I have the Shrockworks bolt-ons on mine, made to suit an inch body lift. I'm not wheeling in a way that puts me onto them hard very often, but I've certainly used them as intended a few times with no issues. No noticeable flex when lifting the truck via the hi-lift using them either. IIRC almost all of the bolt holes it uses are already there, I think I drilled one pair (one on each side)??

In theory, they're removeable, but I sort of have my doubts that those stick nuts would hold in place if you tried to loosen the bolts. They'd probably just spin and suck the stick inside the frame. At least, after being installed for 4 or 5 years here in the salt belt. If I was going to take them off, I'd just get another set of hardware. And plan on angle-grinding the bolt heads off so I can pull the rest of the bolt and the nut out of the frame with the stick.

At some point I will be doing that on mine, to repair the sills. There isn't much rust on my '99, but it's all in the sills.

The belly armor (Savage skids) gets used BY FAR the most. Call it 75% of the time. Then the bumpers are dragging another 24% of the time something is touching. Leaving the sliders to do their thing slightly less than 1% of the time. I say slightly less, because one of the few times I thought I was going to use them, the ledge I was next to just reached over the sliders and got my driver rear door anyhow.

Mine are (sadly) fairly pristine. Too many young kids in the house to get out much the last few years.

-Charlie

Im in the process of ordering a transfer case skid along with LCA skids from RCI as I too feel that ground clearance is a bigger issue than rocker panel attacks - but I've only wheeled gingerly in the 2WD and have yet to take the 4WD out

Sliders and belly armor are higher priority than bumpers, and after that the winch. Once I go that far the second gas tank is the next step and then I'll hit the gnarly, far stuff

Might flip the factory hitch, cut the rusted bumper and put the second tank in sooner than later. I could use the extra weight out back to tame my LC 8-wraps.

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I welded my homemade sliders on, never even considered bolt on. Never regretted it either. I have landed on them hard enough several times to make my wife scream at me Haha. Nice big dents in the 1.75 dom. No damage to the truck.

If they are tight to the body consider clearencing the pinch weld.

I used to work at a shop where we installed giant rivnuts, 3/8 I think. We installed them with an 1/2" impact and grade 8 bolt.

Load them up and take them with you! My youngest daughter enjoys it the most which I find odd. Maybe not a king of the hammers type event, but anything is better than nothing.

My daughter is petrified, she thinks there's a 75% chance of death LOL
My girlfriend on the other hand loves it and will get out and spot tough spots on the trail

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Haven't taken the twin boys out yet, but took the daughter out early in the pandemic. Windy desert, 105*F - and she was a total trooper.



-Charlie

You must have little little ones then. That is a bit tougher for sure. My youngest is 5 now and it’s all starting to get easier. They like to go find stuff to climb like pillars or just random hills. We ran into a trash pile at one of the spots from high schoolers partying in the boonies. I started picking up trash, and man them kids were all about cleaning up the place.

It’s a lot of work for sure. I can’t even appreciate how much work twins would be. Some of the most fun experiences with the family for us have just been in mostly not noteworthy spots for the most part. My kids could probably care less about world class trails, but they like finding grass hoppers in the wild and giving them names….lol

I have Shrockworks bolt-ons. They took all afternoon+ to drill the frame (right-angle bit adapter or compact RA drill required and a step-bit or 2) and install. I have undone a few of the bolts since and the stick-nuts held. One downside to the sticks is they are little rust-magnets that now live inside my frame-rails. It didn't occur to me to coat/paint them beforehand, unfortunately. That should be in their instructions. I was thinking that I might want to move them to a unicorn 5-Speed SC Highlander or something that I would run into one day. Since that will never ever ever happen from a financial perspective, I should have welded them on. There is no way I will find a decent T4R at a decent price that I like more than mine, so I will be campaigning this one until the end of the ICE era or my demise.

I am thinking of doing this as well even though I will probably get a trail-gear basic tubular rear bumper next time they go on sale. I picked up a flippable hitch for $10 (my 2000 a bolt-together version) and figure why not keep the ghetto lit. If you get to it first. please post pics. I already flipped the crossbar on the new hitch but haven't removed my factory one yet to see how things line up. Thinking I might need to grind off the security hoops to get a tight fit. Also like to find some kind of edge stipping to cover the sharp edge of the cutout.

2.5yo twins and nearly 5yo daughter. Once potty training is complete with the boys, I'll definitely be taking them out. I grew up going to the woods in the summer for weeks at a time, and all the kids will get the same experience. Its even more necessary now with smartphones and constant connectivity to get away from the 'city' life.

-Charlie