Thread: Rock Sliders Weight.

I've looked at making them for my D1 disco, and as I started gathering the steel realised the same thing. I'm going to be carrying a lot of weight around all the time. I was going to make them for the same reason, for the fun of it like most of my mods, but now. Am thinking with the terrain around me and a 2" lift will they ever come into play.and how much extra fuel will be used lugging them around ..

Harry, yours sound rather substantial.

its not that much weight really though, I will be carrying about 200kg in fluids alone for my trip

35kg each is....substantial I don't know what the retail rock sliders weigh.
Yours aren't too far shy of the weight of a bullbar hanging off either side. Not a criticism here, just a caution on how all this gets attached to the vehicle.
That's some big wall section you are using there and if not mounted to the chassis will set up some very serious loads on the thin sheet metal you are trying to protect 99.99% of the time.
Lots of stuff on the market like this is "over built" to boast the vehicle will break before the product and it is easy to add a bit more "beef"to anothers idea when making our own. I haven't seen what is required for a D3, so the design may require a bit more steel to fit with strength, however, 6mm is over the top and I"d be looking at a redesign if that is what is required in the current design. I am currently building a set for the 130 and they will come in around 40kg for the pair.

Less than half of that, each, 6mm plate is a bit of overkill, the plates on my ARB's are around 3mm thick, haven't had any problems, no bends yet, Regards Frank.

Ours is a Defender, so perhaps a little different to a Disco, but our rock sliders are square section steel replacing the lower strip under the doors.

I agree they are a lot of weight that would rarely (and haven't yet) been used as actual sliders.

I'm happy to have them on there as some side impact protection, in lieu of much else on the Defender that would do the same...

Way too heavy!

And why angle iron? It wont profile the body correctly...

The basic shape is vertical, 45 down to the horizontal with a lip on the horizontal

For comparison, Mulgo's sliders with tubes but without chequer plate add 30kg total for a 110. So for full length box steel and basically full length steel tube that ends up being about 13.5kg bare slider per side (excluding mounting hardware).

Total weight includes weight saved by removing existing panel work (2kg) under the doors and all mountings (4.5kg all up).

And yes I am somewhat anal when it comes to weights...

Thanks for the replies

The reason I went for 6mm is that it is angle iron and does not have the snug fit that follows the contours of the sill - so structurally it needs to provide it's own support. Not sure that the next sizedown (4mm) will be strong enough to hold the full weight of the car.

Take the point onboard that the weak point will actually be the sill and not the slider. I think the risk will be the twisting forces if the weight is all on the tube furtherest away from the car - looking to make a "hook" along the length that actually holds onto the inner lip of the sill - this will take a lot of load off the bolts.

Cheers