About Sliders...

You do bring up good points, however, for the average person looking for an affordable set of real rock sliders I disagree with a lot of these comments. Your comments are personal opinion. I'd like to see some of these pictures of TW vendor sliders that have failed. The vendor should know if this is happening so they can make adjustments where necessary. How much did they cost? Were they a lower end style step bar that was being called a "slider" since this name is so trendy these days. Call them out, it's what the forum is for. But with actual facts and pictures. It's a lot of hard work to build a set of bolt on sliders. Just wrapping them for shipping takes 25 minutes. People have this illusion that building a set of sliders is fun and only takes half a day. I welcome them to come over and give it a shot. I'll stand back and watch.

Having built more sliders than I can count now, I'd never lower the cost of mine even in times like these where orders have slowed to a crawl. My family needs to eat and I know what my time is worth, and it's worth a lot more than what I'm offering my sliders for. I would never offer them for less than $400 unless I wanted to have even less money to survive and run a small business in this day and age. That equals out of business.

4 legs are adequate for the DCLB as long as the end legs are near the end of the slider, and the other 2 are evenly spaced and the mounts are logical and material up to par. Keep in mind this is a set of "affordable" sliders that you can buy and will work great for 98% of any situation you may encounter. If you plan on bashing the hell out of your truck and being the big dog on the trail for the sake of showing off, then sure, build your own and make them 10 times overkill. Which would probably include adding a 5th leg. I can add a 5th leg, but the price will go up and even less people will be interested. I'm guessing 90% of the members here want them for the just in case scenario, and don't really have the desire to go beat their Tacoma into the ground since it's most likely their daily driver.

I felt the need to post since the OP may think he needs to steer clear of the vendors on here, who are the ones who go the extra mile to offer a quality product. I've only seen good things from the vendors here on TW, but would love to see what you're talking about if this is in fact true. Was it a large company or a smaller vendor who's trying to offer a better product than what a Google search will bring up?

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/beefed-taco/240221-beefed-rock-sliders-05-dclb-bolt.html

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/beefed-taco/88531-beefed-sliders-05-aclb-4dsb.html

 

I was wondering if they were higher enough and far out enough from the body to stop the all annoying shopping cart bang into truck situation

 

Nobody is making a ton of $ on sliders. I'm sure everyone selling them has them priced as low as they can for the sake of making a sale, and still making it half way worth it for them to even offer them.

If someone wants them dirt cheap, look on ebay. Everything around us is costing more and more every day, not keeping up with it all is the best way to put yourself out of business and there goes one more option for guys to choose from. btw...mine haven't gone up since I started building them 5 years ago, but they have gone down...since I'd rather sell a pair then not, and understand that none of us are laying on a pile of $ these days.

 

I love my Famous Fab bolt on sliders. the price was good and the quality is great. here is a link to me coating them. I am post #270
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/famous-fabrication/188597-famous-fabrication-rock-sliders-14.html

 

I remember a few years back seeing a pic of a red 2nd gen where the front of the slider bent and took out the body. Exactly what you're trying to avoid when buying a set. Obviously the leg was very far back and not where it needed to be for max strength. I also think the diameter of the material was 1-1/2", a little on the small side for the larger 2nd gen truck imo.

I used that image when designing my first set on Robert's truck (barlowrs) and put the leg about as far foward as I could. My 2nd gen sliders have the first leg ahead of the cross member and is further forward than any other sliders offered by anyone else. Same goes for the rear leg. Anything can get tweaked if bashed on hard enough, but so far mine have had no complaints. (that I know of)

 

I don't see any issues with the design of your sliders. Where I have seen some problems with sliders is with the mounting of the front leg to the frame, either the placement or the method of attachment. Your's looks good. The forward mount takes the worst hits since that is where the truck often makes the first hard contact. It's also the part most often neglected. I don't see any issue with your pricing either.

 

I'm solely responding to OP, I haven't read the other posts. My bolt on/zero drill sliders will withstand lifting with a hi-lift. Weld-ons are great, if you don't mind welding on the frame and never removing them.

 

Can you post a pic or elaborate a bit more on this bolt on zero drill? To my knowledge it's next to impossible to get the strength necessary without having to drill the bottom of the frame since there are just no good mounting points (holes or bolts) to use. I'd love to see what you're talking about. Are they the style that use a horizontal u-bolt? Thanks.

 

Beefed Taco, here you go: these are Famous Fabs (Dwreck's) Sliders and they are direct bolt-on with not drilling or modification needed.

 

^^^^^ Those look pretty fuckin bad ass!!! I may be sold on the FF's. Anyone know if he can add plates to that?

 

LOL

 

wait, I'm lost....so who's the asshole?

 

Usually me, but IN MY OPINION it's the TW vendor in this case.

 

I'm sorry I offended you. You did state "some" vendors, and not all, my bad. Your original post has good info, and maybe did take it a bit personal, but just wanted to shed some light on what it takes to actually build sliders and make a dollar when it's over since you say I'm "crazy". I figured you probably weren't even talking about mine, or even knew of mine, but felt the need to post since this is my day job and do know the in's and out of making sliders people will actually buy, even if they are over $400 and only have 4 legs.

I encourage anyone to go build a set of 5 legged sliders with all the bells and whistles to sell them for less than $400 and let the forum know when they're finished and if they'll be doing it again. There will be a ton of guys interested in them that's for sure.

I wasn't aware sliders were failing on the trails, and you are correct, I didn't do a search and should have first. I do respect the fact you prefer to use PM instead of the board, which is respectful of you. After re reading your post, it seems very informative for the OP.

A lot of people have this idea that sliders are simple to make and can be farted out in a matter of hours and should cost next to nothing. This is probably due to big companies with deep pockets making it hard for the small guy who tries to offer a better product but is forced to hand build everything due to lack of expensive machinery. I apologize to you and I'm sorry I offended you. You were simply offering up facts you've learned first hand over time.

Sorry to the OP for helping to vere this thread off course.

 

I personally could care less whether a slider has 4 legs or 5. What matters to me is where they are placed, how they are constructed, and how they are attached. That is where one design should be compared to another.

I would not have a problem running Beefed Tacos sliders.

A lot of poor engineering gets covered up by just making things bigger and heavier. That is frankly my biggest complaint with a lot of the off road accessories I see. I mean, hell. you could make a slider with 8 legs and it wouldn't make it better. I don't want anything on my truck that is heavier than it absolutely has to be. There is a price to pay for that over kill just like there is a price to pay for installing something too weak.

Anybody who decides to build accessories for us has to balance these things to do an intelligent job. Designing parts so that the 5% of those who bash their trucks won't destroy it, means the rest of us will carry around a bunch of detrimental weight. Nothing comes free.

 

Sure!

 

Shauncho, Dwreck can build just about anything you want. He just replied to this thread and you can PM him for pricing. I highly recommend FF. They went on perfectly, only Issue I ran into was getting was getting my big hands inside the frame near the front on both sides to place the nuts on the bolts. I can take some more pics of the mounting points if you want them.

 

Sweet, man. thanks for taking the time to add your input. Pics would be awesome!

 

I should of stated IMO paying more then $400 is crazy and providing how I got to that price would of helped us all so I apologize.

My price point is $400 because I shopped around, waited, and bought during a GB. I also negotiated my pricing due to volume of product bought. Whenever possible I will wait for months just to find a good price and perfect deal. Even when a great deal comes along in a GB I try to get the local guys to go in at the same so we can group together and save on shipping. I purchased a front bumper via GB from the same vendor I purchased my sliders from (also during a GB). Because of this I also received a good percentage of the total off. I should of eluded to all that in my statement.

If my memory serves me right I paid a little over $1k for a plate front bumper and sliders without shipping but that was years ago so I will check my invoices tonight for a totally accurate price.

thanks for being informative and helping out in this thread