Slider expense (1 Viewer)

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Just curious, but it seem's like there is more time and fabrication in my ARB bumper......so why do most peoples sliders cost more than my bumper did?
 
My take is that ARB is a huge company that supplies products all over the world. Mass production items, like the 80 series bumper, costs less to produce than smaller companies, hand crafting/fabricating items like sliders. Sliders are more of a 'custom' product than the ARB bumper.

Hope that makes sense. :confused:
 
:confused:

expense?

have you priced out rocker panel repair lately?
 
:confused:

expense?

have you priced out rocker panel repair lately?

Front end repair would be just as expensive without serious protection from an ARB or something similiar, thats not the comparison here.

I'd like to know why fabbing up two tubes with mounts for welding to the frame cost's in the neighborhood of $7-800.
 
I'm with LandCrusher

How many sets of sliders does Slee or Metaltech etc. ship overseas? How many people (average people, not serious offroaders) put on an ARB compared to a set of sliders? How many other products do those that make sliders make compared to ARB?

ARB is a huge company that I imagine mass produces bull bars for MANY different types of vehicles among many other products and ships stuff all over the world. Compare that to a small business that is making sliders in maybe a handfull quantity at a time.

But after all is said and done, my sliders cost ~$150 more than my ARB. ARB was picked up locally so no shipping but a sizeable chunk for taxes and gas to go get it. Sliders were shipped so no tax but a sizeable chunk for shipping and gas to pick them up.

ARBs are in the $700-$800 range depending on where you find one and if you get a good deal...At Slee an ARB is $805. Their sliders run $795-$885. Even if you find an ARB locally on sale for $700+ tax there isn't that much difference in price...
 
weld on sliders are typically cheaper then what u suggested its the bolt on slider that get ya. the 80 series are a much harder vehicle to design sliders for due in part to the location of things under there (i.e. exhaust routing and where the body sits in relation to the frame. if you look at some of the tacomas there sliders are really cheap because they have a strait shot to the frame, thus less bending and work to achive the support. another reason is the weight of our trucks. the supports to the frame must be very well done to support our trucks comming down on rocks and the tacomas or other lighter trucks dont have to worry as much
 
I am in the process of building a set of sliders for my 80 series right now. I can tell you that the $7-800 price tag of high quality commercial sliders is not outrageous. Price out some of the components. Even with a simple weld-to-the-frame-design, the costs add up quickly.

$150+ for scrap steel
$60 for welding consumables (wire, gas, grinding disks, chop saw blades, etc.)
$200 - 250 for powder coating

Without even trying hard, the cost of materials is over 400 dollars for homemade sliders. This doesn't take into consideration that most custom fabricators are using hardened steel, DOM tubing, and laser cut parts. They must make a bolt on product which adds a whole new complexity to fabricating the frame connections. It also means adding a hardware cost to the final product.
Now go out and take a serious look at the underside of your 80. Fabricating mounts to the frame and incorporating cat guards is a pain in the ass. Especially with the 95-97 models. I would argue that the complexity of producing sliders is similar to that of producing a front bumper such as an ARB. The custom shops such as MetalTech, Hannah and Slee have spent countless hours of trial and error to make sure there are no problems with their design. Add to that the capital equipment costs, employee wages, insurance and $7-800 is about right factoring in a small profit. I doubt these guys are making much after overhead costs.
ARB has all of the same expenses but they also have volume sales. They can reduce cost on an item if they are mass producing it.
 
Front end repair would be just as expensive without serious protection from an ARB or something similiar, thats not the comparison here.

I'd like to know why fabbing up two tubes with mounts for welding to the frame cost's in the neighborhood of $7-800.


oh.

in that case...


search the archives. it's been discussed ad nauseum.
 
They take a little custom work around the cats, but if you're after some weld on sliders for cheap look at the ones from Marlin Crawler. I used some for an extra cab minitruck (almost perfect length for an 80) welded them to the frame with gussets. Total cost would be about $200 if you rattlecan them yourself, and can do the welding.

I won mine in a drawing on Pirate so total cost for me was about $30. Can't beat that when compared to nearly $800. Now I'll admit, they probably aren't quite as beefy as MetalTechs or Slee's, but for the wheeling I do, they'll be just fine.
 
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they look good to me. as long as they're strong enough to support the weight of the vehicle without flexing up into the body seam along the bottom then they are def worth the money. :cheers:
 
Posting the link.

Found the site pretty easily, they look pretty nice (really nice for the money). :bounce:

ktmracer01they look good to me. as long as they're strong enough to support the weight of the vehicle without flexing up into the body seam along the bottom then they are def worth the money. :cheers:

That would be my question also! :frown:

But here is the link for anyone out there, hope these were what you were talking about.

http://www.marlincrawler.com/htm/armor.htm

Jeremy
 
I have those sliders on my 4runner and they work great. They ship with way too long legs that need to be cut back for a 4runner, but they might work great for an 80. I was thinking about the same thing for my rig.

Im not going to hardcore rock crawl it, I'de just like some protection from the occasional rock from thrashing my rockers.
 
Found the site pretty easily, they look pretty nice (really nice for the money). :bounce:

ktmracer01they look good to me. as long as they're strong enough to support the weight of the vehicle without flexing up into the body seam along the bottom then they are def worth the money. :cheers:

That would be my question also! :frown:

But here is the link for anyone out there, hope these were what you were talking about.

http://www.marlincrawler.com/htm/armor.htm

Jeremy

Those are the ones. When I put mine on, I wanted to keep as much clearance as possible and have the legs as flat as possible going to the frame so I notched the pinch weld in the rocker to clear the legs. I will say that there is a little flex in these legs. Without gussets they would flex into the body. I added a gusset to each leg that goes to the top of the frame and roughly 5-6" along the top of the leg. I've lifted the truck using my hi-lift on the sliders and they don't hit the body but there is still a little flex. This makes me think that a really hard hit might push them into the body a little.

What I think I will do since I have really good clearance with these sliders is to add a peice of angle iron along the bottom of each leg that extends under the bottom of the frame. This would stiffen them up quite a bit more and I'd only lose about 3/4" of clearance.

So as I said before, there is a little work involved with these but it's a much cheaper option, you just need to plan on beefing up the legs a little.
 
how much would it be to buy a set for 300, and then have it crush into the side of your truck wrecking both doors in the process and possibly more?

sure it stings to write the check, but you feel like B.A. Baracus when they're on and you know you'll deflect any hit without damage.

Plus, the metal techs have a nice shelf area underneath for a tank, or compressor, or battery, or tools.

MT's rule, they look sweet, and they work as a great step to get up to the roof also. The extra tube in the back works as a kickout and the steel is all laser cut and welded up sweet.

Don't trust somebody's schedule 40 pipe and a stick welder to deflect 6000 pounds plus when it comes in contact with a hunk of granite.

Would I like to see them cheapper? sure....it'll take another 3000 of us to buy them and then maybe that'll happen. ARB sells across the board to all manufacturers....can't compete quantity wise, but you make up for it in quality.
 
how much would it be to buy a set for 300, and then have it crush into the side of your truck wrecking both doors in the process and possibly more?

sure it stings to write the check, but you feel like B.A. Baracus when they're on and you know you'll deflect any hit without damage.

Plus, the metal techs have a nice shelf area underneath for a tank, or compressor, or battery, or tools.

MT's rule, they look sweet, and they work as a great step to get up to the roof also. The extra tube in the back works as a kickout and the steel is all laser cut and welded up sweet.

Don't trust somebody's schedule 40 pipe and a stick welder to deflect 6000 pounds plus when it comes in contact with a hunk of granite.

Would I like to see them cheapper? sure....it'll take another 3000 of us to buy them and then maybe that'll happen. ARB sells across the board to all manufacturers....can't compete quantity wise, but you make up for it in quality.

I'm not downplaying the quality or knocking the price of other sliders like the Metal Tech ones or Slee's or any other for that matter. I agree that the MT ones are sweet! Mark makes killer products, PERIOD! I like the Slee one too. But unlike some people on this board I don't have the funds available to throw a couple thousand bucks at my truck every couple of months to upgrade to the latest and greatest high-dollar product to just hit the market. Hell, I want a Shortbus bumper in a bad way, but unfortunately it's just not going to happen any time soon. Likewise I've had my truck for almost 6 years and just recently got these sliders on because I couldn't afford a set of the high-dollar one like Hanna, Slee or MetalTech. Does that mean I don't like them or I think my cheap ones are better? NO. This is what I could afford to do and they work well with a little extra bracing. The minitruck and 4Runner guys have been using these for a long time now on hardcore wheeling rigs. Granted they are lighter trucks than an 80 but they put them through some hard abuse. So I think they'll work.

Oh yeah, and why don't you call Marlin and ask him if they're using Sch 40 and a stick welder on their fabbed products. Before you bash a quality vendor why don't you get your facts straight first.:rolleyes: When I am fortunate enough to be able to write a check for $800 sliders like you (without putting it on a credit card) I'll beg and plead to be part of your elite group of 80 owners that have "quality" products on their trucks.;)
 
Adam, in now way did I mean to get you riled up , or bash on Marlin.
the stick welder comment was regarding some home made sliders guys have used in the past.
I've had my rig for 9 years, and I'm just now getting to do some mods myself.
I don't have the expendable income to drop 3 grand on armor for the truck at once and then another 3 grand for tires and a lift either.

If you find another vendor that makes something you trust, then great!

I for one, don't want you to spend 300 bucks just to find out that you'll be 3 grand in debt once your rig gets out of the shop because they didn't do what you thought they would.

I'm the farthest from an eliteist that you'll find here, by the way.
 
Thanks for the response. First and foremost for the record I have a ton of respect for the products produced by the big vendors building stuff for the 80 series. They make great stuff and I wish I could afford to just drop my truck off to one of them and tell them to go to town. But until that day comes, I for one and going to be one of the ones looking for other options. That's the very reason I ended up building my own rear bumper recently. Christo's rear bumper is outstanding, and many parts of the 4x4 labs bumper are the cat's meow as far as i'm concerned, but in order for me to have a decent rear bumper, I needed to build my own.

I don't have a problem if someone can purchase products from a big name vendor, but don't knock down the guy that tries something different or something home made. Heck even if a homemade bumper or slider or whatever fails, it's just one more reason to look at something professionally made or rework your own design if you have some plans of your own.

This is general comment. There have been lots of homebrew things I've seen that I wouldn't think of having on my own truck, but I applaud anyone willing to try and innovate and give others ideas. That was all I was attempting by posting my sliders, was just to give one more option to those that may not have the cash to drop on something more. And I did it with a caveat about needing to beef them up a little.

Anyway, sorry for the tangent in this thread. Back on topic now.
 
I appreciate the information, I for one enjoy having some other (-$$$.$$) choices.

I don't have the time to design up a whole new slider for my truck, but I probably do have the time to finish fabbing some already pre-made ones to make them durable.

I don't care what the items cost, as long as I get to do with my rig what I want when its all said and done, and looks original. I don't want the out of the box 4x4 Landcruiser.

Thank you for the Info, I will def. put it to good use.

Jeremy
 

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