A little Toyota-on-Toyota action.

Got my RCI sliders installed with the help of Toyota’s flagship product today.



These RCI Sliders are beautiful. The mounting system is rock-solid, no drilling, and such a clean design. Nicely welded and straight and true. Came to me perfectly packaged and the powder coat had not a scratch on it. I guess I’m an RCI Fanboy, but they make really clean designs and seem to care that their shipments arrive in good shape (sliders came on a pallet, inside a cardboard box, inside a large bag, inside foam sheeting, wrapped in shrink-wrap).

I was reluctant to fit sliders as I’m trying to keep weight down and efficiency up for longer hauls, but I caved. I’ve had a couple close-calls where I ended up in a tighter spot than I expected and was scraping through on my sidesteps, so I’m looking forward to a little peace of mind from these sliders. My Toyota side steps have functioned pretty well as stand-ins for sliders, but I felt I was rolling the dice with them.

 

Which roof top cross bars are those?

 

They are a pair of Rhino Vortex-bars with Rhino’s Tacoma-specific ditch rail mounting system. I really like them and they are absolutely silent on the highway. I have had vehicles with noisy roof racks and I couldn’t do it this time out.

 

Here’s a vid of this product:

Mine are 50” Vortex bars to match the width of the Pioneer tray on my Canopy. The vid shows 54” bars, but in my opinion that is too much overhang if running through overgrown roads etc.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k0zrzEdLKow

 

Yea, I have 52” Yakima Whispbars but they are currently on my 4Runner. I originally had them on a 2013 Tacoma. Didn’t like the clips.

The Rhino-Rack design is cool. If I ever put bars on my current Tacoma, I may go that route. Sturdy?

 

Rhino stuff is nicely built. They claim 220lbs on the cab roof with these bars. I have only had these fitted for a week and have carried my canoe once on them, so I don’t have a lot of experience to share.

I like the ditch mounting system, and my Rhino pioneer tray, which I’ve had for a while, has been bulletproof, so Rhino has treated me well so far. One good thing about the vortex bars is they form the base for fitting a pioneer tray to the cab if I ever want to go that route.

The fitting of the ditch rails takes some courage as you have to drill holes for rivets. I went slow and the install was confidence inspiring. The instructions and sealants provided by Rhino were good. No leaking.

 

Those look sharp!

 

Thanks. They look even better in person. Nice simple design with a sweeping kick-out. Someone at RCI is an artist.

 

You should get some. Tom mentioned something about you not having sliders when you went to help him on Wheeler Ridge. Sliders make stuff like that a lot easier on the brain. lol

 

Very nice man! One of my future mods for sure. How much were these bad boys with shipping, if you dont mind me asking.

 

^^^Truth!

 

Yeah, I've been kicking it around. They would have been good insurance up there on Wheeler's.

 

I managed to buy them during a black-Friday sale so maybe got 10% (?) off the cost listed on the website below. Mine have no top plate and were powder coated in-house by RCI (they do a great job). Shipping was $206 USD from Colorado to Blaine Washington where I picked them up.
https://rcimetalworks.com/product/2016-tacoma-rock-sliders/

 

I imagine you can lift the side of the truck with a hi-lift on those sliders.

 

Dang. $$$$

 

RCI specifically says you can do this. They are designed for it. The sliders are very solid. No flex or movement with my body weight at least.

 

I didn’t look too hard at the going rate for a set of sliders, but I thought these were a good value for the materials and work that went into them. Maybe I’m outta my mind?

 

Any quality slider, weld on or bolt on, will hold the weight of the truck. I run Stubbs sliders and have beaten the living shit out of them. They also took a 20+ MPH side hit from a Jeep Cherokee. I still can open my doors thanks to them. lol

 

For sure. My point was that RCI says in the “official” documentation you get that jacking up the vehicle with the sliders is ok.

 

I figured as much. Slider manufacturers all advertise this point.