Did you check stock at Metaltech4x4?
FAQ Thread Options for lifting a 200
- Thread starter Romer
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Yeah, I've talked to all the usual Land Cruiser specialists (Slee, Cruiser Outfitters, etc...) and everyone is saying it will be months before they have stock coming from ARB again. I am not huge a fan of the chains like 4WP and ORW, so just curious who else people source LC lift kits from.
Have my heart set on BudBuilt sliders but they are at 18 weeks lead time. Slee and WK are also out of stock and many months out.
Sheesh, I just did tires, lift, rock sliders, Prinsu roof rack, bed rack, tonneau cover, molle panels and a bunch of other stuff on my Tacoma Pro in a little over a week. I guess the relatively small market for LC200 stuff means you just pays da man and you waits....
Have my heart set on BudBuilt sliders but they are at 18 weeks lead time. Slee and WK are also out of stock and many months out.
Sheesh, I just did tires, lift, rock sliders, Prinsu roof rack, bed rack, tonneau cover, molle panels and a bunch of other stuff on my Tacoma Pro in a little over a week. I guess the relatively small market for LC200 stuff means you just pays da man and you waits....
I had checked a few weeks ago and couldn't find anything but will call them tmrw - thanks.
If your heart is set on Budbuilt sliders, order them. They have beat estimated timelines every time I have ordered from them (sliders, skids, shock mount armor.). Of course, your experience may vary. 
Good to know, thank you.
Thanks for posting this !!
Finally figured out my squeaking noise on the BP51 rear shocks.
Slee sliders were in stock for a few minutes this week, but I hesitated and missed out. After looking more critically at their design, I don't really understand why one would need to drill out holes for rivnuts when others seem to be able to mount securely without them. I also have a hard time ponying up nearly $1500 and waiting many months for delivery of some bent pieces of pipe. But yeah, Budbuilt seem to be the way to go...If your heart is set on Budbuilt sliders, order them. They have beat estimated timelines every time I have ordered from them (sliders, skids, shock mount armor.). Of course, your experience may vary.
ARB Old Man Emu BP51 2" kit seems to be back ordered for many months, all the way back through the supply chain in Australia. Has anyone seen these in stock in the US anywhere?
For general offroading and "touring" (i.e. NOT Rubicon type rock crawling) are alternate brands like Ironman worth considering? Have had King's and Icon's on my trucks and not looking to go that route, as I would like maintain much of the stock LC200 ride attributes just with more travel and ability to carry a modest payload.
For general offroading and "touring" (i.e. NOT Rubicon type rock crawling) are alternate brands like Ironman worth considering? Have had King's and Icon's on my trucks and not looking to go that route, as I would like maintain much of the stock LC200 ride attributes just with more travel and ability to carry a modest payload.
OME Nitros are just fine for what you want to do. As are Tough Dog and Ironman and a few more.
Thanks, will take a look.
@eskimoke checkout this thread for a subject matter expert's opinion Builds - mcgaskins' 2013 build thread - Palladium - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/mcgaskins-2013-build-thread-palladium.1219267/post-13254603
Wow, lot's of detail in that thread - thank you.
Taco2Cruiser
Crazy American Off Road
I get your frustrations, but please allow me to share some insight.
To be very transparent, BB makes less than 10% profit on a pair of 200 series sliders.
Raw materials are $700+ (no Chinese or Indian steel used). Each pair takes, on average, 31 man hours to create. We hand fit every tube, plus we only use round tubing, which requires more notching and much, much, much more time to have everything fitted properly. If we used square or rectangular tubing, it would be much cheaper to produce. But, round tubing is stronger and “slides” over rocks better. Then all the lollipops are hand bent. Hell, a single lollipop costs us $42 to make by the time I cut it, clean it, make a weld nut in our lathe, clean that, tac it to the lollipop, TIG weld the entire perimeter, grind those awesome welds flat as it must mate up against the inside of the frame rail, hand bend it to fit inside our jig, sand blast it, powder coat, then wrap it in foam. That’s just one tiny time aspect to the monsters that is creating a pair of 200 sliders. We clean all the welds up (I know that we are the only fabricators that still do that in this little market we are in), and we ensure zero porosity. That’s a ton of extra stuff to do. So its kinda the difference between a Rolls Royce and a Ford. Both will do what you need them to do, just one is built to a higher standard. That doesn’t make one better than the other, just better for some people and their situation.
Honestly we should change probably like $1700 for a pair, but we change $1400 as we are pretty proud of them, and we have to stay somewhat competitive.
Lead time wise. We sell 3x 200 sliders a day, everyday, for the last 19 months straight. There is only 5 of us at BB, and we are not going to lower our standards or values to rush sliders out the door.
I hope that helps frame the situation that we put ourselves in. But I also hope you can appreciate the care that is put into things we create that is not a common occurrence in the off road industry.
Thanks for the reply Rob. To be clear, I AM ordering BudBuilt sliders and from what I can see, they are well worth the money. I do understand supply and demand (Merica!), that workmanship can't be rushed and that you get what you pay for. My frustration is only that the LC200 aftermarket is so small that I can't currently get ANY sliders, and in the case of BB, 14 weeks to build, 3 weeks to paint and more weeks to ship and install. That's 4 months, and I can't play with my expensive toy in the dirt until it gets some rock condoms
By comparison, I just got some Cali Raised sliders for my Taco Pro. I called them, rolled up there and had some fantastic sliders installed the SAME DAY. As a new LC200 owner, my frustration is just that it is such an exclusive club that everything takes much longer, costs more and many manufacturers don't even bother as the market opportunity is so small. Even Toyota has given up on the LC for the time being, so the prognosis is for a demand bubble (= supply shortage + premium prices) while everyone grabs the remaining stock, and then a fizzle as LC200's age out.
Does that mean I regret buying a gas guzzling, overweight, fugly land yacht? Heck no, I love my LC200 and it's worth whatever it time and money it takes.
I'd also like to correct my statement that Slee sliders require drilling - they apparently use a hole already present in the frame, so you are just using that as an anchor point for a rivnut.
By comparison, I just got some Cali Raised sliders for my Taco Pro. I called them, rolled up there and had some fantastic sliders installed the SAME DAY. As a new LC200 owner, my frustration is just that it is such an exclusive club that everything takes much longer, costs more and many manufacturers don't even bother as the market opportunity is so small. Even Toyota has given up on the LC for the time being, so the prognosis is for a demand bubble (= supply shortage + premium prices) while everyone grabs the remaining stock, and then a fizzle as LC200's age out.
Does that mean I regret buying a gas guzzling, overweight, fugly land yacht? Heck no, I love my LC200 and it's worth whatever it time and money it takes.
I'd also like to correct my statement that Slee sliders require drilling - they apparently use a hole already present in the frame, so you are just using that as an anchor point for a rivnut.
Taco2Cruiser
Crazy American Off Road
I totally get it and trust me, to my core, I don’t applaud our lead time. It’s frustrates the ever living crap out of me. Like, I can’t stop thinking about ways to make it more efficient.Thanks for the reply Rob. To be clear, I AM ordering BudBuilt sliders and from what I can see, they are well worth the money. I do understand supply and demand (Merica!), that workmanship can't be rushed and that you get what you pay for. My frustration is only that the LC200 aftermarket is so small that I can't currently get ANY sliders, and in the case of BB, 14 weeks to build, 3 weeks to paint and more weeks to ship and install. That's 4 months, and I can't play with my expensive toy in the dirt until it gets some rock condoms
By comparison, I just got some Cali Raised sliders for my Taco Pro. I called them, rolled up there and had some fantastic sliders installed the SAME DAY. As a new LC200 owner, my frustration is just that it is such an exclusive club that everything takes much longer, costs more and many manufacturers don't even bother as the market opportunity is so small. Even Toyota has given up on the LC for the time being, so the prognosis is for a demand bubble (= supply shortage + premium prices) while everyone grabs the remaining stock, and then a fizzle as LC200's age out.
Does that mean I regret buying a gas guzzling, overweight, fugly land yacht? Heck no, I love my LC200 and it's worth whatever it time and money it takes.
I'd also like to correct my statement that Slee sliders require drilling - they apparently use a hole already present in the frame, so you are just using that as an anchor point for a rivnut.
For about 8 month or so a year ago, I tried the whole “can only buy when available” thing. Then I got calls from guys that were waiting and missed buying when they became available. Just like your Slee experience. Plus, I always felt like people were buying whatever configuration was left instead of what they really wanted. And I don’t like one size fits all products. So I switched back to buy anytime, but if a ton of other people bought when they wanted, then someone has to wait.
It’s tough. And I’m not saying this to defend BB. I say things like this all the time because I love feedback. And if I need to change something that the majority of people want, then I’m going to change it. I also like being a part of something that has very open communication with its customers.
For the Cali raised example, they don’t make their own sliders, they have Apex Fab make their stuff. Just like how Slee has another company make their sliders. Nothing wrong with that, do what you are good at, and have others do what they are good at. I don’t do car audio, I have another guy do it that is better than I am at that particular work. But if I didn’t make my own sliders, I would only sell what I physically had also. So maybe we should go back to that? Only order what is on the shelf. I guess I should also mention that we make a lot of things that are branded under other companies labels... so that doesn’t help either. Which we got 10 Underdog Racing traction bar orders today also. (That one I’m allowed to mention)
What’s funny is, I have 10+ 3rd gen Tacoma sliders ready to go, and 5th gen sliders ready to go. And I had 35 200 sliders ready on January 1st, and I never thought I would have this many orders of just 200 sliders that would completely whip out those sliders, plus the $50k of materials I had in hand to make more 200 sliders. But they just don’t stop. Heck, just from this morning to now, we sold another 9!
So when it comes to lead time, I just try and play it safe. It’s better to deliver early than say we need an extension. But yeah, maybe we should go back to only available when available? Honestly, we might if it doesn’t slow down. We are all at 12 work days 6-7 days a week. So I’m not sure we can keep the 14 weeks unless it slows down. And we are just now going into summer trip orders so god help us.
At the end of the day, I really, really love helping people enjoy their time exploring. It’s seriously what gets me up everyday. So I’m all about doing whatever we can to make that happen. Not trying to make excuses, just always looking for options.
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Appreciate you taking time to share how the sausage is made 
Everyone I know who has purchased something from BudBuilt says it is just exceptional quality and that you consistently under promise and over deliver. I think we're all OK waiting as long as you keep turning out great products.
Everyone I know who has purchased something from BudBuilt says it is just exceptional quality and that you consistently under promise and over deliver. I think we're all OK waiting as long as you keep turning out great products.
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I’m very confident @Taco2Cruiser doesn’t need my feeble input. But here it is anyway.
Years ago I oversaw the financial dept of a steel manufacturing plant. I know that real US top-quality steel is far more expensive than crap from China, India, etc. The price fluctuates all the time so it’s a chore to do proper planning when buying steel and how much. It’s another chore to unload it from the big rigs - assuming they arrive timely and not 5 mins until the plant is about to close.
When you’re physically manipulating steel by cutting, welding, grinding, drilling, painting, and then prepping to ship it then it’s much more grimier, dirtier, exhausting, and time consuming than making the plastic covers for the cruiser’s console fridge. Not to mention the tools, equipment, and supplies...$$$$
On top of this is the administrative burdens of customer service, payroll, emails, phone calls, shooing off the unwanted sales person, website, taxes, banking, keeping peace with the city and county inspectors, and then wondering if it’s the right decision to skip being with family and friends by working on the weekends.
From my experience the price, the wait, and the value are more than fair to the customers. If I had the funds I would’ve ordered months ago.
Along with the business Taco responded to a few of my messages helping me with maintenance stuff. Sure, the things I asked could’ve been answered if I did a bit more research. Nevertheless I got an answer.
Years ago I oversaw the financial dept of a steel manufacturing plant. I know that real US top-quality steel is far more expensive than crap from China, India, etc. The price fluctuates all the time so it’s a chore to do proper planning when buying steel and how much. It’s another chore to unload it from the big rigs - assuming they arrive timely and not 5 mins until the plant is about to close.
When you’re physically manipulating steel by cutting, welding, grinding, drilling, painting, and then prepping to ship it then it’s much more grimier, dirtier, exhausting, and time consuming than making the plastic covers for the cruiser’s console fridge. Not to mention the tools, equipment, and supplies...$$$$
On top of this is the administrative burdens of customer service, payroll, emails, phone calls, shooing off the unwanted sales person, website, taxes, banking, keeping peace with the city and county inspectors, and then wondering if it’s the right decision to skip being with family and friends by working on the weekends.
From my experience the price, the wait, and the value are more than fair to the customers. If I had the funds I would’ve ordered months ago.
Along with the business Taco responded to a few of my messages helping me with maintenance stuff. Sure, the things I asked could’ve been answered if I did a bit more research. Nevertheless I got an answer.
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Fast, cheap (affordable), quality. Pick two. It's nice to see BB stick to their guns and offer high quality, affordable options. Given the quality, supply and demand curves suggest they could charge twice as much and deliver them very fast (since they'd have inventory) and probably make a similar annual profit (higher price, lower volume). But then the LC community would end up with very few people buying and using their products.
Did the spacers solve the rubbing issue on the KDSS Bar?
Last200
SILVER Star
Hey everybody! Let’s see if I can revive this thread. The BP-51s and 2722s I ordered are here and hope to have the install scheduled for Monday.
What’s the run down I need to give the tech before install? How do I avoid the chirp? OEM rear washers to replace ARB lip washers? Loctite short bolts on rear? What else to make sure this is a flawless install?
P.S. Love my BB step sliders. Highly recommend.
What’s the run down I need to give the tech before install? How do I avoid the chirp? OEM rear washers to replace ARB lip washers? Loctite short bolts on rear? What else to make sure this is a flawless install?
P.S. Love my BB step sliders. Highly recommend.
