My Trail Gear Slider Story (pics)

[Dragon]

I was looking for some sliders. I'm not an incredibly wealthy man. I found some that looked as if the gussets and welds were strong; ...nice design; ...nice price




I was a bit wary and anxious, as I had the Tall Corn event coming up and really wanted the extra protection. The Rock Rails were in production and there was a backlog. I took my chances. When they didn't show after a few days, I called. Joseph Garcia told me they would get here on time for my event. It's nice to know they care. Just to make sure, I PM'd the vendor here at FJCruiser Forums.com




Ok, I'm thinking. Something can't be right. Good quality at a good price and then being shipped second day air. They can't possibly make money on these, so I waited for something to go wrong.

The rails arrived today. Two days from when they shipped from Cali. I opened the box. Hmm. Heavy. Nice gussets. Nice welds. Bolts? *opened the other box* -Got em.

Allow me to show you the install, as I am one pleased customer.

It may have been my imagination, but the weld and drill oil still seemed warm. In order to paint, I needed to clean them up.




There were the right amount of bolts, washers and lock washers




4 or 5 coats of Rustoleum (I can explain why no powder coat if you want to know)




Ok, let's see if the holes line up






Of course, the neigbors are not trustworthy to leave my damn camera alone while I'm working




FJ Nation: These holes lined up PERFECTLY!!




...and it's solid!!!









Let me tell you about a vendor that can be trusted. A vendor who makes a damn good product. A vendor who took the hit on shipping because a customer had a trail meet. And a truck (I don't care if you don't believe they can talk) that is happy to have this mod.




Tomorrow I'm driving to Iowa to meet the FJ Trail Team, TTORA folk, and TLCA folk.

...and I have new rock rails, courtesy of Trail Gear.

Website found here Trail Gear

[Angry Andy]

When You meet anyone from TTORA....make sure you give them this for me.....

Give them an Angry hello

[Blackened Voodoo]

I'm hoping mine will be here tomorrow.

[SMEEKS]

Thanks for the post. Glad to see it went so smoothly. Those are my next mod. Looks sweet!

[REDLINE]

Nice.....soooo....why no powder coat?

[Corey]

They look nice on your rig.
You know those are the same as my Bentups.



In fact I believe Trail Gear makes them for Bentup.
Andy might know for sure.
Bentup is a Trail Gear dealer, so I would think they are the same.

[Dragon]

REDLINE previously said:

Nice.....soooo....why no powder coat?

I have products powder coated every day where I work. Automobile body work is powder coated. Our FJ is probably powder coated 18 gauge A60 galvannealed metal.

...so does your car paint scratch easily? When it does, can you just paint over it? When powder coat (electrostatically applied powder that is baked on) gets scratched, you have to grind, fill, sand, repaint etc due to the depth difference between the surface and the scratch depth.

Rock rails will get scratched. Period. No matter what you use.

Instead of setting myself up for continual work, I set myself up to take an aeresol can and touch up for 20 seconds after offroading.

I hope that makes sense

[Dragon]

Corey previously said:

They look nice on your rig.
You know those are the same as my Bentups.



In fact I believe Trail Gear makes them for Bentup.
Andy might know for sure.
Bentup is a Trail Gear dealer, so I would think they are the same.

Looks like we have the same cheesey socket set, too.

...no, yours is actually nicer

[Corey]

Those are actualy a $90 or so set of Craftsman sockets I bought about 15 years ago.

I only buy Craftsman tools.

[wesayso]

FJ Dragon previously said:

I have products powder coated every day where I work. Automobile body work is powder coated. Our FJ is probably powder coated 18 gauge A60 galvannealed metal.

...so does your car paint scratch easily? When it does, can you just paint over it? When powder coat (electrostatically applied powder that is baked on) gets scratched, you have to grind, fill, sand, repaint etc due to the depth difference between the surface and the scratch depth.

Rock rails will get scratched. Period. No matter what you use.

Instead of setting myself up for continual work, I set myself up to take an aeresol can and touch up for 20 seconds after offroading.

I hope that makes sense

I agree with you about powder coating. I will probably paint mine also, but I did talk to Line x and they said they would do it for $125.00. Line x should hold up very well and have the added benefit of not needing non skid tape applied to top of rails.