I installed Slee Offroad LX570 sliders, here's how it went (2 Viewers)

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tbisaacs

It's basically a Land Cruiser
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It took a couple of months of being on the waiting list, but they finally came this Friday. This is absolutely a DIY job - but it wasn't without challenges. Also, be warned: this is dirty job. My truck had probably 3-4 pounds of mud underneath. I can still taste dirt.

My hope is that this thread can save other people some time in the future.

Ordering and shipping

I exchanged emails with Amory in the spring to get notified when the next batch of sliders would be available. Once I got notified from Christo, I ordered right away. The next day I got a photo from Christo - they were on a pallet, on the way via UPS freight:

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They arrived at my house a few days later. Everything is well packed and there was plenty of spray insulation to keep stuff from moving around:

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Hardware & instructions:

The kit arrived with printed instructions and a few bags of hardware:

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One piece of feedback for @sleeoffroad - the kit come with what I assume is the standard Toyota 200 series hardware, so there is a lot of extra nutserts, etc. It took me a while to figure this out.

Also the instructions have a couple of gaps in them. Here's what threw me off:

  • While it's probably obvious to others - it wasn't obvious that the "Slee" cutout marked the "front" of the slider. For some reason I assumed it was the back. I only figured this out after mounting brackets and test fitting to truck
  • The technical drawing was too small to be useful. A top-down view or illustration would be more helpful
  • I didn't know how many nutserts I actually had to install (hint: 3) until I test fit the sliders.

Fit & finish

Wow. Just wow. The quality of these is just outstanding. Powdercoat is perfect. The courtesy lights are really nice. Everything is laser straight and fit together well.

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Removal of running boards and AHC "mini sliders"

Removing the running boards is easy. You unscrew the mudflaps (if you have them), then unbolt the 10 and 12mm bolts that hold them on. Once you do that, open the doors and start popping the plastic rivets. Mine were in good shape so none of them broke.

Removing the AHC mini sliders is straight forward - there are (8) 12mm bolts. I was able to zip off most with an impact wrench. The bolts closest to the body are just out of reach for my impact so I used a socket and u-joint thingy.

Prepping for slider install

You'll need 3 nutserts to install these - 2 on driver's side and 1 on passenger. The M8 nutserts need a 17/32" drill bit. I searched high and low and couldn't find one locally at Lowes, Ace, etc. I ended up with a 9/16", which is a few mm bigger than the 13.5mm required for the M8. I knew this would be a risk...2 went in fine, one spun (more on that later).

I set the sliders on a jack to see where I needed to drill:

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On the driver's side, you'll drill one hole for the front bracket, and one on the bottom of a crossmember for the second-to-last bracket. On the passenger side, you just need a whole for the front bracket.

After drilling, I hit each hole with some spray paint to prevent corrosion.

Bolting up

Second piece of feedback for @sleeoffroad - it wasn't clear which side of the slider that the brackets bolted too (inside vs outside). I got it wrong the first time, which results in the middle two brackets being off from their holes by ~ 1/2". I had to take sliders back down and re-mount the brackets. No big deal, but instructions could have spelled it out.

I expected the top holes to be a pain - but they weren't too bad. I had the right combination of long extension (like 6") plus u-joint + socket and I was able to get in through the bottom of the slider:

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I just took it super slow. While the slider was on a floor jack, I lined everything up and then got each bolt started. I started tightening inside most bolts and worked my way out. I tightened the 4 bolts that hold on the front and rear brackets last. On the passenger side, one of my nutserts spun and I could not back the bolt out. The front bracket has 3 bolts - and 2 are fine. I'm not super concerned.

I also ended up parking on my max trax + putting truck in high to give myself room to work.

After tightening everything, I wired the lights. I don't have a soldering iron, so I spliced wires, used heat shrink packed with dielectric grease. I'm sure I'll come back and do these right later.

Prepping the rocker panels

Rather than buy new rockers - I chose to cut mine. @grinchy has a great thread that I followed. An oscillating mult-tool with a semi-circle blade literally cut the plastic like butter.

One thing that's nice - once I removed the tread plate I could set the old board on top of the sliders to get a sense of where I wanted to make my cuts:

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Finished product

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So which side do the brackets bolt too?
 
Are the sliders a matte black? Mine are semi gloss. I think for Lexus glossier would be better.
 
Are the sliders a matte black? Mine are semi gloss. I think for Lexus glossier would be better.

There is a little bit of sheen in the powder coat.
 
I like it. Nicely done! Thanks for being an early pioneer. Between the cutting of the stock running boards, and the availability of the SLEE sliders compatible with AHC, this is finally becoming a reality for the LX. Not to mention that the setup looks great and fits well with the Lexus overall look, from stock to aggressively modded.

Would you know how much the SLEE sliders weigh? And how much weight was taken off the stock setup between the AHC armor and skirts?

Got any pics of underneath after the slider install?

Can you tell I'm intrigued?!
 
I like it. Nicely done! Thanks for being an early pioneer. Between the cutting of the stock running boards, and the availability of the SLEE sliders compatible with AHC, this is finally becoming a reality for the LX. Not to mention that the setup looks great and fits well with the Lexus overall look, from stock to aggressively modded.

Would you know how much the SLEE sliders weigh? And how much weight was taken off the stock setup between the AHC armor and skirts?

Got any pics of underneath after the slider install?

Can you tell I'm intrigued?!

Shipping weight was 180 lbs. I’ll grab some photos underneath tomorrow and poste em!

Hardware that I removed was maybe 20 lbs.
 
This is probably a silly question but looking at the picture on the cover of the owners manual, the mounting arms look a little less beefy than I've seen on other products. Any concerns there?
 
This is probably a silly question but looking at the picture on the cover of the owners manual, the mounting arms look a little less beefy than I've seen on other products. Any concerns there?

No concerns here. Christo runs them on his personal LX. I consider that a pretty credible endorsement :)
 
I like it. Nicely done! Thanks for being an early pioneer. Between the cutting of the stock running boards, and the availability of the SLEE sliders compatible with AHC, this is finally becoming a reality for the LX. Not to mention that the setup looks great and fits well with the Lexus overall look, from stock to aggressively modded.

Would you know how much the SLEE sliders weigh? And how much weight was taken off the stock setup between the AHC armor and skirts?

Got any pics of underneath after the slider install?

Can you tell I'm intrigued?!

Snapped some photos underneath.

Rear mount:

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Front mount (2 existing threaded holes plus one nutsert):

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Third mount (this “foot” is super heavy duty)

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Second mount:

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On the driver's side, you'll drill one hole for the front bracket, and one on the bottom of a crossmember for the second-to-last bracket. On the passenger side, you just need a whole for the front bracket.

After drilling, I hit each hole with some spray paint to prevent corrosion.

So glad you enjoy them!! Would you mind pointing out the holes where you placed rivnuts?
 
So glad you enjoy them!! Would you mind pointing out the holes where you placed rivnuts?

  • Front bracket, both sides (it will be obvious when you hold the bracket up)
  • Third bracket, driver's side, bottom of frame (the passenger side uses the fuel tank skid bolt hole).
 
Ahh ok, I gotcha. The "crossmember" part is what threw me off. We'll make an update, to make the locations clearer. Also, we'll move some verbiage from the Technical drawings into the body of the instruction (I know it's tiny font). We'll add some verbiage to articulate that the Slee logo plate is the front of the slider.

Thanks a ton for your support and feedback!

Cheers
 
The bolt hole to the left of the two vertical bolt holes is for another application. Its perfectly fine to leave that bolt out in this application (sorry for your added work). We'll also add that to the instruction. Yours will be the super "not going anywhere" install :) thanks again!!
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I've been staring at pictures of @Ohnoitsbreaux and Slee's 570's and noticed that their sliders "tucked" up a little more into the rockers than mine so tonight I loosened them back up and stuck a jack under each mount. I was able to raise them another 3/8" to 1/2" toward the rockers. The look nice and tucked in now:

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