DIY Frame Slider Build

Posting this for anyone considering building their own bolt-on sliders to save money. The plan is for a very strong and very minimalist single tube slider which can take a bump, but more importantly serve as a lifting point for a farm/hi lift jack

I’m using 1.5” square tube at 3/8” wall thickness, mounting plates are 1/8”. The rails and plates were cut to measure by Metal Supermarket. I cut the legs at 10” with a chop saw and would recommend having the metal shop cut everything for you.



The first plate is the most time consuming: we took chalk and marked the frame rivets then pressed the plates against them. We then drilled out the rub marks with a 1/2” bit on a drill press. After that we fitted the plate over the rivets, tight to the frame and traced every existing frame hole from the back side with permanent marker. We then drilled those out with the same 1/2”. We took this completed plate and traced every hole on the other side’s mounting plate. Pretty straight forward after that.

Next step is acquiring 1/2” bolts and mocking it up to weld. Leg gussets are also in the works.

Total cost of materials so far is $157

 

Cool project. Update us on the progress and when it's done.
I thought about doing this and welding together my own sliders, but ended up buying them. Good luck!

 

Definitely do gussets but you might want to consider 1/4" plate instead of 1/8" as that is generally the standard.

 

I would recommend thicker steel plating as well. Love that your doing it yourself though I'm all about fabricating stuff for my truck

 

It’s actually 3/16”. Just gonna roll with it and hopefully it holds up. Those plates were a huge PITA to drill out.

 

Slow going, but getting there. I may have gone too beefy on tube thickness at 0.188 verses the industry standard 0.12. I’m hoping the use of a single tube 0.188 equals the weight a double tube 0.12. Did some math for steel tube weight/foot and it’s theoretically very similar but my main concern is the moment arm on our thin Tacoma frames.

 

Finally done. 1/2” bolts, 3/16” backing plates. Total of 7 bolts each side. It’s definitely not budging.

 

Came out well, nice work

 

@FloTaco nice job. Please tell me that you weighed one? I see possibilities here.

 

Why didn't you angle them up? Also,I would've angled the front of the leading edge of the slider.

 

They are about 40lb each.

When you see a slider angled up it is because the secondary tubes are angle, not the base tube. I’m only using a base tube to reduce weight and keep it simple.

I considered angling the front as well, however, I have no plans for serious rock crawling with this vehicle just yet so getting hung up wasn’t a huge concern at this time. My goals were rocker panel protection if I misjudge clearance or slip, and a solid high lift mounting point.

 

Looks good! Looking at doing mainly trails with some light rocks, need to do something like this.

 

Do they stick out far enough to get a high lift jack in there without the jack contacting the door?

 

They do, that was our key focus in the design; to get them far enough out for the jack tooth but still keep them tucked.

 

I'd recommend opening the door when using the slider as a jack-point. It'll save a trip to the body shop when things slip on you.

 

Good tip! Thanks!

 

You might want to put some better quality bolts in that.

 

I do need grade 8. This will have to do for now, hitting the road tomorrow on a 3000 mile adventure.