Rock Sliders

[Daniel150 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Daniel150]

Hi guys
Looking into rock sliders for the new prado. I’ve never had a set before.
Just wondering what brands people have gone with. I’ve been looking at the rock armour ones. They all seem to be about 30-40kg a pair.
Any advice or pics would be great.
Cheers

[RPP Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RPP]

There are after market Side-steps and (quasi) Rock-sliders. They look the same at a casual glance.
Also, the various mounting arrangements leave a lot to be desired IMHO as an engineer.

You'll find Sidesteps usually have just one steel tube (on the outside), maybe 2 mounting points, and a checker plate on the top. The quasi Rock-sliders have two steel tubes running the length, and should have 3 mounting points, like Rockarmour and MSS. I went MSS due to their more rugged mounting arrangement. Rockarmour bolt directly to the chassis using existing M8 bolt holes. That mounting arrangement was too weak for my needs. If they only need to take the weight of one or two people then OK.

I need to deal with boulders rolling under the doors after I've driven a front wheel over them, thus MSS and their M12 clamping bolt/bracket arrangement. However the main fuel tank gets in the way, and MSS's special bracket needed more clearance between the tank and chassis than existed (surprisingly). Had to modify and grind down the captive nut on their bracket to improve the clearance. After talking with the MSS people they sent me a bracket for an Amarok, which was a much better solution - tho' I ground down the captive nut a little anyway, and stuck a strip of UHMWPE tape on the tank opposite the protruding bolt just in-case.

Weight of the MSS kit was just over 30Kg. The existing Toyota sidesteps were around 12Kg.