Slider Comparison; anyone used either of these?

[crash1121]

Todd, why are you wanting to add weight but for not much useful protection ...? Respectfully disagree that "sliders" on an LR3/4 which don't protect air compressor and tank are purely for ******** bling and adding weight and emptying your pocket. Go full sill to frame plate or drive more carefully.... IMO

Not much useful protection? Huh?

While I was getting my oil changed today, a guy at my Rover shop told me that they have to charge 2 hrs of labor on LR3/4s that have Tactical sliders just to remove and reinstall them when they need to access the compressor for repair/replacement (and other certain jobs), because they're so heavy and intrusive. Imagine having to remove one on the trail—no fun. He also told me that he's had issues putting them on certain racks in their shop for some reason pertaining to their design. One of the techs also echoed the same when I was seeking others' advice on sliders. If you're working on your own truck, though, I guess there are no worries there...

I've seen Tactical armor in person, and it's very high quality. Just a little excessive, unless you're looking to bash on rocks every weekend.....IMO, of course.


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[jaguardoc504]

And they are sold!

I hope to put them to good use.



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[mbw]

Good grief zinc "coating" sounds like a whole bunch of nonsense. Why can't these people do anything the "right way" ?! Steel should be galvanized, period....PERIOD. Then lightly media blasted for powder coating prep and allowed to cure for a few weeks at least (info as per my local industrial galvanizing shop). It's not even that expensive.

Anyway, I had mine fully stripped, galvanized, then powder-coated, all industrial grade a few yrs ago and it's held up like it should ... 100% against rock grinds, winter salts, etc.

Good luck.

calm down man... they are now using this outfit. http://www.zincnation.com/index.html

He said folks see great results from it, Eric mentioned that just spray painting them is fine and they don't rust. I might look into getting them powder coated anyway.. but he said his local place couldn't powder coat it... still need to find out why that is exactly.

from that site... If your pieces are metallized by us, there will be no visible rust for 3 years! No steel erosion for 10 years or we will metallize your problem pieces again for FREE!* This means that metallizing pays for itself in less than five years!

That sounds nice to me. Its not just a standard zinc dip or zinc rich primer, its actually like spraying liquified aluminum/zinc stuff onto it in some process. i hadn't ever heard of it before.

If I end up just painting them that will probably be fine. Easy to touch up at least. Ill keep you updated about what I find out.

On the voyagers, I dont think they are "******** bling"... thats not fair. They do add protection. They are still plenty wide to protect the doors and sills and they sit low enough to protect things. You can still hit the compressor plastic, but otherwise I think they still add value. They can certainly take the abuse/weight without an issue.

 

[mbw]

From Eric . (i hope he doesn't mind me posting his words...)

To powdercoat them they need to be "de-gassed",(powdercoat term), then coated. No sandblasting. But then touch up doesn't look as good.
The most popular process is to have the metalized part LineXed, or Rhino lined.
The prep is to wash the metalized part with water as hot as you can stand it. Let it thoroughly dry, then apply the bed liner or paint.
The painting isn't that bad. If you have an air compressor and an HVLP gun it will take half a day including the drying between coats. You can also use an electric spray gun. I haven't tried to use just the rattle cans. That may take a little longer.
We are actually setting up an area so we can do the paint here. I'll have to check the progress on that.​

 

[Waterndirt]

they are now using this outfit. http://www.zincnation.com/index.html

I've known the folks at Zinc Nation for many years. The process and results are no joke. I believe the process was designed as a cost effective alternative to protect large steel items that can't be galvanized in dipping tanks. They melt zinc with a special "heat gun" and at the same time blow it onto metal with compressed air. It's quite the process! I've had them metallize many items for me, all with great success! They do need to know ahead of time whether you will be painting or powder coating.

MBW. Find a local specialty paint shop such as Devoe Coatings. They sell top of the line industrial finishes to the end user. The counter guys will sell you the right stuff for the application. I highly suggest priming the metalized products with a Galv specific primer first. The metallizing has plenty of "bite", the primer helps smooth out the finished product as the metalized finish is similar to 200 grit sand paper.

At the end of the day, the Tactical products would survive unfinished, however, I'm sure none of us want to see rusty nerf bars!

Looking forward to outfitting my rig with T44 sliders in the near future.

 

[anglotron]

I recently bought the Terrafirma sliders as they were half the price of anything else available and I liked the fact they were only 35lbs a side. In retrospect I should have sent them back for a refund because the fit was absolutely dreadful and I had to elongate all of the holes by about an inch. On top of that, the hardware they came with was completely wrong and I also had to hammer the underside of the rocker panel to get both faces of the slider to fit tight. They were also warped from welding.

I was unaware that the updated ones were made from steel, but the ones I have will do just fine for now.

 

[anglotron]

The screws I used to mount the sliders were the ones LR uses to mount the OEM side steps. Took me a while to find the part number and might be useful to someone. LR006018.

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[mbw]

I've known the folks at Zinc Nation for many years. The process and results are no joke. I believe the process was designed as a cost effective alternative to protect large steel items that can't be galvanized in dipping tanks. They melt zinc with a special "heat gun" and at the same time blow it onto metal with compressed air. It's quite the process! I've had them metallize many items for me, all with great success! They do need to know ahead of time whether you will be painting or powder coating.

MBW. Find a local specialty paint shop such as Devoe Coatings. They sell top of the line industrial finishes to the end user. The counter guys will sell you the right stuff for the application. I highly suggest priming the metalized products with a Galv specific primer first. The metallizing has plenty of "bite", the primer helps smooth out the finished product as the metalized finish is similar to 200 grit sand paper.

At the end of the day, the Tactical products would survive unfinished, however, I'm sure none of us want to see rusty nerf bars!

Looking forward to outfitting my rig with T44 sliders in the near future.

@Waterndirt Thanks for that advice. So Eric must just have them do the version for paint rather than powder coat. That will be fine. I have a neighbor who works with automotive paints, he might know something about this.

@anglotron those sliders look nice once they are on, but ya.. sucks to have to modify them like that. And thanks for the fastener part number, that looks like a good option with the wide head.

 

[no-pistons]

Damn, sorry to hear about the troubles on the Terrafirma sliders. I was thinking of ordering them, but now I'm not so sure...


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[ryanjl]

I saw that Lucky8 recently dropped the price of the Terrafirmas to near liquidation-level; they were over $1k just a few weeks ago, but now they are under $500. I'm guessing they are clearing out the aluminum.