Frame Mounted vs. Body Mounted Sliders?

The spiders didn't come with a backing plate, but I added one anyway. So maybe it is a little stronger.
 
I believe AtoZ is another set that bolts to the body and not the mounts.

Also, shrockworks.

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Looking back I wish I would have gone this route instead of the poison spyders.

Yup, I was looking at rocker knockers and then saw people having to saw their body lift to compensate for the squashed slider plate on the left and right. No way I'm sawing my savvy body lift, so I looked for other options and ran across shrockworks.
 
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While frame mounts sound stronger, they're not and they can also hang up due to their required mounting brackets that run under the tub between them and the frame. Serious rock crawlers all run body mounted rocker guards due to their added strength and better tub protection. Beginners or very casual offroaders tend to run frame mounted only because it sounds stronger or they're afraid to drill holes so they can mount the tub mounted rocker guards.

If you have the $$$ there is no better/stronger/better designed rocker guard than Savvy's which even includes a reinforcement that mounts from the inside to sandwich the tub. These are from when I mounted them on my previous TJ.

I left mine unpainted but you may prefer to paint them. I'm running the same rocker guards on my present TJ.

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A.D.D. moment... that jack is straight out da '80s if not older. Had the same one growing up, funny how something so simple can bring back memories.
 
I run these, although I didn't pay 260 bucks. I needed something basic with a small step.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NP1PPG/?tag=wranglerorg-20

And I can tell you for certain, they won't hold up to any significant impact. They are held on by the body mount bolts which means on heavy impacts they will be pushed into the tub. Or they have the potential to damage to the torque box and/or tub bolts. Will they handle some minor impacts? Sure. But for any true body protection you need something that secures to the tub itself. Anything else is primarily decoration.
 
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I thought we were talking about Jeep TJ rock sliders.

We are, but when you said...

They are picking on you. With a serious bit of good info thrown in to make the post legit. That's just the informed bullying the lesser informed.

...you made an inference and a statement about someone's motive; I would argue the person in question addressing that inference and statement is not only fair play, but to be expected. In other words: you took it there, so there's no reason to be surprised when someone calls you on it.

It's not the number of bolts holding it in place that make a tub mounted rocker stronger, it's the fact the slider is bolted directly to the tub so there is no leverage available against it that is the main contributor to its strength. There are just enough bolts to secure it in place but they're not seeing a lot of shear force. And better designs like Savvy's do add a plate behind the rocker to give it even more strength. See my above fifth photo.

The way the slider is made - i.e. material, bend(s), etc - and how it's loaded when you install it also make a difference. Not trying to split hairs, there - and I'm certainly no authority - but I thought I would throw that tidbit into the mix.
 
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Can the mounting system be elaborated on a bit more other than saying it is not good? I think I read a while ago that a body mounted slider is better and it must have many holes to tie the body and slider together. If that is the case, simply drilling more holes in the poison spyder or similar slider achieves that and turns something that is so bad into something good. A plate could also be added to the backside of the body to sandwich the pieces together if desired.
Please expand on the difference between good and bad.
I've converted a set of the PSC to be mounted correctly. By the time we were done, you're better off buying something that mounts correctly.
 
I thought we were talking about Jeep TJ rock sliders.
We were but then you went there with your blanket dismissal of sound mechanical design by saying, "buy what you like", it doesn't really matter and while you are correct if they are only for aesthetic reasons, you are seriously incorrect if you plan on using them as intended.
 
Have you seen better DIYs out there? I would love to see a good discussion on this.
These are on mine, done by the PO. they are very solid and I really like the look
they are welded directly to the frame

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I am a bit confused by some of the comments in this thread, certainly due to my lack of "serious" off-road experience, so please be gentle in your response.

The OP posted a link to a slider very similar to the one on my Jeep. It is bolted to the tub (I added an additional plate on the inside like Jerry's pics) and has two tabs that are sandwiched between the top of the body mount and the bottom of the torque box. Any point load to the bottom of the slider would be transferred to the torque box at the body mount locations and spread across the side of the tub.

On the sliders that are bolted to the side of the tub but have cut-outs around the body mounts, any impact from below still transfers the force to the bottom of the torque boxes and side of the tub. I can certainly see the advantages of the longer coverage on Jerry's example with less chance of catching the slider and hanging it up because the bottom surface runs the full length of the slider rather than a short segment between the two body mount points.

So my question is, when you experienced folks are talking about a bad mounting system, what makes it bad? It seems like the forces are transferred to the tub exactly the same way in exactly the same location, just one has more under-tub coverage. Is it the distribution of the load across a larger torque box surface area? What is the failure that makes the OP's choice less than ideal?
 
Or better yet, who has had sliders fail?
Depends on how you define failure. These are some from an owner whose rig I work on a bunch. You can see that small amount of large diameter fasteners has dimpled the sheet metal outwards due to the lower being shoved inward and it levering on the lower part of the tub.

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In the last pic above, that horizontal rub mark is from the slider bouncing on the fasteners and had almost worn a hole through the sheetmetal.

This is another set of the same.
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So, again, no it is not buy what you like because there is little difference in design and functionality. If you intend to use them for their intended purpose, it really does matter. This is only two examples we took pics of, most of the same ones have issues very similar. At no point should any aspect of the body mount or it's mounting system be used to attach a tub mounted slider to the rig. At no point should they not be wheel well to wheel well. Unless it is for looks, then get wherever looks good to you.