Aluminum Sliders

Challenge accepted.
DV8 "boatside" sliders.

 

I feel the need to clear up a common misconception I hear repeated on here constantly. While a typical aluminum alloy is not as strong as a typical steel alloy, an aluminum part can be made as strong as a steel part by being made thicker and it will still be lighter. If this was not true, airplanes would be made of steel instead of aluminum.

It is true though that steel alloys tend to be harder than aluminum alloys and that can be important for armor.

I also find it curious there are few aluminum sliders on the market compared to aluminum skids and bumpers. Does it have to do with the fact that sliders tend to be tubular and the others plate? Is aluminum tubing extra expensive?

EDIT: or maybe it’s due to the fact that sliders need to stick out a long ways from the frame with no support and also minimize ground clearance reduction by having small brackets?

 

These seem like they're just steel sliders with an aluminum shell covering them. With the rusting issues that composite-bed tacomas have anyway, trying to weld aluminum and steel together (is it even possible?) then attaching it to the frame would be a terrible idea anyway. The aluminum part would corrode so fast (since it'd be galvanizing the steel part, and possibly the frame as well) you'd almost be able to see the difference from month to month in high-rust areas.

 

It looks like the steel brackets bolt to the aluminum slider

 

Take my money.

 

I apologize for making you say sorry, sorry.

 

Wtf, I honestly had no idea.

 

Well Greenlane off-road is actually pretty close to me, I like their stuff.

Im just still not sure what’s the best way of going about it. I’m not a hardcore off-roader and taco is my only vehicle.

 

yeah. When i made my own sliders i was going to go for 0.095" wall x 2.0" tube. but the cheap ass mild steel 2.0x0.120 was way cheaper so i went with them instead. I hate how small the 1.75" sliders look (from most places) so built my own 2" ones with the bends and shape i wanted:

 

Right?

 

haha thanks bro! I appreciate the shout out. @Buttskevin21 is right though. Steel will still dent and bend if you hit it hard enough. Ask Ryan @eon_blue he has sliders that I built him and he dented his pretty good up in Big Bear but they did their job and saved the truck from damage.

 

Westcott designs out of Arizona makes steel sliders that are 46lb per side, >100 total.

They are $$$ but welds are master class. Welds so nice they offer it with a clean coat option

 

I wouldn't trust that shape to be anywhere near as strong as anything made out of tubes. The ways a slider is likely to get loaded up tend to be the ways that open channels can be particularly weak, or at least lacking in rigidity. At least that's my initial take on how it looks in the photos combined with my 25 years of working experience as a structures analysis engineer in the aerospace industry.

Plus at 110 lb, it's not really saving all that much weight vs a much stronger 130-150 lb DOM tube set.

 

I have aluminum sliders on my truck. They weigh in at 99 lbs together. Haven't really slid on them but they have bounced off a couple rocky spots that would probably cause some damage if they weren't on there. MBRB, I don't know if you can still find these.

 

Yeah mine have a good amount of dings like this, but nothing worth chopping them off yet. Every now and then I have to bang/bend the sliders back down with the excavator, need to add a 5th slider leg or make the legs out of 3/16 next time

 

Alright I’m going there..where’s the titanium sliders at?!

 

Russia

 

Are the washers and pan head screws on the underneath for extra traction?