Don't order from Hanna. He doesn't deliver on his promises. I have an e-mail box full of them spanning 3 months. He has my money and I have nothing yet.

This should be an end to my last three and a half months of whining as well as be informative for anyone looking to order semi-custom parts for their rig.

Early on I decided that I wanted bolt-on sliders after reading all of the pros and cons related to weld-on sliders. Almost as early I decided I wanted Hanna Quality (HQ) sliders. Hanna's manufacturing reputation is solid. When I saw a pair mounted on a 4Runner I was sold. As a side note, when I complained about him there were many who wrote to defend him as his fans are Legion.

My earliest e-mail to HQ was May 12th. That should give you an idea of the ups and downs leading to actually bolting the sliders on today, August 29th. In the intervening three and half months I sent a lot of e-mails, a lot of them unanswered or maybe incompletely answered, likely in great haste.

HQ is a one-man show which is apparently quite common for the non-ARB sized companies. It is also not his only job so there is no one else to watch e-mail and the voice mail when he is away. Therefore it is up to you to cheerfully stay in touch... He only calls from his office and I don't know how often he checks his voice mails.

Keep copies of all of your e-mails, including the ones that you send. If there are phone calls, take notes and date them. Keep it all in one place along with web page printouts as web sites go down too.

Sliders are essentially built to order so be ready to accept unplanned delays that you or the builder cannot control. Ken Hanna is a stickler for quality so they are built right. However, if his suppliers don't deliver, then you don't get your parts.

Moral: don't plan a trip around some custom order. Wait until they are bolted on and proven.

My HQ sliders bolted on almost like OEM parts. The only headache was no printed instructions so I had to fuss a lot to figure out the easy way to get the last U-bolt in next to the gas tank.

Use PayPal or a credit card. I had a check get lost. First time in 36 years, but ˟˟˟˟˟ happens.

I can add more as I think of it but this is a good start.