Ronin's 3rd Gen rock slider build thread

[Ronin8002]

Since our offroad run was cancelled this weekend, I thought it might be a good time to start building some sliders instead .

I'll post the design I came up with if I can figure out this google sketchup thing, otherwise I'll just go off my paper drawings and post up pics as I go along.

I don't have a tube bender so I plan on using all square and rectangular tubing...I kind of like the looks of the square tube sliders I've seen pics of anyway so that works out too.

I plan on having a 2"x4" .120 wall rectangular tube right underneath the doors, short side parallel with the ground. I'm going to make 3 frame braces with that same material and use 1/4" plate brackets at the end of those to bolt them onto the frame like Mountaineergreen did. The outer tubes will be 1.5" x 1.5" .120 wall, with 45 degree legs at the front and rear of the slider and 5 other supporting legs in between the outer tube and the rectangular tube.

I like having extra material to work with so I'm planning to buy about 20 feet or so of the 1.5"x1.5" and 24 feet of the 2"x4". My local metal supply tells me that should run around $150. Haven't priced out the 1/4" plate yet for the brackets...probably will get it later on in the project.

Hope to get my metal today or tomorrow and start working on them Saturday...more to come!

 

[Jwigs7]

Good luck!

 

[DominicanX]

Very nice! I'll be watching progress on this one. Might even stop by if work decides to stop making demands...

 

[Ronin8002]

Very nice! I'll be watching progress on this one. Might even stop by if work decides to stop making demands...

Sounds good!

I am going to be welding the sliders themselves with .030 flux core. Don't think my machine will make a good weld for the brackets since they will be 1/4" plate though. Going to use my stick welder for that part but looking for suggestions on rods. I have 1/8 and 3/32 6011 and 6013 rods and my machine goes up to 140 amps. I'm not that confident in my 6011 skills but I can do 6013 pretty well. Was thinking of getting some 7014 since its also a drag rod and is supposed to have deeper penetration than 6013. Thoughts?

 

[jjaganashi]

last time i did stick welding on 1/4 was on a docking ramp for semi-trailers..
i was using a generator/140A arc welder.. only thing available was 1/8" 6013 drag rod, i just maxed out the welder and went to town...(the generator wasnt to happy but it ran fine) it actually made some very pretty beads and got very nice penatration, you should be fine with what you have if you dont mind pushing the welder...
i hate stick welding... i worked on train car repair for a while running 1200A arc welders and 5/8" rod
max

 

[Ronin8002]

last time i did stick welding on 1/4 was on a docking ramp for semi-trailers..
i was using a generator/140A arc welder.. only thing available was 1/8" 6013 drag rod, i just maxed out the welder and went to town...(the generator wasnt to happy but it ran fine) it actually made some very pretty beads and got very nice penatration, you should be fine with what you have if you dont mind pushing the welder...
i hate stick welding... i worked on train car repair for a while running 1200A arc welders and 5/8" rod
max

I don't mind running it flat out...manual says the duty cycle is 35% at 140A so I think that'll be ok. My box of 6013 says it's good up to 135A so running at 140 might work just fine. I have to go back and look but I think MountaineerGreen ran 6013 for everything on his slider build including the brackets.

 

[Turdle]

That rod should work fine--

Looking forward to this project. Subscribing.

 

[Ronin8002]

couple of pics from yesterday afternoon...I got a little bit done before Jim Beam came over and got me off track

Supplies..I ended up getting 24 feet each of 1.5"x1.5" and 2"x4" just to have a little more left over to play with afterwards.

Cut the ends of my main tubes with a 22.5* cut. They are 77" on the long side.

I also cut some end plates out for these out of 1/8" flat stock and will be welding those on later this morning

 

[Ronin8002]

Couple more shots from this morning.

Bevel cut ends:

End caps welded on and welds ground down:

Been working on getting the outside tubes measured, cut, and welded. Will post pics of that later on.

 

[Ronin8002]

Played around with the design of the outer tubes for a while, I think I've settled on what I'm going to do now for that part but probably won't start tackling that till tomorow.

I went to the store to get some more flap discs and picked up a few pounds of 7018 rod to play around with. I know the whole low hydrogen thing means I have to dry them out for critical welds, but I just wanted to see what the fuss was all about. If I can get good with them I might try using them for the brackets.

 

[rangermidtn]

Looking good, Subscribing.

 

[Triton8273]

I hope your enjoying this build as I'm sure you'll have a few guys beg you to build this for them as well.

 

[rangermidtn]

I hope your enjoying this build as I'm sure you'll have a few guys beg you to build this for them as well.

That's true! I am just watching for how he does the mounting to the frame. I am going to build mine sometime this summer.

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Subscribin'-dig what I see so far!

 

[LONO100]

hey ronin, im planning on modifying a set of rock sliders for a 4 door tacoma and attaching themto my trac. from my buddies who wheel, i get conflicting opinions on how to attach them to my rig. half say weld it on, half say bolt it on. how are you planning on attaching yours?

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Lono, weld them on.

 

[Ronin8002]

hey ronin, im planning on modifying a set of rock sliders for a 4 door tacoma and attaching themto my trac. from my buddies who wheel, i get conflicting opinions on how to attach them to my rig. half say weld it on, half say bolt it on. how are you planning on attaching yours?

I think welding on would be easier since you won't need to design any brackets, but if you need to take them off for any reason (sell, repair, whatever) it's going to be a pain in the ass. Might be a non-issue depending on your situation. Part of me is actually still considering welding them on.

but for the brackets, I was planning on using the same type of bracketry that MountaineerGreen used:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173649&highlight=slider&page=7

Was busy as hell with other stuff today, but finished cutting out all the outer tube pieces and getting everything fitted and mocked up before welding. Although there is only 1 in the pic, there will actually be 3 cross pieces evenly spaced to tie in the space between the main and outer tubes. Was thinking about bevel cutting them to put them at a 45 degree angle slanted toward the rear but I think that would make welding the inside acute angles really tricky, so just going with straight pieces.

Will start welding tomorrow.

 

[rangermidtn]

I think welding on would be easier since you won't need to design any brackets, but if you need to take them off for any reason (sell, repair, whatever) it's going to be a pain in the ass. Might be a non-issue depending on your situation. Part of me is actually still considering welding them on.

but for the brackets, I was planning on using the same type of bracketry that MountaineerGreen used:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173649&highlight=slider&page=7

Was busy as hell with other stuff today, but finished cutting out all the outer tube pieces and getting everything fitted and mocked up before welding. Although there is only 1 in the pic, there will actually be 3 cross pieces evenly spaced to tie in the space between the main and outer tubes. Was thinking about bevel cutting them to put them at a 45 degree angle slanted toward the rear but I think that would make welding the inside acute angles really tricky, so just going with straight pieces.

Will start welding tomorrow.

Looking good!

 

[DominicanX]

Yep looking real nice!

 

[LONO100]

rock sliders are looking nice. so what are the pros and cons of welding sliders on as opposed to the pros and cons of bolting them on?