I really think you'll love them!

 

Well, if you insist:
Jason Noteboom
Carrollton, Texas (come by sometime and have a beer)
2000 Tacoma
1990 4Runner
Well damn, I guess I've been doing it wrong all this time.....

 

There is a difference between being stupid and wrong...but sometimes both!

 

All that pesky structure and sheet metal just gets in yer way!

 

Probably depends on the type of terrain, but in rocks and trees, I have seen unprotected sheet metal as more likely to hang you up. Was on one trail with a somewhat stock Cherokee, a missed line and he ended up w/ a rocker panel stuck on a rock. Sheet metal crumpled in and had the vehicle stuck pretty solid. Took a good 30 minutes to get it off that rock, since we were trying to minimize additional damage. With a stout slider, you do just that, slide over the rocks, instead of burying them into the soft sheet metal.

Granted it is always a tradeoff, if the sliders stick out from the body, your rig is wider and you may run into a situation where the additional width is a hinderance. I once hit that on a narrow v-notch between two rocks that you had to go over with a tire on each rock. The back side dropped away steeply and that dropped the sliders onto the rock hard enough to prevent forward motion. All that was needed was to put a pair of small rocks on the back side of the two big rocks to pull a few inches forward before dropping down. Rigs with more lift/larger tires had no problem, but I was the only rig in the group w/ 33s.

 

Anybody know what size tires this 2nd gen has?

 

You could e-mail the owner and ask him.
Looks like they might be a 32x11.50.

 

Thanks for the contact 4Crawler!
I emailed him last night and received a nice reply today with more than i expected so I thought id share it with everyone looking to buy a set of sliders....

"I am very happy with my sliderZ. The quality and fit are excellent. I bolted mine on and that is a bit of a job. But they have taken some very hard hits and have not failed. I have mine fitting very close to the rocker panels and they have never flexed into the rockers.
The "steppy thing" bolted to the slider in the picture are not a good idea. I've smashed them off twice and they cost $50. I have since come up with a new design that folds up out of the way. I sent a picture where you can see the step, not great but you can see it.

Also is a picture of how the sliders look from underneath.

I have 32X11.50 BFG MT tires on 8 inch wheels. I have the highest lift possible without spacers or body lift. 33s will not fit my rig. Instead of lift I have worked on my suspension to gain maximum articulation. The front IFS is still the slouch when it comes to articulation. I have a full 40 in. rear wheel arc and 24 inch front. That movement combined with gears and driving style and I have been able to follow FJ40's with 35's anywhere they want to lead. I may not transverse some sections as easily as they do but I do have more fun!

I have often thought of doing the little extra to get 33's on 10 inch wheels but I really don't think I need it. Besides, here in Arkansas most of the 4x4 trails are ATV wide and I barely make it between the trees now!

I have no opinion of the "kickers". I really don't understand what they are for. Sliders are to protect the rockers. Seems to me the kickers would keep the rear tires from being able to grab traction is some situations - the sliders would be hung up where the tires could be touching the ground. That's just my guess, I don't have any experience with them. Go with your heart.

Just as important as sliders is a good skid plate and an IFS lower a-arm brace. Get a skid plate made that goes from the front of the frame to at least the rear of the lower a-arms. Get a steel one too. A lower a-arm brace will keep your IFS from getting all twisted out of shape in the rough going so that when you hit the hard roads it will still track in a straight line and won't need to be aligned every week."

Be good and enjoy your Runner,

JIM

 

Here are the 3 pictures that Jim sent with his email...

 

As you can see, Jim's tires are set in close to the body and for that setup, straight sliders work well. With the kickouts, my rule of thumb is to divide the amount that the tires stick out from the fenders by 2 and use that for the kickout amount. So for a 2" wider tire, a 1" kickout works well, for 4" wider, a 2" kickout. Of course you can always run a straight bar or less kickout. I have even been running the 2" kickouts I had for my old 33x15.5" wide Swampers with 33x10.5" wide BFGs (the sliders stick out wider than the tires) and that worked fine.

But as Jim notes, if you drive a lot of narrow trails w/o a lot of big rocks, then narrow is best, keep the sliders straight. For a little wider trails, with lots of big rocks to slider over and around and especially if you are running wider wheels/tires, then I find the kickouts help with traction. How? By pushing the truck away from the rock so the outside edge of the tire can grab it. Depending on your lift and tire size, if you are sliding along a rock on the sliders, that rock will be about as tall as your tires. That means that the tire will be hitting the rock above the tire's center line, hard to get traction like that. By pushing away from the rock a bit at the end, there is a better chance that the outer/side lugs on the tire will be able to get a bite on the rock.

I can't count how many times I've had this happen with my 4Runner since swapping from round tube slider that dove back into the body for the kicked-out square tube sliders. With the old sliders, I found I had toa lmost avoid using the sliders as a tool, I had to swing way wide around a big rock in order not to touch it with the sliders. With the new sliders, I can just put the slider on the rock, slide/pivot around it and then let the kickout push me away and let the tire grab. It almost feels like you have a couple of guys sitting on the rock to push you away at the last second.