DIY 1st Gen. Rock Sliders

I agree with you about the kickout being a bit much. I'm not a hard core off-roader and still see the benefit of the kickout. The kickout on my 4xI sliders is 2" and it seems about right to me. I vote for option 1 with the slight angle.

To further stir the pot, check out this video of how Shrockworks does their bolt on sliders. They use "stick nuts" that allow you to place nuts inside the frame(where you cannot reach). Pretty neat and has given me an idea or two about my bolt on slider project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu27HPGP270&t=1247s

No doubt the consensus is to just weld these things on the "old truck" but I still can't make myself do it. Weld on sliders don't seem to be as popular on newer trucks; and I "get it". I started a thread about how I'm doing mine and it doesn't seem to be something that most folks are interested in. I still plan to put the info out there to give the next oddball(like myself) a few ideas.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/1st-gen-weld-on-sliders-converted-to-bolt-on.663074/

 

yeah... if nothing else, i'm not entirely sure i'll like the way these sliders look, which was even more reason to be able to remove them without too much trouble. as far as the stick nuts idea, it could work, but my only hesitation would be the fact that the 1st gens have a frame that is only around 1/16th or 3/32nds thick. personally, if i'm going to be using bolt on, which it is generally agreed arent as skookum as weld ons, i want them to be as solid as possible. the design that i came up with is nice because it sleeves the frame. the only difference between it and the CBI one is that this one just picks up existing holes, instead of just using clamping force. i know that drilling a hole or two wont compromise the frame but i had to set a challenge for myself. happy engineering though, i'll be interested to see what you come up with! this is my best shot...but i'm also a high-school senior who may or may not've chickened out of taking AP calc.. There went my ideas about majoring in Mechanical engineering during college. but in all seriousness, i'm by no means an engineer, but i'm pretty confident in mine. i'll be interested to see what you come up with. that's the great thing about doing this stuff yourself, you can make it exactly like you want!

well that's all for me for now... i'm off to the Home Depot to make a steel run (because i'm too lazy to wait till monday and drive the extra 30 minutes to the steelyard). Hopefully i don't catch Covid and die.

 

picked up the steel from The home depot, for reference the steel is actually 1" ID Black steel pipe. the walls are about 1.33" thick (around 1/8") which gets you a roughly 1.25" OD. this is the same stuff that the rest of the sliders are made from. I know that you're technically supposed to use tubing instead of pipe but i did some pretty extensive destructive testing with this stuff before i decided to use it and it's actually pretty tough. since i'm not using the truck as a rock crawler, it should be plenty skookum for what i do. the sliders are mainly just insurance and heavy duty step bars. they will inevitably get some use, but if i end up doing progressively more hardcore wheeling, then i'll revisit it. yet another benefit of bolt ons. I also picked up some 1.5x1/4" flat bar. that'll get used for modifying the brackets. I was hoping to find some 3" stuff but this was all they had. I should be able to but the pieces together and make 3" pieces though. I also picked up some 2x1/8" flat bar. that'll get used for some projects down the road. it's a little bit light to use for the brackets, but it'll make great material to make a hi-lift mount from, among other things.

 

I didn't realize the sliders you made were 1.25" OD. That's a little on the small side so I would certainly think twice about welding them on(which it sounds like you are). They look nice though and they will look better once you alter the rear. I bet you learned a lot making them.

I'll be watching what you come up with. Carry on.

 

yeah i know it's a bit on the light duty side but it was what we had on hand. i got a quote from my local steel supplier and it was going to be around $300 for the bare minimum amount, which is more than i'd pay if i wanted to just buy a set of 4xinnovations sliders. plus, my school shop only charges us around $1/Lb for steel so it just made more sense to get it from the school shop, even if it was going to be a little lighter duty. again, taking into account the type of wheeling i do, i wasn't particularly worried.

I got the old kickouts all cut out, i think i like the idea of just making the kickout less intense, so that's what i'm going to do.


I left a little bit of the bend on there, just to give me some wiggle room, but i'm not sure whether to just cut the bend out and start at the support, or whether i should use the bend to ease into the kickout a bit more. thoughts? here's a picture:


that one shows pretty well what it would look like either way. what you y'all think?

 

Heres what I did for my bolt on sliders.


No sleeves on the bolts, no crushed frame. Sold em a year ago cause they were never 100% what I wanted.

 

I understand about the material.

Hmm, I think I would cut it flush with the support. You probably already know this but bevel both pieces at the butt joint so you'll have more weld.

 

Yeah, the more i look at it the more i think that's what i'll do. as far as beveling the edges, that's the plan, and I also cut a couple of pieces of 1" OD tubing that fits perfectly inside. that should help line it up, and in theory it'll strengthen it a bit more but if i weld it right that'll never come into play. just a little bit of extra insurance since i don't have a good table to clamp everything down to before i weld.

yeah, you shouldn't need sleeves for those. the only reason i'm running sleeves on two out of three brackets (per slider, six in total) is because those brackets have bolts that go through the frame, instead of going on top of it like yours do. Mine pick up existing holes in the frame. those look really good as far as brackets though, kind of like what CBI has for their bolt ons.

 

Good to hear. How much did you get for them? If I love having sliders and really get into offloading, I might sell my bolt ons and make some weld ons.

 

Makes sense to me.

 

$200

Sold em to a member who doesnt seem to post here anymore.

 

Thanks, that seems cheap. If I sell mine, I'd hope to get much more being DOM and all.

 

Homemade armor almost never holds its value cause the next owner is almost always settling for something they wouldnt typically want/something they wouldve done differently. Mine were made of 2" tube with an 1/8" wall. 90% Tig, 10% Stick welded by yours truly.

 

well, i got the first one welded up. not the prettiest but it should be plenty strong. I kinda figured out what i was doing towards the end, so i went back over the part that i welded first and made a weld pad of sorts. that should give me plenty of meat to grind down to make it look good. i didn't end up having to use the bits of smaller tube, I made tabs to help it lock in better (was planning on having both) and the tabs held it really well. pretty happy with how it's turning out so far. stayed straight through the welding and all that so i've got no complaints. tomorrow i'll weld the other one, grind the welds on this one down, and then cap the tubing. I really wish that i had a bench grinder but the angle grinder is working just fine. it would mainly come in handy for stuff like beveling edges on tubing before i tack it up.

you can see here how i mocked it up on the table:


it was actually stable enough like that to set it up to see how it looked.

and for reference, before:


I was pretty happy with that. the kick-out is there to protect the bedside a bit more, but it isn't so overstated. it just barely sticks out past the tire. it should be right in line once i get my new wheels and new tires. planning on going with 285s (running 265s currently) and a wheel with 1/2" less backspacing, so they should stick out a bit more.


all clamped up, i put them both together to make sure that it was roughly symmetrical. I'm not looking for perfection since they'll be on different sides so you won't see them together, but they're close which is good enough for me.


tack welded. I went and tacked them up to keep them in place before unclamping them and putting a bevel+gap wherever there wasn't one with a grinder. it might've been easier to bevel them without them assembled but i didn't want to risk taking too much off and then the pieces not fitting. this way gave me a little more control.


and all welded up. like i said, i'll grind the welds down tomorrow (or maybe tonight if i feel like it), and then weld the other one up as well as cap the ends tomorrow. pretty pleased overall, they didn't warp or anything during welding and the two pieces should be seamless once it's all ground out. How do y'all like my makeshift welding table?





"Straight enough for the girls I go out with." - AvE

 

That does seem very logical.

 

That looks much better. I see your stick welding. Was most of that welding done with MIG(in class)? The welds where the supports meet the square tube look great from what I can tell. It can be tough to weld around something that's round and make it nice and uniform. I don't even have a stick welder at home. All my welding is done at work.

 

yeah, I did use a MIG machine for all the welds initially at school, but a Stick machine is what i got at home so that's what i'm using. I actually thought about buying a MIG welder a while back but at the time i just wasn't doing enough welding at home to justify it and I just don't have the funds right now. Kinda wish i had pulled the trigger on buying that new machine but oh well... this machine works well enough, it took a little bit of getting used to (this machine is AC instead of DC) but after that then it ran fine. obviously it's not quite as smooth as MIG or Dual Shied FCAW but it'll do nicely. A word of wisdom for anyone who is looking at fabricating armor with a stick machine: make sure you buy quality electrodes. The first box of them I got when i got the welder was a set of Harbor Freight "Vulcan" 6011s. Absolute crap. I picked up a 5 lb box of Lincoln 7018s from the Home depot and wow, what a difference. They aren't exactly professional quality but compared the the HF stuff...

I may still go over the welds again once i grind it flush. it's a bit hard to see what i'm working with until i grind it down. Really does make me appreciate the equipment we have at school though.

 

Lots has happened over the past two days. I would've updated sooner, but i was working on them late into the night last night and all day today. made some great headway though!
Last night i welded both of them up completely, capped the tubing, and ground them so they're pretty. went pretty well, i learned as i went along. my second cap fit like a glove. I hardly had to do any filling except for the edges to fully weld it. I also started on altering the brackets. i'm ditching the spacer idea for the front driver's, instead i'll do the same thing as CBI with their brackets sliding under the fuel lines. there is a bracket attaching the fuel lines to the frame but i think i can figure out how to attach it to the bracket. the lines are pretty stiff so i might not even need it, but i don't want to take any chances when it comes to fuel lines. my hardware isn't quite long enough to work with the thicker part of the frame towards the front, but i've got some 5" fully threaded bolts on order.

set up for welding:


bracket mocked up so i can cut it:


Bracket cut:


Fully welded:


Cap fits like a glove!:


and the final products. i've got them labeled Driver and Passenger, with their good sides facing up:


well that about covers what happened yesterday. time for the current events.

 

Today I got one of them pretty much finished. there are still some welds that i need to go back over, but TBH that's more for asthetics than anything else. they should be plenty strong but i'm not grinding the kicker welds down (want there to be as much meat there as possible) so i want them to look somewhat decent. I initially was just going to line the altered bracket up and tack it, but then i decided to add the other two brackets and see if i could get it tacked. then i just kept going and before ya know it... one is all welded up. The welds wont win any beauty pageants but they should be plenty strong... . tomorrow i'm going to clean the welds up a bit, and then hopefully get it primed. i'll try'n get the other side done too.

Bracket lined up:


I shoved a piece of 1/16th" stainless in between the back plate before i clamped it so that there would be a little bit of wiggle room and it wouldn't be so tight.


Bracket all tack welded up. overhead welds are hard. not too bad for my first ever time though...i got it done:


all the brackets on:


slider lined up and sitting on jackstands:


no supports!


off the truck for final welding. I did as much as i could on the truck, to keep it from warping. I think it turned out ok:


as I said, not the prettiest but it will do. you wont see these ones as they'll be hidden under the pinch weld. getting excited, very happy with how they're turning out. looks much better than before.

 

Nice job. How far do they stick out past the side of the door? Man, I sure could use some of those larger jack stands.