Rock Sliders

A common deterrent to traversing obstacles is the possibility of body damage. A common method of reducing this risk is to equip your vehicle with Rock Sliders. These are typically one or two "rails" that run alongside and parallel to the rocker panels of the vehicle. They are attached to the frame and are constructed to allow the full weight of the vehicle to rest on them, so you can "slide" across rocks resting on these bars without damaging the body of the vehicle. Another very important use for the Rock Slider is to act as a support for jacking up the vehicle from the side. A Hi-Lift Jack can be mounted on the Sliders and again, they will support the full weight of the vehicle from one side.

These are the sliders that Ronn Erickson and myself built for the BAJATACO. They are a duplicate of the sliders that Ronn has already been running on his '98 Tacoma and have been well tested and proven in the field. A big THANKS to Ronn for putting up with me while we built these things, and for doing all of the welding too! To see Ronn's Tacoma visit the AZ TTORA Homepage

The sliders are made of 1 1/2" and 1" nominal size schedule 40 black steel pipe, as well as some 2" x 3" x 7/16" angle iron.

Here is a view of the basic slider configuration before the supports were made.
Here is a picture of the 1" diameter braces that were cut and shaped for placement between the inner and outer tubes.

This is how the ends of the inner tubes were made. This is accomplished by welding a fender washer to the open-end tube and then grinding it to a smooth finish.

This is one of the gussets made for additional strength. There are two gussets for each side of the truck.

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