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Thoughts on ARB sliders?

CorvusOver

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I went with these. I did a quick write up on the install a few weeks back (https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/...gy-trail-rig-and-overlander.48591/post-908496). So far, I’m loving them. Great look and fit, and very solid over the few logs and rocks I’ve found so far. No heavy duty rock crawling yet, but I’m a lot more confident on tight trails already.

Here’s how they look right now, just out of a local state forest.
Thanks so much! I'm sold on getting these now.
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John in the Woods

John in the Woods

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Sorry but no. There is no way I am paying $935 for these and drilling...how many?....maybe 12 holes per side of my Gladiator.
I just double checked. It’s 18 holes per side! ARB is not the only company that has rocker guards that screw in, but I absolutely get if drilling 36 holes in the tub is not your thing. It definitely caused a few moments of hesitation on my part too.

Still, these feel strong, and have made it through a few early tests on trails this spring pretty well. I’ll know more the first time I slide them over some sharp rocks and pivot around a stump, and come out clean. Until then, let’s hope it wasn’t 36 huge mistakes!
 

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I just double checked. It’s 18 holes per side! ARB is not the only company that has rocker guards that screw in, but I absolutely get if drilling 36 holes in the tub is not your thing. It definitely caused a few moments of hesitation on my part too.

Still, these feel strong, and have made it through a few early tests on trails this spring pretty well. I’ll know more the first time I slide them over some sharp rocks and pivot around a stump, and come out clean. Until then, let’s hope it wasn’t 36 huge mistakes!
I bet they are bulletproof. I'm sure they will work better than most at what their intended job is but I just couldn't pull the trigger on drilling 36 holes in the sides of my truck. I applaud your dedication.
 

Wolf Island Diver

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I have these. I just installed them and they’re great. You know what they say about opinions so here’s mine.

I think sliders that bolt to the frame suck. Welding to the frame is good if you want to do that, but there’s too much leverage between the outside of a slider positioned at edge of the truck to use a mechanical fitting. To me it’s a jerry-rig. I know that’s a minority opinion. I especially don’t like something that wants me to drill holes in the frame or tap it. Bolting/clamping around the frame is janky too. The pinch seem and factory mounts are the exact problem with the factory sliders so that’s out.

As for the holes in the rocker being an issue. 🥱. First, the body is already full of holes. There’s nothing special about adding them that greatly increases corrosion. I get that drilling holes in the side of a $70k truck is scary. I’ve done a lot of body and fender work over the years and it doesn’t bother me. Any hole is a potential issue if not done correctly and there are lots of places on the truck that are potential issues. For example, at the front of the tub inside the wheel well at the pinch seam on my truck there’s a space that was full of debris and mud captured between the two pieces of sheet metal. I’m worried about places like that. I keep pulling garbage from between my cab and bed. There are tons of little places all over the tub that are potential rust points where debris and water collect.

Secondly, I can completely reconstruct a rocker panel from sheet metal if need be. I’ve done it before. In other words, body damage including rust is repairable. On the other hand I’m always worried about frame cancer which is more difficult to find, repair and repair without compromising the strength or alignment of the frame. Pretty much once the frame starts to rust significantly the truck is a dead man walking. I will always chose to modify the body before modifying the frame.

Back when Toyota was recalling and replacing Taco frames a got a chance to take a look at a pile of them outside of a dealership. Some of those were truly scary looking.

Third, with the install of these sliders, between the cosmaline, paint, Rtv on the rivnuts and Rtv sealing the slider to the body I’m 100% confident that corrosion will not be an issue from these holes or the interface between the rocker guard and the rocker panel. I also had ARB rock sliders on my TJ that imho were the best on the market, attached the same way, and in 14 years never showed signs of corrosion. I liked those even more because they actually had supports inside the tub so the rocker was completely captured by the sliders.

Lastly, I agree with the design philosophy of these sliders. Rock sliders are supposed to protect the rocker panel. If there is space between the slider and the panel then the slider itself becomes the thing that damages the rocker. That’s the problem with the stock sliders. I’ve seen bolt on frame mount sliders do the same thing especially if they become loose from use. Extremely beefy weld on frame sliders won’t necessarily flex enough to be an issue, but again that’s a bigger modification. ARB along with EVO and Motobilt avoids all of this by just reinforcing the rocker itself and grabbing the body from 2 angles, the mount and the face of the rocker. On my TJ, I could lift the Jeep from these rocker mounted sliders. These new ones are absolutely rigid. They’re part of the truck. I also like that ARB makes these sliders stick out. This is probably just as important As protecting from the underside. I wasn’t looking for a step and I don’t even think a step was ARBs intent but they end up protecting the entire side of the truck and become a de facto step.

As for the install, I really appreciated Northridge’s video but I deviated from their process and the ARB instructions and just did all of the holes at once. I also used a motorcycle jack to hold the sliders in place so I was more confident in my placement. I used metric drill bits because I have them.

This was one of the easiest installs I’ve done and a lot of credit belongs to ARB for making a precision product that actually fits the curvature of the truck which is significant. Considering that these are extremely beefy corrugated steel that then follow a curve, ARBs manufacturing is impressive and most companies don’t have the tooling to make something like this. ARB could have made these in such as way that would’ve been significantly cheaper to manufacture, but they chose this design.

In comparison, installing American Adventure Labs “quick disconnect” front inner fender liners, which I did the same week was a nightmare. Moving the washer fluid bottle aside, I had to do way too much fabrication to call that a “bolt on” product. The ARB sliders, on the other hand were straightforward and installed without any gotchas.

My only complaint is about the Jeep itself. The body bolts on these trucks are a major problem. My right rear was hand tight and had been popping for a few months. My dealer “couldn’t replicate” the noise, but failed to check the actual bolt like I asked. I wish I was wrong about my hunch on the source of the noise. Several bolts had broken retainers. There was a little blue Loctite applied unevenly to a few bolts. I used an induction heater to remove and install the bolts and they came off and went back on without issue. I heated them as I tightened them as well. They would reach the torque value based on the resistance of whatever Loctite was left on the threads so this was a false torque reading. You have to heat them back on. I would not recommend touching these bolts without one of these heaters and I would recommend everyone check these whether you’re installing sliders or not. I still think there are issues with at least one of the mounts on the passenger side. Anecdotally, the factory assembly isn’t properly done or QA’d and the mounts themselves can fail.


Jeep Gladiator Thoughts on ARB sliders? 20B618FA-DF9F-49FC-80EB-6031FF2D7640
 

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John in the Woods

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I have these. I just installed them and they’re great. You know what they say about opinions so here’s mine.

I think sliders that bolt to the frame suck. Welding to the frame is good if you want to do that, but there’s too much leverage between the outside of a slider positioned at edge of the truck to use a mechanical fitting. To me it’s a jerry-rig. I know that’s a minority opinion. I especially don’t like something that wants me to drill holes in the frame or tap it. Bolting/clamping around the frame is janky too. The pinch seem and factory mounts are the exact problem with the factory sliders so that’s out.

As for the holes in the rocker being an issue. 🥱. First, the body is already full of holes. There’s nothing special about adding them that greatly increases corrosion. I get that drilling holes in the side of a $70k truck is scary. I’ve done a lot of body and fender work over the years and it doesn’t bother me. Any hole is a potential issue if not done correctly and there are lots of places on the truck that are potential issues. For example, at the front of the tub inside the wheel well at the pinch seam on my truck there’s a space that was full of debris and mud captured between the two pieces of sheet metal. I’m worried about places like that. I keep pulling garbage from between my cab and bed. There are tons of little places all over the tub that are potential rust points where debris and water collect.

Secondly, I can completely reconstruct a rocker panel from sheet metal if need be. I’ve done it before. In other words, body damage including rust is repairable. On the other hand I’m always worried about frame cancer which is more difficult to find, repair and repair without compromising the strength or alignment of the frame. Pretty much once the frame starts to rust significantly the truck is a dead man walking. I will always chose to modify the body before modifying the frame.

Back when Toyota was recalling and replacing Taco frames a got a chance to take a look at a pile of them outside of a dealership. Some of those were truly scary looking.

Third, with the install of these sliders, between the cosmaline, paint, Rtv on the rivnuts and Rtv sealing the slider to the body I’m 100% confident that corrosion will not be an issue from these holes or the interface between the rocker guard and the rocker panel. I also had ARB rock sliders on my TJ that imho were the best on the market, attached the same way, and in 14 years never showed signs of corrosion. I liked those even more because they actually had supports inside the tub so the rocker was completely captured by the sliders.

Lastly, I agree with the design philosophy of these sliders. Rock sliders are supposed to protect the rocker panel. If there is space between the slider and the panel then the slider itself becomes the thing that damages the rocker. That’s the problem with the stock sliders. I’ve seen bolt on frame mount sliders do the same thing especially if they become loose from use. Extremely beefy weld on frame sliders won’t necessarily flex enough to be an issue, but again that’s a bigger modification. ARB along with EVO and Motobilt avoids all of this by just reinforcing the rocker itself and grabbing the body from 2 angles, the mount and the face of the rocker. On my TJ, I could lift the Jeep from these rocker mounted sliders. These new ones are absolutely rigid. They’re part of the truck. I also like that ARB makes these sliders stick out. This is probably just as important As protecting from the underside. I wasn’t looking for a step and I don’t even think a step was ARBs intent but they end up protecting the entire side of the truck and become a de facto step.

As for the install, I really appreciated Northridge’s video but I deviated from their process and the ARB instructions and just did all of the holes at once. I also used a motorcycle jack to hold the sliders in place so I was more confident in my placement. I used metric drill bits because I have them.

This was one of the easiest installs I’ve done and a lot of credit belongs to ARB for making a precision product that actually fits the curvature of the truck which is significant. Considering that these are extremely beefy corrugated steel that then follow a curve, ARBs manufacturing is impressive and most companies don’t have the tooling to make something like this. ARB could have made these in such as way that would’ve been significantly cheaper to manufacture, but they chose this design.

In comparison, installing American Adventure Labs “quick disconnect” front inner fender liners, which I did the same week was a nightmare. Moving the washer fluid bottle aside, I had to do way too much fabrication to call that a “bolt on” product. The ARB sliders, on the other hand were straightforward and installed without any gotchas.

My only complaint is about the Jeep itself. The body bolts on these trucks are a major problem. My right rear was hand tight and had been popping for a few months. My dealer “couldn’t replicate” the noise, but failed to check the actual bolt like I asked. I wish I was wrong about my hunch on the source of the noise. Several bolts had broken retainers. There was a little blue Loctite applied unevenly to a few bolts. I used an induction heater to remove and install the bolts and they came off and went back on without issue. I heated them as I tightened them as well. They would reach the torque value based on the resistance of whatever Loctite was left on the threads so this was a false torque reading. You have to heat them back on. I would not recommend touching these bolts without one of these heaters and I would recommend everyone check these whether you’re installing sliders or not. I still think there are issues with at least one of the mounts on the passenger side. Anecdotally, the factory assembly isn’t properly done or QA’d and the mounts themselves can fail.


Jeep Gladiator Thoughts on ARB sliders? 20B618FA-DF9F-49FC-80EB-6031FF2D7640
Pops nicely on that red. I'm definitely loving the 3-4 inches of extension past the side of the body. With a rig this long, I know i'll end up rubbing a few trees on the trail.
 

Wolf Island Diver

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Pops nicely on that red. I'm definitely loving the 3-4 inches of extension past the side of the body. With a rig this long, I know i'll end up rubbing a few trees on the trail.
Yeah, I like the contrast too, and I still hit stuff underneath. I’m waiting to break off some $1000 EPA diesel trinket under the thing. I think the next purchase might be a Next Venture belly skid and axle sliders. The gladiator is like a dog dragging it’s a$$ across the lawn off road. That’s part of its charm.
 

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Just curious what do you think of structural strength if you didn't tie into the rocker panels and just frame mounted them?
 

Wolf Island Diver

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Just curious what do you think of structural strength if you didn't tie into the rocker panels and just frame mounted them?
They’re not actually frame mounted. They’re mounted to the bottom of the body mounts. So the body is on top of the frame and the sliders are underneath. Both are therefore isolated from the frame itself. I prefer this to frame rail mounting.

As for not tying into the rocker panel, I’m not sure why your wouldn’t want to do that. The mounts underneath that attach to the body mounts are stout, but attaching it to the rocker panel significantly increases the rigidity. The only reason not to tie into the rocker panel is to avoid drilling the holes. Honestly that was the easiest part. The body bolts were much more of a concern for me given all the problems people have with them. Installed, these don’t feel like they’re bolted on. They feel like they’re part of the truck.

If you’re dead set against it I would recommend some other type of slider.

A legit reason not to install these is the tools you need. I wouldn’t want to do it without my inductive heater

Solary H7E Magnetic Induction Heater Kit 1000W 110V For Automotive Flameless Induction Heat 1KW Hand Power Tool (Black with 3 Coils) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086BQJD85/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_V7G2SWGBP0RM0K6YCA2Y?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

or a wheeled motorcycle jack. You also need a decent rivnut tool and quality HSS drill bits (I used metric one with tapered ends. I also used the caulking gun size Rtv they sell at Advanced Auto. All that crap adds up. If you have any issues with rivnuts or bolts you ought to have a metric tap and die set too. I had to clean the threads on one of the rivnuts after it was installed. You’ll need a breaker bar to take off the body bolts even with heat and a good 1/2 or 3/4 torque wrench.
 

Wolf Island Diver

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A couple of other things. If you actually install the rocker panels but don’t bolt them in then you actually create the corrosion potential people are trying to avoid by not drilling holes. The panels would sit right off the body and move back and forth. Grit and water would get trapped and the side of the truck would be ruined.

If you leave them off and just install the lower portion you’ll have weird holes in the slider portion and probably an ugly gap between the body and the slider. The ARB sliders are designed to be installed with both pieces. It would also probably void the warranty to deviate from the instructions like this. I would contact them with that question.

I do believe that the EVO sliders allow you to use the rocker guards or leave them off. But honestly I don’t think installing them is a big deal. I personally like these ARBs better than Motobilt or EVO ones. The Motobilts are really good looking but I don’t like that they and the EVOs have big holes in the sliders. I could see those getting hung up on rocks. The ARBs are smooth. You also have to get the Motobilts and EVOs painted. I’ve never had paint issues with ARB stuff.

I’m including some more detailed pictures. These provide really good coverage underneath and you see how they are corrugated for strength The last one shows my caulk line. Nothings getting in there. I even sealed the ARB logo. Everything is still dirty from my last trip.
Jeep Gladiator Thoughts on ARB sliders? 10F9DDAA-EEC2-47C3-A914-FD2377315321
Jeep Gladiator Thoughts on ARB sliders? 896C667D-1F2D-4BE8-B13A-16ED886DABED


Jeep Gladiator Thoughts on ARB sliders? B5D5DA0F-B398-4675-962A-D02D764C5EE7
Jeep Gladiator Thoughts on ARB sliders? E852CEF5-8506-4876-AB2A-B77BECABE9CF
Jeep Gladiator Thoughts on ARB sliders? 114BDF4C-82D9-48C5-BD2E-0B3F34BA09A7
Jeep Gladiator Thoughts on ARB sliders? C741808D-DB88-4F85-B9ED-78AC20F186B0
Jeep Gladiator Thoughts on ARB sliders? 1A5A5545-198A-4B0A-89EF-603F22169621
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Jeep Gladiator Thoughts on ARB sliders? 6EA0E9B2-E01D-4629-BFEE-3ED31FA54625
 
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John in the Woods

John in the Woods

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Amen to what @Wolf Island Diver said, except I didn’t use heat on the body bolts. Just went with the 1/2 off, 1/4 back method. I did buy the metric bits, transfer punches and a rivnut tool, but all of that was less than $100, which still brings the ARB sliders in for less than Evo’s version — and life Wolf, I like the bottom profile of these better.

I’m betting if you put these on without the rocker guards bolted in, you’d end up slamming them against the cab the first time you came down on a rock. That could get ugly.

if you’re completely against drilling the cab, I’d suggest the @ROCK HARD 4X4 sliders. They mount to the body bolts and the four cab mounts for the stock Mopar rails, and are stout as heck. No rocker guard, but a full outer hoop to protect the sides and serve as a decent step too. If I couldn’t get the ARB, that’s where I would have gone.
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