Rock Sliders

Hi guys,
Im looking for a set of rocksliders for a '96 110 CSW i have been looking for a galvanised set but there seems to be a lot to choose from. Has anyone any recomendations of ones to get or ones to avoid?


Cheers
Louis

First i am not a fan of rock sliders as they reduce the underbody clearance, secondly if they are used in anger galvanising will just be wiped off, better just painting them periodically.

thanks, i will bear that in mind :-)

Ill second the painted ones over galvanised. If you have the tooling, it could be easier and cheaper to make your own than buy them in.

Lou, I would first ask the question do you actually need them?

Assassin wrote:

Lou, I would first ask the question do you actually need them?

Now that is the question, and one i am thinking long and hard about!

Personally, I would say that rock sliders on a Defender are a good idea if you going to do any sort of off-roading. The skirt under the door is so flimsy and vunerable that replacing them with rock sliders makes perfect sense. I realise the skirts are designed to be replaced, but replacing them with something as neat as these is a good investment is you're keeping the vehicle for a while:-





However, 'rock sliders' are not to be confused with 'tree sliders', which I think are a waste of space. The very fact they protrude from the bodywork makes the chanches of them being hit even greater!



The ones featured here can be found here - www.firstfour.co.uk I know nothing about the company or their products, just found them as an example of photos.

Your choice!

If you decide you need them then look for the following:

The smallest diameter tube you can find, but with a thick wall so it retains its strength, ensure the ends are tapered to help prevent them getting caught or snagged.

Make sure they're not the clamp to chassis mounting as the brackets extend above and below the chassis and these snag regularly and can move the slider back or forwards into the bodywork or possibly a wheel. The best sort are the through chassis bolt type, basically you have to weld reinforcing plates on the inside and outside the chassis and these have steel tubes which pass through the chassis/reinforcing plates, and are welded to the reinforcing plates. Bolts passing through them cannot crush the chassis and you have no protrusions above or below the chassis.

Make sure they have enough clearance between the top of the slider and vehicle body, many will flex with the weight of a fully laden vehiicle resting on them and still damage the body.

Do not go for the two point mounting, always the three point mounting as the additional centre mounting point increases stiffness considerable.

Not all rock sliders reduce your clearance it is important to remember,
Good quality ones for your 110 should cost between £120 - £170
Make sure they are either branded or from a supplier with a qood reputation!

for the cost i wouldn't bother making your own, but thats just personal opinion

Rock sliders with tree sliders still offer the same protection, the "tree bars" are ideal for carparks when people decide to open there doors into you , they do have a valid use, make a good step when painted with none slip paint, the protect your vehicle in certain situations but most of the time they protect you when you havn't quite got your eye on the ball, these normally cost between 20 - 30% more

Cheers Kieran

Good rock and tree sliders do NOT interfere with underbody clearance.

Buy good quality R + T sliders with thick wall tubing which ARE galvanised (not electro plated but hot dip galv) prior to powder coating.

Do NOT paint with anti slip paint. Your clothing and legs will suffer.

Use anti slip tape on top of the Nerf or tree slider, but do take it to the outside edge of the tube otherwise your clothing/legs will suffer.

The tree sliders do not extend pass standard wheel flares so no effect on overall width.

GOOD quality ones will cost more then £120-£170. Think more like £235!

They are useful on road as well as off road and in the supermarket car park.



Black ice, took out two concrete bollards. Without rock and tree sliders the repair bill would have been £ks



Brendan,

Good quality ones are much less than £200!
the best quality ones i have seen cost me around £120

otherwise i agree with brendan

freespirit4x4 wrote:

Good quality ones are much less than £200!
the best quality ones i have seen cost me around £120

otherwise i agree with brendan

Are you saying our Brendan's talking bollards?

Not at all,
he is right you can buy good quality ones for that price but you can also buy excellent quality ones much cheaper,

infact some of the worst i have seen have cost well over £200

I also like Rock slider . but i not know more about this can any one tell me?



best western resort scinece center

Plain old box section does the job just as well - if you are buying the type where you have to weld them onto the chassis (bolting seems a bit pointless, but I am sure someone will tell me otherwise) suggests that you have the facilities to weld..so why not make your own?

I do.

Hey Assassin, in the second post of this thread you said "i am not a fan of rock sliders". Confused.

Like it or like it not, they are essential for any serious off-roading, otherwise you'd better nip down to the local Skils Centre to enrol in a City & Guilds course for panel-beating, as you're going to need it!

No, I am not a fan of rock sliders Tom, my preference is for good underbody protection instead, but I also accept many like them and find them useful and if I needed them I would build my own as I have built many for other people.

From my perspective I find that correct driving techniques mean they are not a necessity, and once again I accept that many people may not have our experience of off road driving and for them they are cheap insurance, like many things Tom people are entitled to their opinions and views which is something I accept even though they are not necessarily mine.

True enough. To me items such as steering/sump/fuel tank guards are essential as we have little or no control of what goes on underneath our vehicles, but with side panels, one really shouldn't be in a position where rock-sliders are needed. That said, strange unintended situations can happen to best of us, so given the choice, I would rather have them on a LR CSW.

It is one of those subjective issues where there is no right or wrong answer, just an individual opinion.

If there was a situation where someone might need them I would either move the rocks or just fill in between them with a little road building.

Camel Trophy Defenders didnt't have them did they? Does anybody know why, when they had roll cages, diff and steering guards etc?

And i've always thought that if your tree slider is, as it suggests, sliding along a tree, what happens when it comes to the end? Give the tyre a good hammering?

I've always known them as rock sliders, not so much 'cause you can slide along rocks, tree stumps or whatever, it's to protect the edges of the doors from getting a clout at the highest point of the breakover angle.

Of what I remember about Defenders, they only have a plastic strip as standard, so reinforcing this vulnerable point is obviously worth the additional expenditure. No matter what make of 4x4, they are always vulnerable along the sides between the wheels.

Mind you, some vehicles are more at risk of grounding than others!

Hmmm...well, I can say in 30 years or so of 4x4ing I have never used rock/tree sliders. Never had any sill damage that I can recall either. From my perspective these items came out of the 'rock crawling' community who are always trying to find obstacles to drive over...the bigger the better. For me, I prefer to go around. I suppose if you have D90/Series style underseat fuel tanks though you would want something to protect the tank.

I have gotten great use out of a steering guard because on overgrown trails with grass down the center you often don't see the rock or old stump hiding in the middle.

I wholeheartedly agree with having a steering guard, driving with your wheels pointing at 10 to 2 definitely doesn't work.

Agree with steering and sump guards, and if the sump guard is not long enough to cover the gearbox then another guard to cover this. If nothing else scraping them gives an audible indication you are passing over something too large to pass under your vehicle, and putting new paint or underseal on a guard, or replacing a guard is preferable to replacing an engine or gearbox.