I was all excited to go to my buddy's shop to get my Savage sliders welded on this morning. Unfortunately, once we got them up there we realized that the front and rear flares were going to have to be cut considerably to make them work. Maybe even more than the flares. I did talk to Roy before ordering (he was really nice and helpful) about the Limited flares and required trimming. He informed me that Toyota made 7 or 8 variations of flares for the 3rd gens. He said some accommodate the sliders with little or no trimming, others not so much. apparently I have the latter. I do not want to cut my flares at all. i just had them all professionally re-done and painted. Also a chicken and egg thing. If I installed the sliders first, it would have been a giant mess to do the rocker panel molding. Do them after and run into my current problem. I wanted the Savage sliders because they're built very well and already welded together. I wouldn't have minded 4xinnovations being I wouldn't have this issue, but my welding friend has to go out of his way to make time for this and it's asking a lot to have him spend all of that time just to assemble them. Just so happens that he does have a '98 regular cab Tacoma with a 3" Toytec lift and the Savage sliders fit perfectly on there. We did put them under my Runner to take some angle measurements and found that a 5-8 degree angle (rather than the 20) on the slider frame would allow for the perfect amount of room under the flares, pinch weld and perfect fitment for the welding pads to the frame. So here's the options we've come up with. Want to know if any of you folks' have any other advice.
1: Sell the sliders to my good friend with the Tacoma, call Roy tomorrow and see if he can make a new set at the 5-8 degree angle. Hopefully I would break even other than the prepping and painting. I didn't do the best job cosmetically on these sliders so I'd get to try again. Chalk it up as lessons learned and everyone's happy -
2: cut the welding pads and gussets off, cut the frame pipes at new angles and weld everything back together (a lot of work and difficult)
3: cut the flares, remove and re-assemble, prep, paint again and reinstall. Again, a lot of work and I don't want to cut them to that extreme.
4: cut some wedge shape steel to fit the angle of space between the welding pads and frame measured from placing the sliders where we want them. Weld the wedges onto the sliders, them weld to frame. This seems like compromising the structural integrity and quite a jimmied way of getting the job done. However, I only get to play in rocks a few times a year and do not intentionally slam my vehicle onto things, though it does happen sometimes. You all know what I'm talking about -
Any other thoughts I can garner from you folks would be much appreciated. We did however get the panhard bar drop welded on today and I got some welding lessons. Not at all a bad thing. Here's a pic of my flares.

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Hey man,

Sorry to hear about this issue. I just did my sliders this weekend and also have a limited with the side moldings. Take a look at the pics and maybe it might give some ideas. Steve pushed them out just a little to help with the strength so he could burn a little hotter and also so with the angels. Maybe even give him a call with what you have. The guy is good and might be able to help.


Blue


A day at Roughneck Offroad, Sliders!

cut and weld.

I have savage sliders on my 99 limited. I didn't have to cut more than 1/2" arch off the bottom edge of the flare. It looked like it was going to be worse before I got them welded in place.

I have a one inch body lift. That took care of the issue

thanks man, checked out your thread. Your flares are exactly the same as mine. However, to get the curved outside of the sliders to fit exactly in between the front and rear flares, the measurement is a 58" slider. It looks great on your Runner but mine are a different build. Mine fit perfect at a lower angle (68" length). they are what they are. I have to figure it out or get new ones. Thanks for the pics and help. That CNC stuff is pretty cool -

Simple. I love it. As long as you're not talking about the flares. Had an idea. Just take the frame pipes on the sliders, angle them where we want, mark and cut straight through the pipe from the bottom up, through the gussets up the the weld plate. I'd be left with the weld plate with a triangle shaped tube and gusset. Square that off, re-weld plate to pipe and gusset. Install. Only thing changed would be the downward angle of the frame pipes. Is this what you're talking about?

This is what i am talking about.

If your welding these on then cutting is only one more step.

Thanks, Singtoe - Talked with Roy today at Savage and my friend with the Tacoma and got them on the phone together. What we're gonna do is get new frame pipes ( with gussets, plates, coped cuts assembled). My buddy is concerned with cutting the 8 pipes exactly vertical and even. We'll make it work correctly. Roy is really nice and helpful, might even get another set of kickouts for the Tacoma while we're at it