JohnsD90
New member
that will be negligible.
New Rock Sliders!!!
- Thread starter Dirt4dinner
- Start date
that will be negligible.
theizzardking
New member
welding won't hurt the frame if you know what your doing, yeah you can mess things up by throwing to much heat in there, but like i said if you know what your doing all things are fine, you could get crazy with it and send your truck in for stress-relief lol, but seriously people weld bumpers and sliders on all the time with no ill effect, just don't throw down a 1 inch bead all in one pass lol, that said i would worry a bit about welding as if you damage the slider for any reason the only way to take it off is with an angle grinder and then your frame or your sliders are going to be ugly, the strength of a bolt is often underestimated, all you need is 7 threads engaged and you approach a strength equal to that of an infinitely long rod and threaded hole, if that makes any sense, really i would just use the supplied bolts and a good torque wrench, the only reason i could see welding is if you don;t like the angle the sliders are coming out and you want to do your own custom job.
sliders for 150 here and i remember seeing a few other manufactures who do them for that price just start searching, if you'd like i'll see if i can find the others as well.
Trail-Gear Inc > Rock Sliders
tyr0981
New member
HOLY THREAD REVIVAL! PART 2:
Sooo i see lots of talk about savings in purchasing vs. building, and i thought i should ask the question, is this still true?
i WANT a set of Savage off road sliders w/ kickout, however with shipping, that's 351$! i haven't gone to ACE to see the latest price on square pipe, but i'm guessing materials would be around 200$ and then my welding wire...
Somebody have a different set of numbers?
and where are the pictures promised from page 1 of this thread? thanks guys! pictures of what you went with after this discussion would be great!!
:whip2:
Sooo i see lots of talk about savings in purchasing vs. building, and i thought i should ask the question, is this still true?
i WANT a set of Savage off road sliders w/ kickout, however with shipping, that's 351$! i haven't gone to ACE to see the latest price on square pipe, but i'm guessing materials would be around 200$ and then my welding wire...
Somebody have a different set of numbers?
and where are the pictures promised from page 1 of this thread? thanks guys! pictures of what you went with after this discussion would be great!!
:whip2:
Tube (round and square) varies in price depending on where you get it and what the market price is at the time so its tough to do more than just spitball on raw materials costs.
Its tough to factor in "consumables" like welding wire, gas, holesaws, drill bits and flapdisks into the cost of each project because each one takes different amounts and you may or may not need stuff based on what is in your garage/shop.
In raw materials, measure 3x buy once. If you plan on building multiple items for your rig it might be worth looking into even the basic Bend Tech Software. It can be programmed for multiple tubing sizes and will help eliminate waste as much as possible. It also allows you to play with multiple designs, preview the bend order and gives you the start and stop point for each bend you need to make.
Also, move beyond going to your local hardware store for your raw materials like tube and plate. (Not going into the pipe vs tube debate) But most hardware stores only sell Pipe. Find a local welding shop or metal supply house and buy straight from them. Hardware stores have absolutely ridiculous markup on their stuff. My last few rigs I just bought all my tube from Bud @ BudBuilt and he would include it in his orders. Find a fabricator around you that buys in bulk and might be able to get a better price break than you can flying solo from the same suppliers.
There is something to be said for building things yourself and its cool if you take pride in building everything from scratch, but there are just some projects where the time value of money doesn't even come close to breaking even. I use this rule for all my bracketry. I know people who make every tab, gusset and bracket themselves and I applaud them. But for what I can buy a laser cut one for that already has a hole drilled for whatever bolt I need, it cuts down on my time, raw and consumables cost. This mentality carries over to smaller projects too.
For the cost of what some of these companies are cranking out sliders for 3rd gens at, its tough to beat and if you are building completely from scratch i.e. no raw materials or consumable materials in your stock yet, you're probably not going to spend much more buying a set ready to go for your truck. You might eat some of the shipping but I doubt you would be eating all of it. I have built a few different rigs over the years and done almost all of the tube work on each one including full interior cages, bumpers, sliders etc and on my last 3rd gen I had some generic old Trail Gear sliders. They aren't the coolest looking ones around, but they serve their purpose and are a reasonable price. The only reason I will be building the ones for my 97 is because I will have the material left over from the new buggy frame/cage and am going to use it on this 4R.
Its tough to factor in "consumables" like welding wire, gas, holesaws, drill bits and flapdisks into the cost of each project because each one takes different amounts and you may or may not need stuff based on what is in your garage/shop.
In raw materials, measure 3x buy once. If you plan on building multiple items for your rig it might be worth looking into even the basic Bend Tech Software. It can be programmed for multiple tubing sizes and will help eliminate waste as much as possible. It also allows you to play with multiple designs, preview the bend order and gives you the start and stop point for each bend you need to make.
Also, move beyond going to your local hardware store for your raw materials like tube and plate. (Not going into the pipe vs tube debate) But most hardware stores only sell Pipe. Find a local welding shop or metal supply house and buy straight from them. Hardware stores have absolutely ridiculous markup on their stuff. My last few rigs I just bought all my tube from Bud @ BudBuilt and he would include it in his orders. Find a fabricator around you that buys in bulk and might be able to get a better price break than you can flying solo from the same suppliers.
There is something to be said for building things yourself and its cool if you take pride in building everything from scratch, but there are just some projects where the time value of money doesn't even come close to breaking even. I use this rule for all my bracketry. I know people who make every tab, gusset and bracket themselves and I applaud them. But for what I can buy a laser cut one for that already has a hole drilled for whatever bolt I need, it cuts down on my time, raw and consumables cost. This mentality carries over to smaller projects too.
For the cost of what some of these companies are cranking out sliders for 3rd gens at, its tough to beat and if you are building completely from scratch i.e. no raw materials or consumable materials in your stock yet, you're probably not going to spend much more buying a set ready to go for your truck. You might eat some of the shipping but I doubt you would be eating all of it. I have built a few different rigs over the years and done almost all of the tube work on each one including full interior cages, bumpers, sliders etc and on my last 3rd gen I had some generic old Trail Gear sliders. They aren't the coolest looking ones around, but they serve their purpose and are a reasonable price. The only reason I will be building the ones for my 97 is because I will have the material left over from the new buggy frame/cage and am going to use it on this 4R.
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Yup...By no means do I want to scare you away from the project. A set of sliders is a good way to practice some "from scratch" fab work and get your feet wet. Like any modding, its a slippery slope haha. Bending tube and fabrication is more addicting than just bolt on mods IMO.
GhostRing
Member
You willing to make a road trip to Bend?
I have a little shop that I'm specializing in things like sliders for Toyotas
Shoot me an IM if you are interested!
tyr0981
New member
i might make it that way! i've been plotting allot of projects for the 4runner, all of them involving fabrication, the sliders where second on the list of heavy materials until this last weekend (i caught a stump on the back door) a slider would have saved me the dent. I'm very happy with the results of my roof rack, learned a TON & HALF!!! of useful skillz, and incorporated custom stuff i wanted.
so i found .250 steel square steel for 102$ per 20ft, that will give me 2 sliders plus a little extra, then welding wire + power, i'd bet puts me around 300$,
The Savage sliders are the closest shape that i want (minus there round tube), my design (on paper) is fairly close to Savage's dimensions, i'd be saving 80$ doing all the work myself.
:artist:
this is close to what i'm after as a net result (i'd have less of an upward angle, i'd also have triangle shape frame mounts for easier welding under the vehicle), though i doubt my welds would be nearly this pretty:
decisions decisions.....
so i found .250 steel square steel for 102$ per 20ft, that will give me 2 sliders plus a little extra, then welding wire + power, i'd bet puts me around 300$,
The Savage sliders are the closest shape that i want (minus there round tube), my design (on paper) is fairly close to Savage's dimensions, i'd be saving 80$ doing all the work myself.
:artist:
this is close to what i'm after as a net result (i'd have less of an upward angle, i'd also have triangle shape frame mounts for easier welding under the vehicle), though i doubt my welds would be nearly this pretty:
decisions decisions.....
tyr0981
New member
well after reading up on parts specifications, it appears that nobody uses 3/16" steel for there sliders, no manufactures do that is, the most common for square or round tube is .120 (1/8" inch) steel, so that'll cut my costs in half! a 20ft length is 48$! i'll need ~24ft for both sides, SWEET! the 3/16's was the upper limit of my 110 welder, so i can build my own for 180$ yeah baby! already have a drawing and measurements, now just need to get parts and figure out angles!
:hungry:
:hungry:
I plan on doing my own as well... It will be a while, but for the cost its such a better option and its a fun time as well... I will also do my bumpers most likely at the same time.
Project_Mutt
New member
Looks good man congrats!:thumb: Clean welds too! I wish I could get a welder and start messing around with fabing stuff.
tyr0981
New member
i'm plotting a rear bumper build too, i keeping going back and forth on what details i want to do with it, like a tire carrier & miscellaneous accessories, one project at a time!
