Slider materials

[leonard_nemoy]

I am going to build some sliders for my fj80 and wanted some opinions. I am thinking I want to use 2" x 4" rectangular steel for the main body of the slider. If I use 2" x 4" rectangular tubing should I use material with a wall thickness of .120" or .188"? Also I want to bolt the sliders on. What is the best way to bolt sliders on? A plate that extends above and below the frame with holes to accept u bolts, or drilling holes in the frame and through bolting the sliders are the two options I can think of. Thanks for your input

 

[e9999]

Mine have the Ubolts system and they are plenty strong. I would rather not weaken the frame. Although I suppose if you would weld-sleeve the holes that would not be an issue. Think about protecting your cats if you can.

 

[gregnash]

Been contemplating the same thing... I read a thread on Expo Portal a while back that a guy explained his thought process for building them for his crawler, and subsequently other 4wheelers and crawlers. It came down to this....
Are you looking for Rock SLIDERS or Rock SLAMMERS? There is a difference.

Rock SLIDERS = exactly that, they slide over rocks and obstacles, because of this they do not need an impressive, heavy wall thickness as they are meant to ding/dent slightly but not take a massive, hard impact. Thus you can go with a slightly lighter tubing that will be scrapped up but never really slammed into the rocks. Rock Sliders are normally found on expedition rigs, standard 4wd rigs, etc. for those that do light to medium wheeling.
Rock SLAMMERS = heavy duty armor that is meant for crawling where you may impact the slider/armor on a rock with the full weight of the vehicle from any number of heights. Thus, you will need a heavy gauge/thickness tubing to act as an impact protection/armor on the vehicle.

How true this information is, well..... it makes pretty good common sense to me so take it for what its worth.

 

[leonard_nemoy]

thanks guy, I was actually looking at slee's website and their sliders are designed to use u bolts and are also built out of .188". I have decided I will use u bolts to attach the sliders and make them out of .188". I might use .250" if I thought I needed rock slammers. The u bolt shop said they could make them out of grade 5 9/16" bolts or grade 8 5/8" bolts. I opted for the 5/8".

 

[zebrabeefj40]

From my experience .188 is fine for most rock slamming too. I used 2x4x.188 for sliders on my FJ40 - they got beat, slammed and slid but they didn't ding or dent. I doubt that even on an 80 series you will need .25 wall material. Maybe a "wear strip" on the bottom of .12 thick material if you see a problem developing; but I would start with .188 wall and see how it stands up to your style of wheeling.