Sliders or not??

Hi everyone,

I am heading to the Cape with my wife and kids towing our camper trailer in the middle of this year. We are taking plenty of time to do the trip and will hopefully be taking lots of tracks off the main route as we go.

I'm doing my best to prep the nav and camper and one thing which I can't make a decision on is whether to ditch the standard side steps for some sliders.

There are pros and cons either way and one day I'm about to buy them and the next day I change my mind!

I would really like some input from fellow nav drivers who have 1st hand experience at Cape York or similar. I'll even consider the opinions of D40 owners for this one!!

Are sliders worth it/necessary/needed? Did you damage standard steps/sils/panels??

We haven't been up to the cape, but in "ordinary" off-road work we tore the sliders on both sides of the car. Once they started to come off, they flexed more and more until they started snapping bolts - we had no alternative but to get sliders.

And we did - from ScottyBobcat - they are simply awesome. That guy can weld really well too, a single smooth clean weld down each side of the mounting bracket and it didn't even need grinding or chipping - just a coat of paint. Anyone interested is welcome to have a look under her next time we're on a trip together.

I should probably take photos - I've got some from our Christmas trip which show the sliders but not in any great detail. I'll have to take some specifically of them and post them up.

Thanks for the input Old Tony. I have already been in touch with Scotty but still havn't made a decision! I know his work is A1.

Anyone else have experience to share?

If you are going to do regular 4wd they are worth it. I did the cape in my d40 and the first creek, Palm creek is like a mine gunshot. If I didn't have my sliders I would of wiped out the passenger side doors and sills so they paid for themselves right there. It possibly could of been avoided with some road building but I am allergic to shovels.... oh and don't worry about Gunshot as there is always an easy way round.. Enjoy the Cape and be careful at Nolans...

Yup

Mine copped a nice graze down the side which would have fudged my sills proper without them, at palm creek.

Get sliders

Great- thanks for the tips. I've seen Palm creek on a couple of DVDs- once you're in there's no coming back out! Looks like I'm leaning towards sliders then!

Silly question, but are they ''legal"? As in side airbag compliant?

silvernavman said:

Silly question, but are they ''legal"? As in side airbag compliant?

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From my understanding if you have side airbags then yes you do need them to be airbag compliant. They have crumble points on them as with airbag compliant bull bars. In saying that not sure how many people do follow this though.

I wonder how many sliders could hold a 3T Navara up off a rock with an airbag-compliant crumple zone built in. The whole idea behind the slider is to prevent crumpling of any sort, it seems like they'd be completely at odds with each other.

Removing the sliders for compliance doesn't cut it in an impact where the sliders are present - that only works for fooling an engineer/inspector.

Old.Tony said:

I wonder how many sliders could hold a 3T Navara up off a rock with an airbag-compliant crumple zone built in. The whole idea behind the slider is to prevent crumpling of any sort, it seems like they'd be completely at odds with each other.

Removing the sliders for compliance doesn't cut it in an impact where the sliders are present - that only works for fooling an engineer/inspector.

Click to expand...

Totally agree with you Tony, said similar to the bloke at the shop when I bought mine as he was showing the difference to me. I ended up buying without them being airbag compliant and also saved few hundred on price.

As well as the protection remember the slider is an invaluable lifting point for a high lift and can be quickly accessed to get you out of the poo.

Hi Joffo81
This is probably not the correct place to put this post
I to am planning to head up the cape, Planning to leave the beginning of July & returning end of july & am wondering if these dates overlap your plans & is so would you like to travel together. I will be leaving from Brisbane
Cheers in advance Tony

only air bag compliant side bar is ARB that I know of. Hence why I bought ARB. If it was insurance purposes I would have got custom ones from scotty.

Tjm ones are too I believe