All-Pro Apex bolt on sliders

As far as bolt-on sliders go, writeups are not very complicated. When looking for sliders for my truck, my requirements were:

-Fits close to the body
-Bolt on
-Made of high strength DOM
-Full top plate
-Kickout
-As light as possible meeting the above requirements

Finished product:


For me sliders are more of an insurance policy. I don't wheel hard enough to use them regularly but do put my self in positions where they would be a good safety net. More importantly they will allow me to tackle runs I might otherwise shy away from.

Why Apex:
Everything in my build needs to be clean enough and so well executed it looks like it could have come from the factory. This means the sliders must fit high and exceptionally tight, which also adds functional ground clearance. While armor should be strong, I also care about driving dynamics and want to add as little weight to the vehicle as possible. For a given weight, DOM is significantly stronger and more durable than HREW tubing, and because I believe in buying superior quality once, DOM is the only option.

If you did not know, there are two types of tubing sliders are made from, DOM (drawn over mandrel) tube or HREW (hot roll electric weld). HREW has a seam, is noticeably weaker and is a fair amount cheaper and is the inferior product. It is actually very surprising how many use the lower quality material for such a critical impact component. If you are in the slider market, be sure to ask, is it DOM? Apex were the lightest bolt-on DOM sliders I found at 140lbs for the pair.

While the full top plates add undesirable weight (20lbs in this case), I think they make sliders look far more finished and factory like rather than some off road bolt-on. Plus the fill plates protect the side of the truck from any debris spray from the tires and give my 3 year old a solid safe step up into the cab. Worth the weight penalty IMO.

I personally like kickouts, if you are in a situation where you are using the slider they would be welcomed assistance. Plus they will protect the truck from door dings in the parking lot 100% better. What I like in the All-Pro design is the seamless mandrel bend into the kickout. Some lesser designs have a weld point and a hard angle transition to the kickout. Not ideal.

I was in no way interested in welding my frame. I liked the design that wraps the full length of the frame slider mount to tie all the slider supports together, unlike many designs that leave the front support floating on its own.

Apex sliders product page: Install:
Many places will not powder coat and ship due to powedercoat damage in transit. I got my sliders raw, and had them powdercoated locally.

How they arrived. To my surprise, All-Pro shipped the 140lb sliders next day air.



Back from the powdercoater:



These sliders do require some drilling to the frame. If that is scary to you, Mobtown offers some nice true 100% bolt on DOM sliders, but they do weigh noticeably more.

A motorcycle or ATV platform jack makes life much easier for the install. I used a 1x4 on the back side to get the angle correct for proper mounting alignment, since the sliders are angled upward for clearance. With a motorcycle jack, this could be a one man job, but I highly recommend having two.



Not thinking anything of it, I started on the driver side. The driver side has the brake lines and fuel tank in the way. All workable though you will likely have to drop the gas tank skid, but it would be easier to start on the passenger side which has more room and no complications.

The All-Pro design uses a series of bolts with nuts and locking washers, countersunk bolts and locking nuts, and threaded backing plates for the install. The backing plates ship in raw steel, so I sprayed them with many coats of Rustoleum, and then to be safe coated everything in fluid film. Installation will require you to get intimate with your frame. Elbow deep.



While torquing the bolts with the backing plate to the specified 44 ft/lbs with my Craftsman torque wrench, I had a plate strip out. I PM'd Tracy at All-Pro and she had one in the mail the same day. (Though I haven't received it yet).

There are 4 lower bolt holes that need to be drilled, and one rear horizontal hole that will require a 90 degree drill bit. Drilling these lower holes was the worse part, as with the truck on the ground there is not any room to get any leverage on the drill. I am not afraid to drill my truck, but like every Tacoma owner, I am hyper paranoid on frame rust. Each hole got about a dozen coats of Rustoleum, both hand painted and sprayed from the top and bottom of the hole. In addition I purchased powdercoat touch up from my powdercoater. The stuff has more warnings on the can than product info, and also smelled like they were probably appropriate. Hit it with that too. Then to be extra safe I hit all the holes with fluid film before installing the bolts. The countersunk hardware provides a nice smooth underside to the slider.



While the sliders fit impressively well, the rear most bolt which requires a 90 degree drill bit had a gap between the slider and the frame, where the frame appeared to bend inward and the slider did not. The same on both sides.



The gap would possibly close with wrenching down the bolt, but these sliders are pretty overkill for my needs, so I'll likely just leave it as is for now.

All-Pros instructions mention possible grinding of the pinch weld for clearance, which they specify as needing 1/4". I did not have to do that as mine cleared, perfectly.




Mounted:

 

Great setup Also my favorite rims from Toyota

 

Beautiful !!!!!!!! Nice job as always. Your truck is awesome(and getting better each Mod)

 

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with they way it turned out.

 

Great write up! That small gap will suck up when the bolt is added or you can smack it with a plastic deadblow hammer and it will follow the contour of the frame.

 

I had the same issue on my 2015. I couldn't get it to suck the gap at all. Ended up placing some grade 8 washers and a new longer grade 8 bolt to fill the gap and create a tight fit.

Other than that, love my sliders.

 

Great write up, Jon makes top notch stuff!

 

Good idea using the wood on the jack! Wish I would have thought of that during my install.

 

Finished installing my sliders this weekend and if you ever get around to it the last bolt sucked the gap up to the frame pretty easily

 

Install sucks on those but they do the job and look good to!

 

Great write-up, ordered mine today.

 

What color did you powder coat ? Those look great on the MGM color.

 

Thanks, I had them powder coated at: http://www.thermotechcoatings.com in their standard flat black. I got a spray can of color matched touch up for them, labeled as color A-4100-BK147 Black Flat.

 

Your truck is absolutely gorgeous

 

Flat black.. Looks good. Thanks for the info.

nkn

 

Thank you.

Maybe I'm getting old, but I had to google that one.

 

Fat fingered it.. Sorry

 

Got mine after seeing this, thx

 

I really like these as they appear to be the most complete and cleanest looking set of sliders on the market. But shipping to Texas is a killer. I was quoted $275 for shipping. That's the only thing that has kept me from pulling the trigger. Great install and thanks for taking the time to do a write up.