Trail Hunter Sliders?

Hey All -

Before I make the purchase to put on my Pro. Does anyone know if the Trail Hunter sliders can be use to help step into the truck? Thanks in advance

 

No.. not on mine

 

Def Not unless you got smurf feet

 

You can only get half your foot widthwise jammed into the space between the slider and rocker panel. Like you really mean it. Make sure you get your foot under your hip. It can be done, but takes practice. If this seems too much, then budget in an aftermarket set of step sliders.

 

I looked at getting these too. For the money, they don't seem to really deliver unless cost and minimalism are your driving goals. Here's my summary on what I found so far --

All these are the flat 0-5 degree with the top plate, powder coated and assuming a long bed double cab on the 2024.

Caliraised. They were about $1425 shipped for a set of steel sliders. The install looks kind of mickey mouse with lots of uncoated steel backer plates. No drill, no unusual tools. Decent system, but all the little bits and bobs to make it fit seem janky. Pros: USA steel, DOM tubes. Mounting seems rugged albeit rust prone. Good instructions.

Cali Raised LED - Texas, USA

Westcott ones are the most expensive, but shipping is reasonable unlike CBI. Around $1800 shipped for HREW MIG. Requires drilling out a frame hole and installing a rivnut, so that will add about $50 for a cheap rivnut tool, plus a step bit needed. Looks like the most rugged, but let's get real: I go camping and soft roading, not rock crawling. You'll be over $2k shipped for DOM on these. Good install vid. Probably overkill for 99.99% of Taco owners, but look like the cats meow of sliders.

2024 Toyota Tacoma Long Bed Rock Sliders - Westcott Designs

Greenlane Offroad is a straight bolt on, very similar to the mount on the OEMs. These are aluminium tubes on the rail, square on the mount, but they are very lightweight. In theory not as rugged as HREW or DOM tubing, but again, softroader, just fine. $1100 shipped to USA. Simple install, and good vid availabe

4TH GEN TACOMA ALUMINUM SLIDERS WITH BUMP OUT — GREENLANE OFFROAD

CBI:
Sticker price for sliders is $1260, but shipping is $425. Zero reason to get these over Westcott based on that alone. HREW, bolt on, similar design and style to the OEM accessory and the Greenlane. See no reason to get these. Also, crap install instructions of any of the products. Instructions are basically "step 1. remove bolts. 2. Install sliders. 3. Tighten. Have a nice day."

4th Gen Toyota Tacoma Overland Bolt-On Rock Sliders | CBI Offroad (cbioffroadfab.com)

NYTOP:

Still preorder for a few months. No clue on shipping, but list is $1500, so figure at least another $200 in shipping. Frame mounted with a design similar to OEM without a wrap around like Westcott or Cali. Looks like a more rugged design that's reinforced better than the Greenland or the CBI. Steel, powder coated, no kickout, with top plate. Hard to justfiy these considering you have other options available now (but consider lead times of 1-2 months for some vendors).

2024-Current Toyota Tacoma Rock Sliders — NYTOP | Not Your Typical Original Parts

Go Rhino:

This design looks cheap and shitty with a terrible mounting system that nobody should use so I'm not going to spend any more time on these. I wouldn't buy them. $850.

GoRhino Dominator Xtreme DT Side Steps / Rock Sliders | 2024+ Toyota Tacoma | TheYotaGarage

RCI Offroad:

DOM tubing, square frame supports. I suspect a very rugged design that is on par with the Westcott. Advantage is no drill. Wraps around the frame like the Cali, Westcott. Powder coated with kickout. stock is a 5 degree kant, so not quite flat. Textured platform. Not as wide as some of the other designs, but enough to use as a step. About $1725 shipped to a residential USA address.

Rock Sliders | 24' Tacoma Long-Bed | RCI Off Road (rcimetalworks.com)

OEM sliders:
By far the cheapest. $725 shipped for left and right side (they come seperately). No clue on material or finish. They look powder coated. Suspect mounting is identical to CBI and Greenlane method. Narrowest. Also unclear if you need the "rock rails parts kit" which is another $30. Kind of a pain in the ass to use the Toyota accessory site. Advantage is these are tucked in tight. Disadvantage is no top plate, not really an easy step since they're narrow, and unclear type of material. Also, will need to find directions on TIS for another $25 unless your dealer includes them. 1 year warranty if dealer installed, worst of the bunch. Dealer install will destroy the price on these. So consider it basically zero warranty.

Overall, I like the Greenlane. Light, strong, and easy to install. OEM price is great, but what's the point? Can't use it as a step, no plate. For my driving, which is not crazy or hardcore, no issues with aluminium vs HREW. No need for DOM for me as I don't have the desire or skill to go on class 7+ trails. (Trail Ratings Chart (flatwateroverland.com))

If you want everyone at Starbucks to know you are a pure Overlander, go with the Westcott.

Want to just get work done: RCI. By far the best value in rugged rock rails.

Want to look like you shop for clothes at Walmart and buy all your parts at Oreilly, Go Rhino.

 

Warning. If you are purchasing aftermarket, make sure their sliders fit the hybrid:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...t-on-rock-sliders.824970/page-3#post-30184286

I think there are a couple that explicitly state theirs is not compatible. It is still a slow roll to everyone being on the same page. Make sure you get the right one.

 

I didn't even think of that. You're right. Seems like there's some big exclusions to the hybrids and I forgot to look for that.

 

Thank you very much for the information. I’m not looking to do anything crazy. Just need something the wife can use to get into.
Reason why I want the Trail Hunter ones because it’s OEM and installation should be direct bolt on.

 

Don't know how patient your wife is, but she will need to be determined and have smaller feet.

 

So after all this research, I ended up getting the Wescott ones.

Very well-made, very good quality fit and finish. Shipping was kind of a turd, and they eat about 200 pounds of your GVWR so worth considering whether the weight is really necessary.

Not so great install instructions (as in none). They either sent me a bag of the wrong parts or just randomly included a bunch of extra parts which was a bit of a confounder.

The shipping was a little bit of a debacle. They ended up sending it to a terminal but it wasn't the correct terminal, so then I drove to a new terminal and then they couldn't find the box. And it was already slated to get a liftgate delivery anyway.

So the sliders are actually *really* heavy. I would've liked to get the green lane ones but they didn't extend far enough down and if they were just another four or 6 inches longer I would've gone with that.

The rivnuts are kind of a pain in the ass to deal with. They don't exactly inspire confidence like they can withstand a lot of load. They almost look cosmetic. And since you can't actually see where you're putting them, you have no way to know if they're mushroomed to the correct size because I don't know what type of riv nut they include so I don't know how far it's supposed to squash against the opposite side. Yes, I watched the YouTube video where they lift the truck up with the sliders. I'm also aware that they install hundreds of these things every month, and they know exactly the specifications. I don't. And so yes, there is a learning curve. And again, without having specifications it's very hard to know if I'm installing them to the standard that they need.

Again, this should be included in instructions and you get no instructions, you only get a very truncated video. If you ask for instructions you will get sent a link for the video that doesn't answer any questions.

At the end of the day I have a bag of leftover parts, everything that seems like it can accept a nut has a nut, they're heavy as fuck, they look nice, aluminum would be better, I'm not beating the shit out of this truck so I don't need to carry around bulletproof dumpsters on the side of the vehicle.

I'm not a lover of doing mechanical stuff, I did the job completely solo, it is kind of a hassle to do solo. Took me about three hours. I ended up having to replace one of the rivnuts because apparently I didn't mushroom it down, so it popped out and I had to take the whole slider off and put a new rivnut in and redo it. So technically I did three installations of this.

These are some heavy bitches to fight with. They're just long, they're not exactly balanced. I think the engineering work is good, the fit and finish is very good. Every hole in the slider matched up perfectly with every hole in the frame. They have gussets on a lot of the structural components which is nice cause some places don't do that. There was no Fuckery about having to enlarge holes to make it fit. It was spot on. I did the MIG welds because who gives a shit about TIG on a slider that's powder coated. I mean U Boats were stick welded for God sake's with AC welders and crappy rods and they did fine so I think we're good with 21st century gas shielded spool welds for a rock slicker. The MIG welds look absolutely fine. There's a tiny bit of spatter which you get with MIG and it was cleaned up very well.

you will either need to do the ad hoc rivnut install method where you use two washers and two nuts or whatever to mushroom it down, or you will need to make sure you have a collett for your rivnut setter that fits an M12. That's what you need to put these in.

Anyway, that's my review.