Rock. . .err. . .Stump Slider Build

Goal: High clearance, light weight sliders that double as steps for wifey. They are NOT for rock crawling. We wheel in the woods, so an occasional stump or tree root is used for a pivot.

Process: Countless hours IMing w/buddy who has the same needs and is an engineer. (Truth: I nodded and smiled while he designed)

Output: Possibly the World's most expensive sets of light duty sliders. Not including the cost of materials and consumables, which is minimal, I would put the value of these sliders at around $20k. Don't tell our bosses. :gee:

Pics:
Fit up before mounting, cutting and capping:


Underside during fit up. Note the Z plates between the uniframe and the pinch seam. Self tappers into the frame and regular hardware through the seam.


Capped:




The passenger side still needs to be completed and they need paint. . .but you get the idea.

Countless hours and really expensive for a simple set of sliders.. yep an engineer was involved... haha..looks good. Got any more pics of how they attach?

How far do they stick out?
When I first built mine, I tucked them in real tight, I was concerned they would look dumb sticking too far out. A few door dings later, and I added a kicker bar to keep the pivot farther from the door.

Looks good!

They stick out to the edge of the flare. I'll take some pics of the attachment tonight while I am finishing them up.

Here is a pic of just the slider all finished and ready to be installed. There are 3 Z Plates that go between the uniframe and the pinch seem. The slider is bolted to those and to the rocker. Rocker connection is using rivet nuts.

and here is on of the back side of a Rivet Nut. I tested them on my monitor stand

As requested. A pic of the mounts to the frame and pinch seam.

I would reccommend adding some strength in the vertical plane on the legs, but that's just me.
For the rearmost leg, bolting to the leaf main eye pocket is a good option

They look great, but something like AJ's superrails would have worked better and been a little lower to use as a step.

That being said, I'm 5'11" and thought I could possibly use my AJ's rails as a step (they sit just below the rocker panel). They are too high to comfortably step on from the ground and I'd smack my head on the door frame every time I used them. Maybe it works better for much shorter people.

sunburned said:

They look great, but something like AJ's superrails would have worked better and been a little lower to use as a step.

That being said, I'm 5'11" and thought I could possibly use my AJ's rails as a step (they sit just below the rocker panel). They are too high to comfortably step on from the ground and I'd smack my head on the door frame every time I used them. Maybe it works better for much shorter people.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I actually don't notice that they are even there when I get in. My wife is 5'2" and I think that the will work good for her. She doesn't mind the height, but she doesn't like stepping OVER the door sill.

As for the vertical bracing. You are probably correct. They are only made out of 10G sheetmetal so they aren't designed to take "impact" but more like rubbing and leaning. The goal was to keep stumps and trees off the rockers and provide a step without losing ground clearance or gaining a lot of weight. If we had difference design parameters, they would have been 3/16s, with grade 8 hardware and lots of bracing. . .but that is a different Jeep. . .