Finally a real frame-mounted rock sliders for Rangers from RCI Offroad

[mAtTyG04]

Sliders are live on the RCI site! Was not expecting the shipping to be as much as it is but will more than likely still order.

There's a Halloween sale right now if you click the link on their page. $250 off for the Raptor sliders

However living in Canada makes getting parts like this almost impossible due to shipping

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[live_discover]

There's a Halloween sale right now if you click the link on their page. $250 off for the Raptor sliders

However living in Canada makes getting parts like this almost impossible due to shipping

That sale is only applicable for Ranger sliders...not the Ranger Raptor specific sliders.

 

[mAtTyG04]

That sale is only applicable for Ranger sliders...not the Ranger Raptor specific sliders.

Good point. Unfortunately the shipping still kills me

 

[live_discover]

Good point. Unfortunately the shipping still kills me

Yeah my shipping wasnt much less than yours....$410 from Colarado to Seattle. Checked a competitors shipping rate for frame mounted sliders and it was 2xx someting. Might call them and see if they can pallet freight it for less than they want to send it with FedEx. I have a dock i can get access to.

 

[Greg Rosar]

I picked up the Rocky Outfitter kits. This is what they sent me when I asked about their mounting vs frame:

We tested a frame mounted system and found the leverage with the longer mounting arms to the frame was too significant. We need to be able to pick up the vehicle with the rock slider and bounce it in our testing.

The huge leverage from mounting all the way to the frame was putting heavy torsional load on the frame and it was visibly flexing with our forklift bouncing testing. Our liability carrier wouldn’t allow it to pass their engineering requirements. They felt, and we did too, that the frame could buckle or twist under a heavy impact, and that could lead your insurance to ‘total’ the vehicle.

Instead, we engineered a massively strong system which attaches to the reinforced collision panels on the outside of these trucks. The reinforced collision panels have near the strength of the frame, but the leverage at impact is exponentially reduced. Our testing indicated this ends up being a much safer rock slider system for the truck, best protection, incredibly strong as we can lift the vehicle off the ground with our kit and bounce it.

Hope that helps!
Frame mounting is NOT always the best. On the surface it can seem to be, but when doing the actual load testing, it sometimes is not ideal.



So, that's what they sent me and while I've bumped and slid some rocks and ledges in southern Utah (no Rubicon smashing yet), they've been a really great addition on my truck. Installed super easy. And nothing below the frame, so nothing to catch on and no hang-ups. I am kind of curious how frame will do with sliders coming out now when these guys said their insurance company nixxed the plan.

The Rocky Road sliders are mounted to the same place as the factory running boards. They will work for most people and will likely support the weight of the truck if they drag over a rock or take light hits; however, you run the risk of bending the sheet metal parts under the truck.

With that, RCI is the first company offering an actual, fully frame-mounted slider for the RR in the US. You would have to have an impact that could bend the entire frame of the truck to ruin these. They are built for people who intend to do heavy-duty rock crawling. You can see from the photo how overbuilt these are.

 

[HighDesertRanger]

I picked up the Rocky Outfitter kits. This is what they sent me when I asked about their mounting vs frame:

We tested a frame mounted system and found the leverage with the longer mounting arms to the frame was too significant. We need to be able to pick up the vehicle with the rock slider and bounce it in our testing.

The huge leverage from mounting all the way to the frame was putting heavy torsional load on the frame and it was visibly flexing with our forklift bouncing testing. Our liability carrier wouldn’t allow it to pass their engineering requirements. They felt, and we did too, that the frame could buckle or twist under a heavy impact, and that could lead your insurance to ‘total’ the vehicle.

Instead, we engineered a massively strong system which attaches to the reinforced collision panels on the outside of these trucks. The reinforced collision panels have near the strength of the frame, but the leverage at impact is exponentially reduced. Our testing indicated this ends up being a much safer rock slider system for the truck, best protection, incredibly strong as we can lift the vehicle off the ground with our kit and bounce it.

Hope that helps!
Frame mounting is NOT always the best. On the surface it can seem to be, but when doing the actual load testing, it sometimes is not ideal.



So, that's what they sent me and while I've bumped and slid some rocks and ledges in southern Utah (no Rubicon smashing yet), they've been a really great addition on my truck. Installed super easy. And nothing below the frame, so nothing to catch on and no hang-ups. I am kind of curious how frame will do with sliders coming out now when these guys said their insurance company nixxed the plan.

That's interesting. If I remember correctly, GOAT Fabrication basically said exactly the same thing about the rock sliders on the Raptor. Something to do with how the frame is built on these trucks.

 

[Roverhound]

Interesting. The 2 previous posts reflect what I have been thinking since this thread was started. but I refrained from commenting.
Frame mounts aren't always the best when it comes to protection. Especially when the frame is positioned so far back from the sills. Mounting sliders back that far give you a big lever.
Modern frames aren't the I-beams they used to be.

 

[HighDesertRanger]

This is from @Lion77 post:

The Science Behind GOAT Fabrication Rock Sliders

Summary of Video:

1. Older frame designs on domestic vehicles used C-channel open frames. These frames had a lot of flex and relied more on physical mass for production but were cheaper. If you see older trucks on the road with sagging frame, it's probably a C-channel era (70's, 80's, 90's, early 2k).

2. Modern truck frames even for domestic trucks are now fully boxed hydroformed. These frames are stiffer and lighter but use thinner steel and rely more on the structure than mass of the frame rails for strength. They are designed to minimize flex and allow for finer tuning of the suspension.

3. Rock sliders were mounted to the frame in older C-channel framed vehicles of yesteryear because that was the strongest mounting point of the vehicle's structure.

4. On many of the newer trucks / SUV's with hydroformed and boxed frames, the cab is also part of the vehicles structural rigidity, so modern cabs are like a unibody on ladder frame vs. just a frame on body or unibody. The cab mounting points are actually more solid for sliders and are now the intended mounting point.

5. Consider also that the cab is mounted to the frame with captured rubber isolators for NHV, similar to how the IRS cradle mounts to the body of a Mustang or Camaro. This adds a small amount of controlled flex for the sliders as the entire cab can flex slightly with the sliders due to the structure isolators. So, you get a dual damping action of the slider mounting brackets (which have some elasticity) and also the cab. This would be ideal for prevent bolt shear of the slider mounting bolts or even limiting damage to the slider tubing on impact.

So there is a very valid engineering reason to use body mounted sliders even on body-on-frame trucks / SUV's depending on the frame type / design. Open C-channel frames were very heavy duty but also acted like part of the suspension (why you see the old trucks flex so much when off-roading, i.e., look up Cummins diesel off-roading). On modern hydroformed fully boxed frames, the frame is more rigid and relies more on its designed structure than the raw mass of the frame channels. This makes for a lighter and more rigid frame but doesn't mean it makes for solid mounting points to loads that try to "twist" the frame along its length as it's not designed to handle that type of load transfer. The older open C-channel frames could handle that due to the very high wall thickness.

GOAT (and likely others) actually started off with frame mounted and during hard use they saw puckering and bending of the frame rails, but when body mounted, that did not occur on the sub-structure in the cab body which actually makes a more ideal mounting point anyway for sliders (much shorter brackets mean less leverage on the mounting points and brackets).

When I buy sliders, I have zero issue using GOAT's body mounted sliders or other similar brands. Don't be the fool who just assumes "because it's been this way in the past, it's still this way". I get the same thing when trying to educate people about the benefits of In Situ DLC films (aka TriboTEX), people don't understand Tribology and lubricants technology at all, so the end up making really stupid one liner comments like "it's snake oil" despite all the testing and validation by SAE. They don't even understand that parts like valve stems are factory coated in DLC films so it's not a new concept, but rather a self-forming DLC film variant which is what makes it valuable and unique. Sorry for the tangent but falls into line with the nay sayers of ignorance.

There's a reason GOAT and others use body mounted sliders on the BR and RR's, because it's actually taking advantage of modern chassis design and integration of the cab as part of the frame's rigidity.

 

[Fordfknranger]

My Bronco bl sas came with body mounted rock rails. Gm come with body mounted. I believe jeep do too. I had oem rails on my Bronco at first. Now I have Turn off-road that are body mounted too.

 

[Greg Rosar]

Thanks! Great video and information. That is effectively what Rocky Road Outfitters was saying to me when I questioned them on not using the frame.
Really happy I went with the Rocky Road system now and not a frame mounted kit!

I'd be devastated if I took a hard hit and kinked the frame, then the insurance company told me they had to "total" my truck title. A similar substantial hit with the body channel mount might bend something too... but that would just be a standard metal fix for a body shop rather than 'totaling' the vehicle... and all just because of a poor rock slider purchase decision!

I think Rocky's point about the reduced leverage makes alot of sense too.

Anyway, thanks for the video link! Nice to have other industry experts back up the information I got from Rocky Road.

This is from @Lion77 post:

 

[PatrickT]

I am not an engineer but the RCI frame mounted rock sliders have large mounting plates that attach to the frame and I think those plates would disperse the load over a larger area and help prevent flexing and kinking of the frame. Am I wrong? They seem pretty darn beefy. I see there is an argument for both attachment methods. I just don’t know who to believe. Anyone have actual experience doing hard rock crawling with either type and seen frame damage or body damage? Seeing the video above and how the rock sliders flexed going over that boulder, it didn’t really give me warm and fuzzy feelings about the body mounted type.

 

[pasali]

I’m by no means trying to fuel the argument because I too see both sides on this. However, I have tested my Rocky Road Outfitters sliders on a couple trails in Moab and my local OHV park. I have parked on them, slid on them and crashed them into rocks several times with zero damage to the sliders or my RR.(minus a little paint off the bottom of the sliders)
The reason I went with Rocky Road is because I had a set on my 2015 Grand Cherokee (which doesn’t have a frame) and punished them pretty hard. My GC was lifted on 33’s and it high centered a lot. I even got stuck on an obstacle in Arizona with the GC and when I was pulled over it, the slider on the driver side was pinned up against a boulder and the slider pivoted the entire Jeep about 2 feet to the passenger side while I was being pulled over the obstacle. I knew I could trust the construction and mounting style of these sliders from experience.
Just my 2 cents, not arguing which is better.

 

[sdca7718]

Yeah my shipping wasnt much less than yours....$410 from Colarado to Seattle. Checked a competitors shipping rate for frame mounted sliders and it was 2xx someting. Might call them and see if they can pallet freight it for less than they want to send it with FedEx. I have a dock i can get access to.

Looks like RCI has 10% off and free shipping right now, I just ordered mine and don’t even have my truck built yet.

 

[Hurricane_Whisperer]

I am not an engineer but the RCI frame mounted rock sliders have large mounting plates that attach to the frame and I think those plates would disperse the load over a larger area and help prevent flexing and kinking of the frame. Am I wrong? They seem pretty darn beefy. I see there is an argument for both attachment methods. I just don’t know who to believe. Anyone have actual experience doing hard rock crawling with either type and seen frame damage or body damage? Seeing the video above and how the rock sliders flexed going over that boulder, it didn’t really give me warm and fuzzy feelings about the body mounted type.

The posted statement from Rocky Outfitters is well written. I liked the fact that they built and then tested a frame mount. The observations of the load testing they described is what I suspected would happen.

The bar that runs length wise under the door will likely be the point contacted by a rock. It’s possible that this will put the weight of that side of the truck on that bar.

The bars that attach the lengthwise bar to the frame are like wrenches trying to rotate the frame. The longer a wrench handle, the greater the torque for a given load.

I think it unlikely that the frame was meant to be a torsion bar at the area under the cab.

Imagine a piece of pipe with three pipe wrenches on it that are 1 ft long. Imagine 10 lbs of force applied to all three pipe wrenches. The torque applied to the pipe is 30 ft-lbs. if you only had one wrench and pushed with 30lbs of force, the torque to the pipe would be the same.

If you put an 1/8 thick strip of metal on the pipe with a bolt connecting it to the pipe on either side of each pipe wrench, you aren’t changing the torque transfered to the pipe and you aren’t adding squat to the pipe’s torsional strength.

If you have a plate that is 1/8 in thick and 4 inches tall and grab it with a pipe wrench on the 1/8 inch thickness it will be easy to twist. It can’t spread load along the length and making it 1/4” thick isn’t going to help much.

I would love to see the fork lift test of a frame mounted slider.

The problem is also more than simple torque to the frame. It’s the attachment of the frame to the body and the placement of any cross members.

It’s not possible to categorically declare a frame mounted slider to be better than a body mounted slider without understanding the particular frame and body design involved.

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