SOLVED Sliders contacting pinchweld to bend or not to bend

The front leg on the driver side of my new sliders is touching the pinchweld. Clunks on uneven road. Found it by lifting the cab up a bit and inserting thick cardboard. The cardboard muffled the sound to where you can barely hear it.

so would it be an issue to just put rubber between the slider and pinchweld as permanent fix? Let the trail do the self clearing?

 

I ran into a similar problem with mine. I temporized by putting a heavy felt round 'sticky pad' (probably 1/8-3/16") in between there while I tried to figure out what to do. It helped some, but ultimately it simply squashed the pad flat and I was back where I started with a tiny bit of muffling. In the end, I pulled my sliders off and bought a burr grinder and opened up the bolt hole about 1/4" so I could drop the front enough so they don't contact. I think on some really harsh bumps it might still contact a little but it rarely happens so I'm content for now. Depending on your slider design, this may or may not work. For mine, with a single solid mounting plate, I had to open the bolt holes a little bit less all the way to the rear bolt hole which I left alone.

PS, pics?

 

Wouldn’t the slider travel up the channel that you burred when you hit something?

 

Cut slits on both sides of the contact, grab with vise grips, bend out of the way.

 

Right sliders? Is there a specific one that’s needed now? Haven’t shopped around for sliders in a while.
These are sliders for Tacoma and from threads on here, seems like an issue with a lot of different brands including popular ones. Just was unlucky and got one that had a slightly different angle on the legs I guess. Can’t take it back since I bought it a while back and didn’t install it til now and I had modified the angle of the slide itself (not the legs).

Ya that’s what I was thinking of doing if I were to bend it back.
After messing with it the whole day and trying to stick stuff between it; I’ll just get on with the .

Update: after much digging found that the sliders I had; the manufacturer stated it may require some modifications to pinchweld.

 

That’s possible, though I’m sure that the impact would be less than if I’d left it as is. I think there are 6 5/8” bolts in each side, so hopefully there’s also enough friction to mitigate that too.

Another mentioned cutting and folding the pinch weld. Unfortunately for me the contact point is waaay forward. Right where the nut holds all the pinch weld layers together right behind the wheel well.

I hough about taking the sliders in and having them stripped, legs adjusted, and re powder coated, but that’s big $$. I also though about having a welder dab the spot and fill in the now vacant spot. But that burns more coating ya da, ya da, ya da....

For now, the heaviest use they’re going to see is me climbing into the bed from them or loading my roof rack.

They’re pretty much an extreme emergency ‘oh crap’ insurance bet. And they also look damn awesome.

 

what brand sliders are these?

 

Same, I don’t rock crawl. Most of my off-roading are high speed mountain runs. The only times I really wished I had sliders as insurance were on some gnarly dips in creeks and close call trees which were only about 4-5 times. Reason why I thought of maybe just putting something between them, but as you and the other posted mentioned; may not be a good idea and won’t solve the problem.

 

I actually worried a little bit about having that felt pad there and it holding water. Because, you know.... Toyota + Water = Rust sometimes.

 

4x inovation . Don’t know if they still sell em. Was the only one at the time that had kick outs that were weld on kits and DOM tubing (that I could find). not completely put together to modify the angle of the actual sliders. I modified it to be bolt on but didn’t touch the legs since I didn’t want to mess with that angle, but I guess it didn’t matter since it’ll still touch the pinchweld. Passenger side doesn’t, but it’s close. I think it was my shop error.

Looks good though. Will take back to my shop and have them cut out the notches.

 

Ya, reason why I didn’t want to make a notch on the pinchweld and potentially expose bare metal.

 

One of these days I'll get some good photos of them on the truck.

 

Did you let a grizzly bear cut your front bumper plastics?

 

I too rock the 4x Innovations weld on slider kit.

Slider Install to Frame by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr

No issues with my install, though someone competent did put them in. They definitely aren't suppose to touch the pinch weld.

I'd also be hesitant initially about the fact that you modified a slider designed as a weld-on, to be a bolt on. Based on your poorly cut front bumper, you may not have taken the time to apply the necessary level of due diligence to ensure they function properly. Additional pictures may help rationalize the install.

I've done deflection calculations (I'm a structural engineer with fancy computer programs) based on the Tacoma's frame, slider dimensions, and energy at impact, and your slider can move up to 1/4" at the location below the pinch weld. So definitely something that should not be ignored.

 

I like mine tight enough that they'll kiss the cab. No wasted space.

 

Nah, didn't really care as long as it did the job. To me, if it's just cosmetic, not really care how it'll turn out as long as it's functional. I would have rather gotten a different bumper if this one wasn't modular if I really care for the looks. Don't take it to shows or anything and besides this truck is just a toy that I mess with. It wasn't supposed to be a DD, but I do seem to take it to work more often than I expected.
Edit: Will probably clean it up at some point though when I have time. Got other projects that need attention other than the truck.

I had it done by an offroading shop. Already talked to them and they will be correcting it. If it's cosmetic, I do it myself; if its something like this I take it to the shop.