I unfortunately didn't make it to Rausch Creek this weekend. It was a rough weekend overall. I feel bad that I took a spot that could have gone to someone else, but life gives you lemons sometimes.
I got these LFD sliders on later yesterday. These are straight .185 sliders with the fill plates. They arrived after four months. I was literally one day from emailing LFD asking for an update, but then I got a shipping notification. It took a really long time. I've seen a couple people buy Cali Raised sliders after I bought mine, and they got them before I got mine. Yeah, international supply blah blah blah, but whatever. They were good when I got them. I don't really have any complaints about them. They appear to be well made and well designed. I looked to the Wanderlost Overland video for a bit of guidance even though they got RSG sliders. (I think they got RSG, definitely not LFD.) The part about removing the emergency brake mounts didn't apply to the LFD sliders. They're designed around the emergency brake mounts which is nice. I did run a tap through all of the holes. That's a new skill I picked up this weekend. For anyone who thinks it's scary, it's really not a big deal. You'd be surprised by what you're capable of after doing it yourself. Back to the sliders, they went on nicely.
I did nearly the whole thing myself with a spare set of lighter duty jack stands and a matching jack. I just needed a little help lining things up before putting the first bolts in. The sliders I got are the beefier ones, so they're extra heavy.
So far I'm pretty happy with the Rustoleum truck bed liner I used. It seems to be a little brittle on the underside where the jack stuff contacted even though I gave it more than half a week to dry, but we'll see. I also learned some more about painting and how the plates make it difficult. I did it the easier and sloppier way, but I still got everything covered. Getting the primer and the liner paint in the nooks and crannies of the plates was a pain. I saw someone else's slider build recently, and they had plates that bolted into place. I think that would be better than LFD's welded plates, but it is what it is. I wasn't too concerned about it looking perfect, but at least I learned a bit.
I also sprayed a fresh coat of Fluid Film on the part of the frame being covered up by the sliders before putting them on.
Now they're on and... they're on. It's now a bit harder to get out of my 4Runner, and the kickout doesn't give me as much of a step as I hoped for accessing the roof rack. I'm still going to be hauling my tire mount step for that. I mostly just wanted them because I wanted them and for a slightly lesser reason of the kickout step, but the kickout step ended up being less than I imagined. That's not really the fault of the sliders, but it is my point of view.
When I ordered these sliders last February, it was either this or spend a few hundred dollars more on an e-bike. Honestly, I wish I got the e-bike. I would have gotten it sooner because it was in stock at the time, and I probably would have liked it more and done more with it. But now I've got these sliders, and... they're good. Whatever.
I feel like a combination of two video game incidents from my childhood happened. In one instance, I could have gotten Yoshi Story (sliders) or 1080 Snowboarding (e-bike). I went with Yoshi Story, and I regretted it. In the other instance, I wanted a limited edition ice blue Game Boy Pocket so bad. When I finally got it, it was ice blue. Sure, it looked cool, but it didn't make my games any more interesting. I would have been better off with a couple new Game Boy games. I should learn from history.
Yeah, call me Gramma Ray all you want. I don't care. It wasn't your $1000, four months of waiting, and crappy couple days for an extended weekend that you took a day off work for.
