Ronin's 3rd Gen rock slider build thread

[Wills05xlt4x4]

Cant wait to see them on the truck!
Looking great

 

[Ronin8002]

finally was able to get back to work on these today. Picked up a bunch of 1/4" steel plate yesterday for the brackets. They will be 5" wide x 9" tall and about 3" deep. Basically a rectangle shape with 1 short end open (so it can be slid up onto the frame) and holes drilled for some 1/2" bolts at the end that will tighten them down..they'll essentially "clamp" onto the frame in that way. It was going to be tricky to weld the inside corners so I think I'm going to just do an open outside corner joint for them....put down a root pass with 6011 rod and cap that with a pass or two of 7018. I just finished some 7018 practice...it's a different animal that 6011 for sure.

Anyway, I also took off the stock running boards today:

...and mocked up the sliders with some jackstands to see how they would fit up. I plan on leaving about 2" between the top of the slider and the body (a bit more than what's shown here) to allow for deflection in case the slider has to hold up the weight of the truck:

Cooling off with a Margarita now...going to head back out in a bit and finish cutting the brackets out. I'll probably get them welded up tomorrow.

 

[Triton8273]

First time I've liked the look of an explorer without the running boards lol

 

[LONO100]

i am watching closely!

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Oh Yeah!! Great Design!!! Great addition especially with the bodylift!!

 

[Ronin8002]

No real progress since last weekend. Started chopping up the lengths of 1/4" plate I bought for the brackets. Up to this point for everything I've been using a little 7.25" ryobi miter saw with an abrasive blade and just dealing with its shortcomings, but it quickly became obvious that when it came to the 1/4" plate, it just wasn't "cutting it" (pun intended). So, on the way home from work today I'm going to pick up a 14" dewalt abrasive chop saw which should be much better suited for this kind of job and let me get this stuff chopped up a lot easier.

After experimenting a bit I think I'll skip doing the 6011 root pass for welding up those outside corners for the brackets and just lay down 2 passes with 1/8" 7018. The other day I tested this on some 3/16" stock and 1 pass of 7018 and was able to hammer one of my test angles completely flat...the weld never broke, just bent the weld metal, so I think that design will be very strong.

Only thing I am not sure about at this point is welding the support legs to the mounting brackets and the sliders themselves. I think 7018 will be best but going to have to practice a bit since the plates are 1/4" and the support legs are 1/8" wall tube...don't want to burn through the tube but need to run it hot enough to penetrate into the 1/4" plate...might be tricky. I am going to use some triangular cut sections of my 1.5" x 1.5" scraps as gussets.

anyway, hope to get all the cutting on the brackets done tonight and weld them together tomorrow night. The rest will probably get done over the weekend.

 

[Wills05xlt4x4]

Save those measurements so you can make me some next...lol
Really though I can't wait to see them in person!. I want some
Btw got that pan on finally and its a night and day difference in cooling and overall temps dropped +/- 15 degrees

 

[Ronin8002]

Save those measurements so you can make me some next...lol
Really though I can't wait to see them in person!. I want some
Btw got that pan on finally and its a night and day difference in cooling and overall temps dropped +/- 15 degrees

Oh I will save all my notes. If I made another set it would definitely be easier since I'd have a better idea of what all I need as far as materials and how to design certain things. Glad that pan worked out for you too.

Got all my 1/4" plate cut up now...that chop saw went through the metal like butter....well worth it.

Mocked up the brackets last night to make sure the mounting points I picked out would work. It's almost like Ford did everything possible to keep you from bolting rock sliders onto this frame....crossmembers, heat shields, other stuff in the way....but in the end I did find 3 mounting points on each side of the truck that will work well.

Couple heat shields and things need to be notched...obviously the gas tank skid plate will need to be notched also. It's going to be a REAL tight fit between the passenger side frame rail and the gas tank...I can barely wiggle the inside parts of the brackets into the space there...had to gently pry the gas tank away from the frame rail just to get the clearance.

I think if I hadn't come this far on the brackets I might seriously consider welding on still...I have learned a lot by taking the bolt on approach but it has been more challenging. I was a bit surprised that the sidewalls of the frame appear only to be 1/8" thick metal..so it would not be hard to weld something to it at all. Not sure how strong it would be though.

Anyway, I'm still planning on getting the fabrication all finished over the weekend. I'll spray them with black paint just to get them looking more finished. Not sure if I want to hold off the final install to line x them or not...if I can find some herculiner or a nice looking textured black spray paint I'll just do that and call it good.

 

[DominicanX]

Wow man this thing is looking amazing. I might have to swing by and check it out, since we can hit the trails with the rest of em.

 

[Ronin8002]

Brackets are done and I am working on the legs that will connect the sliders to the brackets. I thought I'd post some pics of the finished brackets...they are very strong and I am happy with how they turned out.

Here's how I lined up the corners of the side and bottom pieces of the bracket:

Then I put 3 passes of 1/8" 7018 down in that open corner. 125 amps seemed like the sweet spot:

Then I ground down the welds a bit:

and here's the finished product:

The brackets needed to be different widths to fit over the frame depending on placement. the front most ones have a 3.5" opening, the middle ones have a 2.5" opening, and the rear ones have a 3" opening. they are all the same height.

I finally settled on a coating for the sliders when I'm done. It's an aerosol paint called duplicolor bed armor. Not really a bed liner like herculiner, more like a really hard paint with a sort of wrinkle black finish. I picked up 3 cans today .

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Looking Good! Cant wait til you make 2nd gen set for me!!

 

[NHarris]

Haven't checked on this thread in a while and you've made quite the progress and they look good!
Can't wait to see em mounted on your X.

 

[Ronin8002]

Thanks guys. It's been a challenge lately getting more than an hour or two at a time to work on them. Brackets have been mounted to the frame, and I've measured and cut the support pieces that connect the sliders to them. Just need to weld those together, put a few gussets in, and fabrication will be done (finally). I've got tomorrow free all day, so I hope I'll get most if not all that part done. I'll post more pics over the weekend.

 

[Kazer]

Subscribing

 

[Ronin8002]

No pics yet, waiting for more progress

Didn't get everything done over the weekend but I'm almost there. Passenger side slider is complete except for the gussets (playing around with some different designs). Driver's side has taken longer since the front most mounting bracket wasn't fitting properly...had to grind out a piece of metal off the frame to get it to work. It wasn't part of the main frame rail, it was some type of gusset where the frame rail bends inboard (just a little to the rear of the driver's side lower cat). Anyway it was such a tight space that I had to patiently use a dremel with a stylus attachment to get in there...finally got that part done yesterday.

I ended up using a 220v 180 amp mig welder with flux core wire to attach the sliders to the mounting plates. I'll do the same thing with the gussets.

All that needs to happen now is finish welding up the drivers' side slider, gussets for both sliders, and then clean them both up and paint them.

I am hoping to get all this stuff done today or tomorrow.

 

[MCD04EB]

Great progress ronin! I may end up using your bracket idea for the ones i have to install, I will just have to remove the current brackets on there and put some custom ones.

 

[Ronin8002]

Realy busy week at work, but I was finally able to finish the sliders!

Passenger side:

Driver's side. Note the "open" gussets on the middle and rear legs to accommodate the parking brake cable:

Hard part's over. Tomorrow I'll clean them up and paint them.

 

[Brandon96]

Holy crap James.. Those are awesome!!!

Next time you're down here visiting you're parents(?) hit me up! I'm going to need you to make me a pair!

But for real though, you're building me a set

 

[Ronin8002]

Holy crap James.. Those are awesome!!!

Thanks!

Next time you're down here visiting you're parents(?) hit me up! I'm going to need you to make me a pair!

But for real though, you're building me a set

I'll let you know next time I'm down there

Interestingly enough, the sliders themselves weren't very hard...it was the brackets and support pieces and getting that all lined up that was more tricky. I have some ideas for making the bolt-on brackets simpler if I make any more of these. Or I could just weld them on.

 

[Ronin8002]

Finished painting yesterday and touched up a couple of thinner spots just a little bit ago. I really like the finish that this duplicolor spray has. Way to hot outside to install the things right now...going to wait till later this afternoon or tonight.