sliders, which ones?

[Corbet]

Almost everyone keeps telling me to get something other than the two I plan to choose from?

And I understand a lot of the arguments. But Jim is back logged. Irbis are weld on. Honestly I'd get the Slee Steps but the lack of cat protection? Murphy and his laws will be all over me if I don't go with my gut instinct there.

So I'm still leaning towards the MT due to the lighter weight and more air flow to the cats than the HQ appear to have.

Does anyone in the club have a set of HQ's?

 

[corsair23]

Almost everyone keeps telling me to get something other than the two I plan to choose from?

Hard to tell we like to support the local folks huh?

I went through the same thing when I was choosing sliders and narrowed it down to between Slee's and MTs sliders. In the end I chose the MTs because of the look, the cat guard, the options they've built into them, etc. I like the power coat of the Slee's better but oh well. Price wise they are about the same once you factor in shipping vs. taxes and what not.

I had a little remorse about not buying local but 95% of the other stuff on my rig was locally bought, and most of that from Christo. I like to believe I did my part last spring helping to keep him in business

 

[Convert]

Does anyone in the club have a set of HQ's?

I have the Hanna's they are well built heavy duty sliders. There were not as many choices when I purchased mine, If I were to buy today I would go with the
Slee stepsliders for many of the reasons listed all ready.You wont go wrong with any of the sliders mentioned so far. Availability may be the driving factor if you need them soon.

 

[Bikeman]

Corbet here's your answer:

Buy the Slee Slider steps and give them to me. I'll give you my 1.5 yoear-old SROR Sliders with cat protection and charcoal powder coat plus $300 and your problem is solved. I have $580 plus the $130 from Mile High powder coat into them. They've only been off road twice and the only slight scrape on them is on the cat skids from an obstacle on the Middle Fork up from Tiger Road

BTW: my Boxer, Taz, has been in and out of the rig twice daily for the time I've had the sliders, and no caught paws.

 

[Corbet]

Metal Tech's ordered

 

[Uncle Ben]

Metal Tech's ordered

Good luck with that!

 

[Hulk]

Did they give you an ETA?

 

[Corbet]

expect to ship 2nd week of March.

 

[Corbet]

Well a little later than originally quoted but in time for CM08 and that's all that really mattered to me. Now to install them...

 

[Hulk]

Sweet! Those look very nice.

 

[corsair23]

Look great Corbet

The cat guard design looks a little different from the ones I bought last year but Mark said they were going to do that due to the issue with the guard touching the cats on some rigs. They did on mine so I had to space it out a scosh with a washer. Just a suggestion to watch that side on install as you are tightening everything up check the clearance between the cats and the guard. If it looks like they are going to touch, save yourself the trouble right then by adding a washer or two to the top ubolt between the frame and the slider to space it out and down a tad.

Also, on the brake lines on the DS...I meant to get around to sending Mark some pictures with tips on the install and haven't yet but you do NOT need to detach all of the brake line connections. Put the ubolts up there in the general location and you'll see which areas the brake lines need to be unbolted from the frame. IIRC there was the area back by the gas tank (a royal PITA to get to without the right tools and NO, loosening the tank from the vehicle does not help to get to the bolt) and maybe one up front. I loosened all of the bolts unnecessarily .

Other word of caution...Those suckers are heavy and hurt if they drop on you. I installed them myself using straps to the garage rafters and a jack/jack stands but a 2 or 3 person install would make things much, much, much easier I'm pretty sure I loaded up some pics last year when I installed mine.

 

[Corbet]

Thanks for the tips. I'll probably be doing this install solo as well. I got the IPOR skid up by myself I think these will be easier honestly. Maybe I'll ring Kevin just in case.

 

[Rezarf]

Very cool Corbet!

Can't wait to see them on!

 

[corsair23]

Thanks for the tips. I'll probably be doing this install solo as well. I got the IPOR skid up by myself I think these will be easier honestly. Maybe I'll ring Kevin just in case.

Good luck with that - I figured it would be pretty easy as well but they are so heavy and akward that trying to hold them in place while trying to get the ubolts in was a challenge to say the least, at least for me. IIRC there is a "tab" on the rear mount of each slider that is supposed to help you by sitting that on top of the frame (or something) to sort of hold the slider in place.

Let's just say I was very happy several times that those suckers were dangling from the ceiling when they slipped off that tab and swung down at me

Thinking back if I had had 4 jack stands of similar height, that might have improved the situation

 

[Corbet]

Install was a piece of cake honestly. Did it solo. Couple of tips for anyone who does this in the future.

1. Use a tap and clean out the 4 captured nuts by the cats BEFORE you start mounting the right side slider. This will save you much time.

2. I had to grind a little of the weld on the back side of the rear lower control arm brackets. Again doing so before you start mounting the sliders would be better. Due to clearance issue (with slider already in place) I used a Dremel tool to do so. A little slow.

3. Have a shorty 12mm ratcheting box and a long slim type 12mm box to get the brake line bracket bold undone behind the fuel tank. I used the long box at about 4 o'clock to brake it loose. Then I reached over the frame rail with the shorty one to get it out. It never went back in as the u-bolt was right there.

Other than that it went pretty easy. I used a pair of jack stands and one floor jack to assist. I would be easier with two people, but not something anyone should be afraid of doing themselves. I found these much easier than the IPOR skid plate to install, I wouldn't want to do a skid by myself again.

Pics for the peanut gallery

 

[Hulk]

Looks great!

Is the Cat guard removable?

 

[Corbet]

Looks great!

Is the Cat guard removable?

No, it acts as the 3rd support member for that side. In order to replace cats slider would have to be removed. PITA but not a regular PM item.

This is the only pic I have before I put them on the truck. The plate that rests against the frame rail and bolts on using existing captured nuts is hidden by the cat guard.

 

[Hulk]

Just wondering because I replaced my two OEM cats with a single cat, mounted horizontally rather than vertically for better clearance.

 

[Corbet]

that's the down side to these type of sliders, MT or Hanna. Most of us would never replace the OEM cats with the same. So when mine eventually need to be done I'm not sure what I'll do with the extra space.

 

[corsair23]

Show off

Great job...those look great