So, I’ve researched a bit and some people swear by the body mounted sliders and others lean towards frame mounted sliders. Ive always had Toyota’s in the past and frame mounted sliders were the way since there wasn’t really a good option for a body mounted slider.

It appears that my sliders are bending the sheet metal on my body. I’ve taken some good hits to the sliders but nothing I would typically be overly concerned about. But after looking, I do believe my sliders are bending the bottom of the body. Anyone else have this issue?

I’ll likely make new sliders in the future and weld to the frame to take the stress off of the body.

Here’s what my sliders and body look like:

 

I can see that happening. I had welded tube to my old rubi rails and they flexed similarly. Do you have those bolted to your body mounts on the underside as well? IMO, it's not totally fair to lump all "body mounted rails" in one barrel. For example, a lot of the boat-side sliders are body mount, but attached to the body bolts and then to rocker armor (bypassing the pinch seam and lower rocker). If not going with a version that mounts similarly, it does seem frame mount is a better idea, but seems you often lose a little clearance that route too.

On my old sliders, the tube was welded similar to what you have in that it stuck straight out. One thing about running them that way is when you're leaning on the slider, it's sure a lot of leverage being applied as opposed to if you had welded it up at an angle from the pinch seam (think along lines of PSC Rocker Knockers) which would have given you a little more clearance, and when you were on them probably would be a little less pressure applied to the mount.

 

I'm not a fan of body mounts unless you do light wheeling...otherwise frame mounts are worth it. My stock Rubicon sliders have been pushed into the body...no thanks.

 

I totally second the frame mounts. And even then I had some small indentations in the body after years of 4wheeling. Next time I will just get ones that are welded on.

 

Sounds like I have some work to do when I get time... I have a 4 door on 35’s with 3” of lift so I definitely don’t want to lose clearance. There does seem to be a good chunk of body that has nothing but void in there. Has anyone the bottom of the body and welded in a filler? This will allow me to keep the sliders as high as possible when I weld them to the frame.

My current sliders aren’t tied to the body mounts. To be honest, I’m not sure I’d want that anyways. I would think that would prevent the flex of the body between the body, body mounts, and frame. I talked to a guy a while back when considering a cage and was told that unless the frame is stiffened up to reduce frame flex, you dont want to hard mount things to the body and frame because of the movement between the two, doing so can cause cracking on the body.

 

So most are mounted below the body mount, just held in place with the body mount bolt, so it's not really coming into place between the body, the bushing, and the frame. the problem with that is usually the body flexes enough that the rockers get smooshed in at the lower rocker area, but, in your situation, your sliders don't even come up that far and wouldn't interfere with the rocker sheetmetal. I would think that securing via that bolt would just strengthen up a bit so the pinch seam isn't taking all the pressure and bending.

I found an old picture of my jeep when had my modified rubi rails on still -


So those attached to the bottom of that body mount and then the pinch seam where yours are. Problem with that is they would flex up and totally killed my lower rocker there behind the rubi rail (down where red arrows pointing). The real issue is that tube was straight out from the rubi rail (as yours is straight out), and when that is leaning on a rock, a lot of leverage is being applied and pushing the rubi rail up and in. I think mine would have been better if the tube had been welded up at a 45* angle cuz it would have created more clearance before contacting rock, and also would have had less leverage to push the rubi rail in.

In your setup, your rails aren't anywhere close to that lower rocker area, so the flex up into the body seems less of a concern. Your main issue is that the pinch seam isn't strong enough to withstand the leverage/pressure to the rail. I tend to think that if you simply secured that to the underside of the body mount the same way, it might be just enough to hold things in place. It also seems like a fairly easy modification to the current rails without totally reworking them. I'm just thinking out loud here. Maybe I'm wrong.

I can't think of anyone I've seen that has cut out part of that body area. Most people on this forum aren't that far into fabricating. I'd sure be curious to see how someone does that though if you go down that path. I sure am not saying that frame-mounted isn't the solution.....just seems there are pros and cons to both.

 

The problem I see with mounting to the body mount bolt is that the slider would be attached to the bottom side of it which is also the frame side. Unless there’s a rubber bushing of some sort (which will reduce the purpose) the sliders will essentially be hard mounted to the body and frame. Maybe I’m picturing this wrong?

Heres the underside of my sliders, they aren’t on the body mount but they do have a few extra bolts going into the body.





As for cutting the bottom edge of the body for a higher tucked frame mounted slider, I do think it’s very possible and even do-able. It will be a while before I have time for that type of surgery on the Jeep. I will likely keep it the way it is and just be much more careful about hitting the sliders. Prior to now I would be more than willing to use the sliders to get through a tight obstacle or over a large rock... now things just get a little more precise until I can figure out a more permanent slider solution.

 

Just for reference, in the photo you can see where the body goes from straight vertical to an inside ~45* degree angle. I’m thinking that right at the bend, if I can make a cut there and go all the way through the other side of the sheet metal, I can cap that then have a higher frame mounted slider and still have a little bit of slider to body clearance.

It’s hard to judge the balance between work required for clearance and the gain from that clearance. I know this will be a lot of work and since I’m on a 4 door with small(ish) tires, every bit of clearance I can get is important.

 

That leverage of the extended rails is hard to get perfect or keep straight when mounting off the body or body mount.
IMO the ultimate would be to mount off the chassis by installing bolt diameter sleeves through the chassis and welded and ground flat on both sides similar to how the steering box is mounted from the factory. This maintains full chassis strength. Or weld a plate to the chassis with 2 or 3 threaded bosses on it to support the inner base of rock rails. Mount the base of the rails there and support them for leverage off the body similar to the Rubicon setup.

 

My vote is more steel. Maybe mini boat sides like the JCR or go full boat sides with Nemesis. I too bent my diy Rubi sliders. They're good for keeping the body from more carnage and that little bit of bend is a cheap price to pay compared to the gash a few rocks in particular would have left in the sheet metal. My friend sat on a rock without any sliders and we attempted to straighten it and clean it up/ protect it with the JCR sliders. They hide it well and they're stout.