RCI Sliders Issues

I'm not incredibly active on here, more so to browse and get some ideas. I am not here to bash, as my experience with RCI started off great. I bought my 17 Tacoma in October and from the beginning I knew I wanted sliders, I had them on my Wrangler. I researched a lot, from pricing, quality, lead time and look. Sliders are not exactly cheap, so I took my time. I decided on RCI, a big reason why was the top plate (step for my son), I wanted a kickout, and they had the set I needed in stock. Sent the money, they shipped incredibly fast. Fast forward to the end of October/early November, when I installed them. There were knicks in the powder coating (extra $150) in 2 areas from UPS shipping. I get it, not easy to ship, that happens, not noticeable enough to anyone but me. I did let them know of this though. Install was fine, holes lined up as they should, just heavy and awkward. I love the look of them, and was happy. Sadly I have not had much of a chance to hit the trails with winter in Pittsburgh. So that brings me to now, where my essentially new truck with new sliders is now a new truck with rusting sliders, which you can see in the pictures. This is not just rust in the areas where the chips in powder coating were. This is rust and bubbling everywhere on them: the welds, the tubes, the top plates, etc. I can see this happening years down the road, but these have been on my truck about 5 months. That is not okay. I emailed pictures to RCI and they responded:

"I'm so sorry to hear about this and the inconvenience. This isn't a typical situation and is unfortunate. With being in a snowy state where salt is used on the roads I could possibly see this happening in the tight hard to coat areas of the sliders many many years down the road if at all, not so suddenly.

I would like to offer you the powder coat cost of your purchase back in the amount of $150.00."

I appreciate that but it does not do anything about me having rusting chunks of metal on my truck. Am I supposed to take these off, sand them and spray paint them? Pay to have them powder coated again, then reinstall? Keep spray paint in my truck to continuously spray these things when more rust appears? I'm looking for some opinions here on what I should expect. I don't think I am off base to want more resolution than $150 for a defective product. They even admitted, this should not happen this quickly, if ever.

 

Looks like a powder coat issue. Just so you know most fabrication companies outsource their powder coating jobs. They did right by you and gave you the $ paid for powder coating. They aren't in terrible shape so just touch them up and use the $ for something else on your truck or take your significant other to a nice dinner.

 

I only have paint loss and rust on the short pieces of tubing that face the front and the back of the kickout that faces forward, only place that is ok is the front that is protected by the front mud flap. I'm retired, so I try to head to town when the roads are good. They do sand and salt the roads where I live here in Kalifornia.
Duane

 

LineX...

 

Just shitty coating. I've heard numerous complaints with their powder coating.

Take the money back, take em off and sand them down do a proper prep and should be good.
I have them and like you experience lots of salt in the winter.

Mine were bare, cleaned por15 coated then paint, and the bed liner rattle cans.

So far only place I have rust is where they've been used and even the bed liner was taken off. That said it's just a surface rust.

I really don't see the point in powder coating armour as it will take lots of abuse and get beat up. Better off just rattle can it for easy touch up

 

what is the benefit/compromise from getting sliders Line-X'd instead of powder coating?

 

That looks like the quality of PC that was on my Ural. It had rust in some crevasses when new just from shipping. Definitely bad prep and application.

 

Why do you think you are owed more than what you paid? Asking for a friend

 

Maybe because when you buy a product, you expect it to be as advertised. Maybe a different product manufacturer would have been bought. Maybe I don't feel like taking additional time to take these off, sand, prep, paint and reinstall. Also, did I say i am owed anything? I said resolution, I am in this place not by my doing, but from product failure.

 

You stated they were chipped from shipping. Could happen with any brand. You decided to put them on for winter and now have some rust. Mine have rust. Every slider in the world will gain rust. The powder coating looked faulty and you were re compensated. What exactly do you want?

 

I'm with you on this one OP. That was nice of RCI to offer you a credit for the subpar powder coating job, but maybe they should compensate you for the labor it's going to take you to remove them, prep time, and to paint or powder coat them again. I'm not talking an absurd amount but a little extra would make sense. By the time you remove them and put them back on you're looking at a half day, no? Don't mind me, just putting my 2 cents in.

 

Take a deep breath. I'm just curious about your point of view. No need to be defensive. I understand what you're saying, but what would make you happy? From my point of view they did what they needed to do by refunding you. Also, they still have to pay the vendor for the powder coat that you are unhappy with. So they are at least sharing in the pain of the situation already, but financially trying to make it right. So you get your money back and your sliders are mostly good to go with just a few spots that needs to be touched up. RCI gets screwed cause they have to still pay their vendor so they are losing money. That sounds like a decent resolution.

 

Isn't that what the $150 refund was for? It obviously didn't include time for removing them.

 

IMO this is fair resolution.

RCI will lose money with this transaction from what I understand as they outsource the powder coating.

 

Not gonna help once you actually use them and get a tear in the line-x, like what happened to me. I should have just spray painted them so I could touch them up. Now mine are all rusted where the metal was exposed. Not biggie for me as I didn't buy it for looks, but it was a disappointment to see that line-x tear on their first real use. The powder coating always seems to get messed up in transit. My ARB had some scuff marks that turned into rust from the shippers so now I just get everything I can shipped bare metal.

 

this is what i was thinking - line-x for bumpers, paint or powder coating for sliders.

 

The way I look at this from my point of view, and I'm not saying i'm right, is that I paid someone extra for a job that was defective and now I have to take the time out of my day to fix it. I agree with you, it blows that the company still needs to pay the vendor for their shitty powder coating job, maybe they should consider looking for a new vendor if this isn't a one off situation, but as a consumer at the end of the day i paid someone to get the job done right the first time. We're all busy, i get it, but after working 50-55 hours a week I now have to take 3 hours out of my day off to remove them, touch them up, and put them back on? I don't think a little extra compensation besides what it costs to have them powder coated is asking for too much.

 

maybe you should pay shipping back to RCI - that seems fair

 

Yea, I'm following you. I have two kids and when I do actually get a chance to work on my own truck for a change, it's typically on a tight time frame.

 

Can you see the pictures? Every part of the sliders are rusting, after 5 months. The chips have nothing to do with the majority of the rust. There were minor chips, hence why I say I was not concerned about them. I am concerned with what these are going to look like in 5 more months, years, etc. I would understand this if I bought ebay sliders. I'm talking to RCI and I think all will be good, they offered to take them back and have them recoated and warrantied from the coater, (they do outsource it). I'm seeing what my local powder coater will charge (less down time compared to shipping back and forth) to see if he can get it done for $150, but I know he's coated parts for my road runner and pretty sure it will be over $150. I'm sorry but they admitted this shouldn't have happened, but I am wrong for not being happy about it?