Rock Slider help

Hey everyone!!
I have been slowly building my wife’s JK, Luna, and the most recent upgrade she got was “rock sliders”. I put them in quotations because I’m being told that the ones we purchased will fold up into the body of her Jeep during moderate rock crawling. These are the Smittybilt SRC rock crawler guards. They attach to the body mounting points on the frame. I do agree that they are not as stout as some of the other types I’ve seen that mount directly to the frame, but they seem far superior to the ones that mount to the pinch seem.

My question is, is there a bolt on bracket that will reinforce this style mounting setup? Something that bolts to the side of the frame and either to the stock body mount to stiffen it, or to the bracket on the sliders themselves? I thought about taking it to a local fabricator with a design I have in mind, but if there is already an off the shelf solution I’d much rather do that. My wife only hits easy-moderate trails so it’s pretty unlikely for her to smash a rock hard enough to do the amount of damage I’m concerned about, but given my luck… that’s exactly what will happen.

I appreciate any insight you have.

Thanks for reading!!

Not much you're going to be able to do to reinforce those short of reengineering the things. As you already noted, there are other brands out there with better bolt on designs, but if your wife isn't really a hardcore rock crawler, I'd say leave them on until you think they're no longer going to do the job. In the meantime, look around for options. LOD makes a nice set of bolt-on sliders I have on my JL

I can tell you from having a set of similar smitty rock sliders on my JKU, it takes a hard hit for them to flex enough to make body contact.

I had them over many obstacles but it wasn't until dropping down off a ledge onto a another rock ledge that caused the sliders to flex into the body and leave matching dimples on both sides. Had I been made aware or taken the time to assess the 2nd ledge I would have ridden the brakes harder and not let the Jeep drop so hard... driver skills also matter

I've seen other body mount sliders do the same thing. As Dday stated, something like LOD where there are more mounting points makes a difference but only if you plan to take the Jeep where the obstacles will require a better set of sliders

I recently put on LOD frame mounted sliders. The rubicon ones had already damaged my rocker panels and they were body mounted. Here’s a pic of the abuse it took on Fordyce. Gurrantee the SB sliders would’ve been destroyed.

I had a set of smittiybilt sliders. If they’re more for looks and light trails. They’ll be fine. If you’re going to play in rocks I would advise against them. I have rolls in the body where they hit, had to jump up and down on them to open the door once. And when I finally ripped one off on the rubicon, I saw they weren’t even the .120 wall they claimed to be.

Mike Pierson said:

I recently put on LOD frame mounted sliders. The rubicon ones had already damaged my rocker panels and they were body mounted. Here’s a pic of the abuse it took on Fordyce. Gurrantee the SB sliders would’ve been destroyed.

View attachment 378566 View attachment 378567

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Damn dude... Good work on those new sliders. Fordyce sure is full of thrills

CalSgt said:

Damn dude... Good work on those new sliders. Fordyce sure is full of thrills

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Yeah, not so new anymore. Lol

black pearl said:

I had a set of smittiybilt sliders. If they’re more for looks and light trails. They’ll be fine. If you’re going to play in rocks I would advise against them. I have rolls in the body where they hit, had to jump up and down on them to open the door once. And when I finally ripped one off on the rubicon, I saw they weren’t even the .120 wall they claimed to be.

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my dad has a set as well and when we were on the rubicon the steel is just so thin you can see them bow with any sorta weight on them. so needless to say he took a few hits to the body and will probably be replacing them sooner rather than later

I'm not a fan of the ones you have on there now either. A new guy went wheeling with us once on a trail that was relatively easy, but his experience level slid him up against a rock while climbing a steep, but short shelf and bent it. Didn't quite hit the body, so technically it did its job, but he did have to climb in and out through the passenger seat the rest of the day cause he couldn't open his door.

There's a lot of great options, but I agree with the above on taking a look at L.O.D. Not only do they make a great product, but they're great people and have been around a while.

TonyT said:

I'm not a fan of the ones you have on there now either. A new guy went wheeling with us once on a trail that was relatively easy, but his experience level slid him up against a rock while climbing a steep, but short shelf and bent it. Didn't quite hit the body, so technically it did its job, but he did have to climb in and out through the passenger seat the rest of the day cause he couldn't open his door.

There's a lot of great options, but I agree with the above on taking a look at L.O.D. Not only do they make a great product, but they're great people and have been around a while.

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I like my LODs a lot, and they do a great job of protecting the rig, but one hit on Fordyce, that I didn’t even feel, crushed in the main tube.

Mike Pierson said:

I like my LODs a lot, and they do a great job of protecting the rig, but one hit on Fordyce, that I didn’t even feel, crushed in the main tube.

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I don't think there's another one out there that would fare any better, if they went with thicker tubes they would be more ridiculously heavy than they already are and I think a boatside type would have at least creased.