Rock Hard Fabs XTerra Sliders

[gravyboat]

I recently purchased a set of Rock Sliders from Rock Hard Fabs in Quebec for $475 plus shipping. They arrived via Fedex and had quite a few scrapes and scratches down to bare metal. I don't know if this is on RHFs part or Fedex's. There was no instructions or mounting hardware included with the sliders.


After a trip to Fastenal this morning I attempted to mount the sliders, with no luck. Only one of the 4 mounting holes provided aligns with a hole in the frame. I contacted RHF about this and they said that all the holes align with holes in the frame but some reaming on the sliders may be required.


With a bolt through the only hole that is close to aligning the sliders are tight against the rocker, but still have a good 1/4" gap between the bottom of the frame and the top of the mounting bracket.




In this one you can see the mounting bracket on the slider that is supposed to fit against the frame truss like on a Shrockworks slider. But do to some funny angles it won't fit up against the frame.



So by now I'm getting pretty pissed and out comes the square, time to check angles and distances.


Almost a 1/4" difference between the tube and the slider at the mounting points.

Crooked tube support.


All in all I'm pretty disappointed in these sliders. I could have had Shrockworks sliders for the same price but I wanted to support a local business. I've tried contacting RHF but replies are pretty sporadic. I had hoped to be posting a review of these sliders but that's not happening until I can get them on the truck.

[Morpheus]

Not sure about the rest of the issues you listed, however;

Shipping painted parts never works out well. Almost always end up with damage on the finished product.

You can probably file a claim with FedEx, but honestly it will most likely become a pissing match between FedEx saying it wasn't packed properly and the shipper, but worth a try. Don't throw out packing material. They will request picture of it, and in extreme cases will collect packaging material. I speak from experience. Purolator once dropped an engine and cracked the block. It was a poop show.

I know its hind sight, but its always better to order that stuff unfinished and then get it finished locally, unless you're ok touching it up.

The mounting holes rarely match up 100% from truck to truck on custom parts like this. They probably have a jig they build it from, and simply welding it together will make the metal expand and contract enough to not always match.

Elongating the holes slightly should not affect the structure of the slider whatsoever, once the bolts are tight, it should be fine.

[Jayman]

Even with the Shrock sliders, people have found that they've had difficulty getting the mounting holes to line up with the holes on the frame.

The sliders that I have were made by Bender (member who doesn't do fab anymore), and they were done ON an Xterra in his driveway, with me there while the welding was being done.

Even though they were a perfect fit on an X in his driveway, I still had to do some reaming of the holes to make them fit on my truck.

Now, as for these ones, the workmanship doesn't look super fantastic, but in the end, they are there to get smashed into rocks and what not. As long as they are structurally sound, then they'll do their job as designed.

And so we're clear, I'm not discounting your dissatisfaction at all, I get it and I feel your pain. It's tough to spend money on things like this and not be happy with them. It will be something that you always notice when you look at them too...

[HotWod]

That guy is THE BIGGEST HACK! He did a roll cage for a friend of mine. Welded it outside so all his gas blew away (that is if he even uses gas). It looked like a bird $hit the tubes together. His bends were more creases then bends and his spacing of the tubes left my 5'4" buddy with NO head room. HACK!

[gravyboat]

Well they are on. It took some drilling, filing and cursing but they are on. I'm probably going to pop them off next week to paint them and clean up the holes and edges of the brackets.


Sent from my Batmobile using morse code

[Miner]

They look good now that you they're fitted. Put them to good use!

[Spider 007]

We've had a couple of guys in the Quebec club that also had issues with RHF.

Comments are usually along the same lines as the ones here: poor fitment, damaged material in transit and very poor customer service on their part.

[medic]

Saved myself a HUGE headache.

Bought Bender Built (R) sliders.

Fit like a glove and are still going strong!

[Bender]

Thanks buddy, glad they served you well.

As for fit and finish, well that just sucks. I learned along time a go that using a jig or measurements solely, leaves tons of room for error especially as mentioned, final welding will tweak the whole fitment to the vehicle. That lesson learned, I use to bolt each and and every single slider I made and sold ( I think I made over a dozen sets at least ) to my Xterra before shipping them off the the buyer.
What I found out is that from vehicle to vehicle there seemed to be a variance to the bolt holes. Never concluded if it was a year based thing or from the frame on my Xterra or the buyers Xterra that may have been tweaked ( say from off roading ) leaving the buyer to have to ream the holes.

The other thing I learned over my time from doing them is watch how close you get the slider top surface in relation to the pinch seam at the bottom of the rockers. One hit or jacking the truck up using the sliders will damage the seam. having the brackets grab the bottom of the frame is a great idea, but not as good as a gusset from the mounting plate to the 2x2 tube as this helps more with the "peeling affect " you will inflict on the sliders when using them when needed.

As for the scratches on the sliders, that also sucks. In hindsight getting them unfinished would have been a better option. After all they are "rock sliders" with the sole purpose of sliding on rocks, you will find yourself touching them up often and every spring due to salt and sand and road rash and so on. I wouldnt be too terribly upset about it except for the fact you paid for a finished product.

[gravyboat]

Mine are right on the pinch seams. I'm going to get a friend to help me sort them out next week. I'm going to clean up the mounting brackets, sandblast then hit them with self etching primer and some bedliner.


Sent from my Batmobile using morse code

[Jayman]

Cheapest solution the fixing the slider in the body seam issue, is a body lift!

[SlaveX]

Cheapest solution the fixing the slider in the body seam issue, is a body lift!

Yeah... I don't know if that's the cheapest way, but definitely does the job

[Nd4SpdSe]

Hmm my Shrocks went in beautifully. I just have to chase the threads before bolting them down but the sliders were 100% perfect.