Warn slider body bowing?

06lj

06lj

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I am looking at sliders for my LJ. I like the look of the Warns but came across this video on YouTube showing the body bowing. I am curious if the individual installed them wrong or is there an issue with the design? You can jump to 7:54 to see the bowing.

 
06lj said:
I am looking at sliders for my LJ. I like the look of the Warns but came across this video on YouTube showing the body bowing. I am curious if the individual installed them wrong or is there an issue with the design? You can jump to 7:54 to see the bowing.
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I have the warn sliders on my TJ. Mine doesn’t have that bowing issue but I do have an area on my passenger rear area where the slider has a fair gap from the body. My driver side was perfect. Not sure if I rushed the passenger side install and drilled the holes slightly off but I haven’t gotten back to try and correct it. It does collect dirt and grime in that gap. I will say I rinse that gap out the best I can. I did fluid film the body prior to tightening down the bolts. I also caulked the seam between the slider and body. Every spring I do loosen the body bolts and separate the slider from the body enough to get a good rinse and reapplication of fluid film as well as to ensure no rust is brewing underneath. I will say I do like these sliders. Here are pics of that spot.

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Hmm...@Jazngab, can you drill a hole in the slider and into the tub and put a nutsert and pull that down? Can you check with a level and see if it is the slider that is bent or the tub?
 
I have had Poison Spyder rock sliders on for 8+ years. No issues like these, thankfully. But mine bolt side and bottom so they couldn't if they wanted to.

That's some heavy gauge to be bowing like that.
 
JMT said:
Hmm...@Jazngab, can you drill a hole in the slider and into the tub and put a nutsert and pull that down? Can you check with a level and see if it is the slider that is bent or the tub?
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Yes you can. I tried pushing it in but there’s no give so not sure how much a bolt would help there. Honestly I’ve just been lazy about looking into it in depth. Now that all the projects on the TJ are done, I’ll take it down one of these days and see what’s what.
 
jazngab said:
I have the warn sliders on my TJ. Mine doesn’t have that bowing issue but I do have an area on my passenger rear area where the slider has a fair gap from the body. My driver side was perfect. Not sure if I rushed the passenger side install and drilled the holes slightly off but I haven’t gotten back to try and correct it. It does collect dirt and grime in that gap. I will say I rinse that gap out the best I can. I did fluid film the body prior to tightening down the bolts. I also caulked the seam between the slider and body. Every spring I do loosen the body bolts and separate the slider from the body enough to get a good rinse and reapplication of fluid film as well as to ensure no rust is brewing underneath. I will say I do like these sliders. Here are pics of that spot.

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That is interesting. If that gap was to continue on my LJ it would probably be pretty significant.
I might just scratch the Warns of my list and debate between JCR and Savvy.
 
Looking at how the warn is mounted I can see why they are pulling away from the body at the top. The floor pan meets the vertical rocker about 1/3 of the way up. When the sliders hit something, the bottom wants to get pushed in, so it pivots where the floor is and tries to pull the top of the slider outward. There's just a few bolts and washers to resist that pulling force, so that force gets concentrated at those bolts and deforms the sheet metal.

I have an old set of Rock-It-Man sliders and they probably have twice as many mounting bolts as those Warn sliders. They also tie into the torque boxes 6 inches inboard, effectively stopping the "pivot" motion at the floor pan level. They also have a long plate that gets sandwiched on the inside of the tub just below the door which spreads out that pulling force and stops the bolts from trying to pull through the sheet metal.
 
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GASnBRASS said:
Looking at how the warn is mounted I can see why they are pulling away from the body at the top. The floor pan meets the vertical rocker about 1/3 of the way up. When the sliders hit something, the bottom wants to get pushed in, so it pivots where the floor is and tries to pull the top of the slider outward. There's just a few bolts and washers to resist that pulling force, so that force gets concentrated at those bolts and deforms the sheet metal.

I have an old set of Rock-It-Man sliders and they probably have twice as many mounting bolts as those Warn sliders. They also tie into the torque boxes 6 inches inboard, effectively stopping the "pivot" motion at the floor pan level. They also have a long plate that gets sandwiched on the inside of the tub just below the door which spreads out that pulling force and stops the bolts from trying to pull through the sheet metal.
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I haven’t really hit my sliders hard on any rocks. It’s been that way when I first installed them. When I have hit, they haven’t moved.
Maybe this weekend I’ll remove it and install from the rear side first and see what happens.
 
jazngab said:
I haven’t really hit my sliders hard on any rocks. It’s been that way when I first installed them. When I have hit, they haven’t moved.
Maybe this weekend I’ll remove it and install from the rear side first and see what happens.
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Whatever you do, put a long level or string along the side of the slider and see if the steel is actually straight. If it is, look at your tub and do the same. I'm very curious.
 
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Yes, they will bend and pull the ends out, if you hit them hard. I used them for years with pretty mild wheeling, but when I started getting into them pretty hard they bent, pulling the fenders. I've even removed them, sliced and rewelded them flat. Still bent. I would avoid.
 
At the beginning of the video you can see the sheet metal is warped around the bolt holes for the original rubicon rockers. If the rocker isn't secured in two axis then there is nothing really to keep it from bending the sheet metal. It's not getting mangled like bare sheet metal would, but it's not exactly remaining straight either.

Not my jeep (mine's torn apart right now) but you can see how the rocker wraps underneath almost to the frame. It basically becomes a giant 6"x6" chunk of 3/16" right angle steel with a 3/16" plate inside the tub. Heavy and old school, but it works. In looking at Savvy's design it follows a similar concept, but uses aluminum with a steel slider to shed weight.

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Tldelaney said:
I was also debating between JCR and Savvy. Both look awesome.
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After reading the posts in this thread I have definitely decided to scratch the Warns. It's going to be a tough decision between the Savvy and JCR. Savvy's sliders have been on backorder for a while so that might be my deciding factor.
 
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Tldelaney said:
I was also debating between JCR and Savvy. Both look awesome.
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Go with the Savvy. It's my 4th or 5th rocker guard and the first to hold up to the rocks. It has a 3-piece design with an inner reinforcing brace with a 2-piece outer that includes a replaceable steel rub rail. The two inner/outer pieces that sandwich the tub are T-6061 aluminum

These pics are from my install on my previous TJ. My current TJ has the same Savvy rocker guards.

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That is definitely the way to build a slider. Spreads the forces along the entire length. Having that inner piece means the stress on the nutserts is moved to the flat stock. Great design!
 
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