Do It Yourself Sliders

since I got smacked around a bit with another question elsewhere I did do a search first and didn't find anything so :moon:



That said does anyone have any experience building rock rails or sliders themselves? I don't want to just buy them, I want to build them, both for cost reasons as well as experience.

How and where did you mount them underneath? Weld or Bolt? What kind of metal - size, shape, did you use?

Any info and advice that can be offered would be awesome.

FWIW - I'm not looking to go rock crawling and with the clearance and type of off-roading I do I don't expect to have a problem with actually needing them, more than anything I want/need to use them as an anchor for my hi-lift.

Thanks guys!

You must not have searched very hard. Check out the 'similar threads' at the bottom of this page.

Then search for 'rocker replacement'.

I bought AJ's sliders. Worked great and protected my Jeep for about two years. Then they started bending and wrecking my rockers anyway, so I took them off and will sacrifice them to help build my rocker replacements.

One build I found quick search. Just go advanced search titles: sliders; rock rails; etc
http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1053071&highlight=SLIDER

I wrote a how to a couple years ago but I let the domain expire, but here are a few pictures to look at.

http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p193/M715/Rock Sliders/

I built mine out of 2x2 .120 wall box tube. They bent with the first solid hit. Id do rocker replacements with 3/16 or 1/4 2x6 tube if I were to do it again.

Here is how I did mine. You gain a lot of clearance by cutting out the old rockers instead of just mounting something underneath.

Good luck.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/weld-rockers-little-different-then-rest-896660/

mine are made from 2x4 .120 wall rect. tubing. with 4 stand offs welded to the frame, which has some hd engineering frame stiffeners.

it holds the weight of the rig just fine on jack stands.

Actually I think mine have been .188 wall. Held up fine for the slow bumps into rocks, but as soon as I got some momentum in it, it bent.

Mosephus said:

I wrote a how to a couple years ago but I let the domain expire, but here are a few pictures to look at.

http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p193/M715/Rock Sliders/

Click to expand...

I made mine almost exactly the same as these. Only mine bolt on instead of being welded. Honestly, it's quite a bit of work to get them to look and fit right.

The first set I made were 2"x4" 1/8" wall square tube, attached by 2 legs(1"x2"-1/8"wall) to the frame uni-rail and a 1"x1" angle bolted through the pinch seam. The end plates for the legs were 1/8" sheet(11ga) Bent the rt side enough to crease the rocker, pinch seam and floor.
Here's a link to a pic if you care to look.
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh338/tbburg/IMG_0866.jpg
Note how the rocker above the slider gets thinner towards the front fender, and the bottom of the front fender seems pushed out a little bit? That's the result of inadequate support at the front of the slider.

Currently rebuilding them using 2"x4" 1/4 wall square tube, using the same legs, but adding 2 more legs to each side.(The legs didn't bend, but concentrate the loads from the sliders from a hard hit on too small an area of the rocker/pinch seam region)

My recommendation would be to use at least 3/16" wall tube for the sliders, 1/8" min wall for the mounting legs, and use at least 3 legs on each side.

Build tips: The uni-rail is not parallel to the pinch seam/door line on the XJ, so each leg is going to be a different length. They get longer toward the back of the vehicle.
Tack everything together solidly, and test fit before you finish weld anything. Either seal up everything so no water can get in at all, or put drain holes in the bottoms of the rails.


Have fun!

tbburg said:

Currently rebuilding them using 2"x4" 1/4 wall square tube, using the same legs, but adding 2 more legs to each side.(The legs didn't bend, but concentrate the loads from the sliders from a hard hit on too small an area of the rocker/pinch seam region)

My recommendation would be to use at least 3/16" wall tube for the sliders, 1/8" min wall for the mounting legs, and use at least 3 legs on each side.

Build tips: The uni-rail is not parallel to the pinch seam/door line on the XJ, so each leg is going to be a different length. They get longer toward the back of the vehicle.
Tack everything together solidly, and test fit before you finish weld anything. Either seal up everything so no water can get in at all, or put drain holes in the bottoms of the rails.


Have fun!

Click to expand...

Good advise here. Especially the part about each leg needs to be a different length. Certainly takes some time to get them right and looking good.

Cody90XJ said:

Good advise here. Especially the part about each leg needs to be a different length. Certainly takes some time to get them right and looking good.

Click to expand...

Yeah, well,... after doing it wrong it's easy to see how to do it right!
More advice on the leg length part:
The one thing I did right first time out of the gate was this:
Rather then trying to cut the proper length legs, I cut pockets in the rail for the legs to slide into and made the legs an extra 1.5" long. Tack-welded the mounting pads to the legs, and clamped them to the frame rails. Then it was simply a matter of sliding the rail down over the legs to get the right length. Bit of a pain in the butt, but probably no more then trying to get the individual lengths correct.

Use 1"x1" or 1"x1.5" x.120" wall for the pinch seam,its stronger than angle and the radius is a perfect fit for the pinch seam.

this guy -

I kinda just measured my rockers... wrote down Ideas, followed factory lines... kept it simple and it turned out great... My buddy (welded them for me) made a fixture so he could make em again as needed... I know 5 or 6 other guys running the same set up i have now.

I did a rocker replacement with 2x4x3/16 on my wife's rig.

The weld in is my favorite thats what I did also. They will eventually bend in if you dont brace them back to the rails. I have had mine for 3 years and after a hard wheeling trip my doors are hitting them now! but im going to fix that with frame stiffiners and some braces.



Not the best pic but here is where they bended up on the passenger side enought to cause the door to hit them.

One other good tip is to start with the 1x1 angle get your holes drilled fasten it to the Jeep. Then fit your main tube to the rocker using jack stands then tack it to the angle using some small 1/8in or 3/16 plates. Then you can hang the slider up while you cut the legs to length and tack them in.