to hold them in place while I get everything else installed. The short instructions aside from those details will give you some good guidance on prep and how to tighten everything down.

So we have started using a clear silicone. After the frame plates are installed, we go over each rivet and add a small dab, then wipe it down so there is no excess. This has been working well for us. We did the filler plates as rivet on because we wanted to give you guys options. You can do dimples up or down. You can paint the same as the slider or color match your truck. And lastly they can be added later. So far people have been happy with them but we are considering a welded on steel option like the rest of the industry does. Our goal was to be innovative and do something a little different.

As for the install. I do it in a couple of easy steps.

1. Lay out the plates in their positions.
2. Using painters tape, start on the rear panel, put in position and tape down. Then the front panel, then the centers. Get them centered and in the position you desire.
3. Either mark two holes or drill using the existing hole as a guide. Drill two spots on opposite sides.
4. Rivet those two positions.
5. Do this for all the panels
6. Now that they are all in place, use the panel as a guide to drill all the remaining holes
7. Rivet the holes
8. Clear silicone the holes.
9. Install slider

Also, we don't have the option listed on our site yet, but for $50 we can pre-install these for you as well.

Just to help clear this up. Cali and Apex have the same owners now. Me Chris, was the original owner of Apex. I have joined forces with Cali Raised and run the fab shop and all the engineering of all products. It didn't make sense to us to have a fab shop called Cali Raised LED, so we have the two names. One for fabrication services and one for the rest. Hope that helps!

 

Thanks for the tag by the way!

 

With mobtown sliders, you pay for what you get.