Rock sliders

There are a ton of brands that make sliders but I went with with RCI for multiple reasons.
- They are a local small business
- I can pick up in person to save on shipping
- They do group buys to bring the cost down
- I’ve always really liked the visual profile of the kickout on their sliders, they are in my opinion the best looking sliders on the market
- They are one of, if not the, strongest set of sliders out there. They have a 2" square main tube (vs. the common 1.75" round tubes) that is angled on the ends to avoid hang ups, 1.75" DOM outer rails are standard, there are 4 legs on each side with 1/4" steel gussets each one of them, and its full length frame plate mounting that is completely bolt on. They did not skimp anywhere, badass product for sure!

After replacing the suspension and getting all for the XREAS lines and components off the frame I started on the sliders. The Limited rocker panels don’t play well with sliders because of their size. There are a few solutions out there - buying OEM trail rockers which are very pricey, going with Shrockworks trail rockers with are steel, pretty generic in the fitment, and expensive when you factor in paying shipping, or seemingly the most common option, removing the rocker panels and running without them. I didn’t want to spend a bunch on money on replacing the rocker panels so I opted to go with removing them.

To start I grabbed a wire brush and some sand paper. I cleaned up surface rust and scuffed the paint then recoated the frame where the sliders will sit and let it dry for 24 hours.



From there I removed a rocker and bolted up a slider and starting checking it out. It looked horrible! You lose the front mud flaps, it looks unfinished/broken at the bottom of the fender, and most concerning, there is a big ass gap where the bottom of the door seal is fully exposed. My concern is winter driving, mud flap is gone and your spraying up ice and snow directly onto the seal through the gap between the body and the door. There was no way I was going to run it like this.





So I sat there, had a drink, stared at it for a while *****ing and moaning about the situation and tried to figure out why so many people run it like that. Eventually I worked up the courage and decided to go for broke. I put down tape, marked my lines, traced my sons sand box bucket to get a consistent even radius and started cutting.





I did consider trimming the front and rear ends up a bit so when using the sliders to their fullest and actually sliding on rock I wouldn't destroy the lower hanging sections of the rocker panels. I went back and forth on it but ultimately choose not to trim them any further for a couple reasons. The first is with the paint being silver the alignment of the rocker trims to the bumpers is a lot more noticeable than on darker colored vehicles. If I continued the cut straight across the whole length it would look like something is missing when the front and rear bumpers hang a little lower than the sides. Second is the mud flaps, I know ditching them and posting muddy pics is what gets Instagram likes and whatnot but I’m perfectly ok with not spraying the side of my vehicle with mud and rocks. I will not give up mud flaps, and as with all things, I always prefer OEM quality fit and finish when possible. Third was really considering my intended use of the sliders. The main purpose for them is to have a step, now that its lifted, that doesn’t reduce clearance. The secondary purpose is the kick out to push around trunk trunks and rocks to keep the side of the truck and tire away from damage. And finally, I can spend a couple minutes and pull the rockers and mudflaps if I know I’ll be doing something where I’ll need that extra clearance, but this was never intended to be a rock crawler that's going to constantly drop down onto obstacles.

This was the finished result.