Rock Rails

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MOPARManiac
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by MOPARManiac » Tue Aug 23, 2016 9:20 pm

Low_Sky wrote:Of all the body-mount sliders I've seen, Randy Ellis looks to have the best one. I would be concerned about drilling that many holes in the rockers with a design that looks like it would trap water and road salt/grime against all those holes. I think they'd be fine in the Southwest, but I'd be worried about my rockers turning to cheese in Alaska or any other place that gets real winter weather. On a completely subjective note, I don't like his sex-appeal marketing strategy. His home page has a scrolling banner showcasing models with bad double entendres about "bolt-ons" and "headlights". What do boobs have to do with rock sliders?
Agreed, that design would cause rust in a hurry.

White Knuckle sliders are the only option.
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by olyelr » Tue Aug 23, 2016 9:56 pm

MOPARManiac wrote:
Low_Sky wrote:Of all the body-mount sliders I've seen, Randy Ellis looks to have the best one. I would be concerned about drilling that many holes in the rockers with a design that looks like it would trap water and road salt/grime against all those holes. I think they'd be fine in the Southwest, but I'd be worried about my rockers turning to cheese in Alaska or any other place that gets real winter weather. On a completely subjective note, I don't like his sex-appeal marketing strategy. His home page has a scrolling banner showcasing models with bad double entendres about "bolt-ons" and "headlights". What do boobs have to do with rock sliders?
Agreed, that design would cause rust in a hurry.

White Knuckle sliders are the only option.
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by Reloaderguy » Tue Aug 23, 2016 10:02 pm

RED pricing is nowhere neer low enough to convince me to Swiss-cheese my rockers.

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Re: Rock Rails

Post by RustyPW » Tue Aug 23, 2016 10:18 pm

If you do any hard offroading. You want frame mounted rock rails. Anything else, you're taking a chance. I've bent the nerf (DOM tubing, 1.75" dia, .250" wall) on the right side, pivoting around a tree stump.
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by OffroadTreks » Tue Aug 23, 2016 10:45 pm

Adam_C wrote:
MikeKey wrote:Just to repeat what others are saying, if you are going to wheel hard, you should invest in the White Knuckle sliders. There is some guy on the FB group who is making knock offs. And I think that is Randy Ellis. He's in Canada so it tends to be cheaper for folks up north.
Negative, Randy is in Phoenix and his rails are nothing like the WKs.

My mistake, the guy I am thinking of goes by Raf Raf (Rafal Wrobel) on the FB Power Wagon group.

This is what his sliders look like

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Re: Rock Rails

Post by Adam_C » Tue Aug 23, 2016 10:52 pm

Here's a closeup of the rivets on the inside if anybody was interested. I get it not many people would want to punch holes in their trucks. I wanted to Line-X the rockers before the install but Randy advised against it due to the tolerances between the sliders and the doors. Before, my doors would just swing closed no problem. Now I have to give them a very slight nudge. All in all, I'm happy with them, and feel pretty confident they will hold up to the "hard offroading" best suited to frame mounted rock rails mentioned earlier :poke: :cheers: But in all honesty, it will be a while before I venture out on those types of trails. That's what my Jeeps are for :rockon:
Attachments
slider1.jpg
Front door
slider2.jpg
Rear door

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Re: Rock Rails

Post by Adam_C » Tue Aug 23, 2016 10:56 pm

Hey MikeKey, anybody post any reviews on those? I was half tempted to have a local guy fab up something similar to the WKs (depending on price) before I decided on the REDs. For a while I was running N-Fab steps and they were perfectly fine.....for steps. I knew the minute I decided to take the rig offroad they were going to get mangled so I pulled them off. Having a bitch of a time selling them :lol:

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Re: Rock Rails

Post by Will » Wed Aug 24, 2016 6:58 am

MOPARManiac wrote:
Low_Sky wrote:Of all the body-mount sliders I've seen, Randy Ellis looks to have the best one. I would be concerned about drilling that many holes in the rockers with a design that looks like it would trap water and road salt/grime against all those holes. I think they'd be fine in the Southwest, but I'd be worried about my rockers turning to cheese in Alaska or any other place that gets real winter weather. On a completely subjective note, I don't like his sex-appeal marketing strategy. His home page has a scrolling banner showcasing models with bad double entendres about "bolt-ons" and "headlights". What do boobs have to do with rock sliders?
Agreed, that design would cause rust in a hurry.

White Knuckle sliders are the only option.
Do you drill holes in the frame for the WK or use existing holes? I understand what yall are saying, I would prep and seal the holes in the pinch weld before mounted anything. I could see any kind of surface damage causing a problem around salt. Prevent it before it's a problem.
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by olyelr » Wed Aug 24, 2016 7:57 am

One existing hole gets used on each side. All remaining 18 bolts go on the top and bottom of the frame, not through it.
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by OffroadTreks » Wed Aug 24, 2016 10:46 am

The RED rails aren't much cheaper than the WK. And they aren't going to keep you away from something. Recently in northern Idaho while in the woods I cut a corner that otherwise my entire rear passenger door would of caught a tree, but instead the WK sliders caught the tree and pushed the truck out of the way. The kick out in the rear did exactly what it's suppose to do.
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by Low_Sky » Wed Aug 24, 2016 11:26 am

Will wrote:
MOPARManiac wrote:
Low_Sky wrote:Of all the body-mount sliders I've seen, Randy Ellis looks to have the best one. I would be concerned about drilling that many holes in the rockers with a design that looks like it would trap water and road salt/grime against all those holes. I think they'd be fine in the Southwest, but I'd be worried about my rockers turning to cheese in Alaska or any other place that gets real winter weather. On a completely subjective note, I don't like his sex-appeal marketing strategy. His home page has a scrolling banner showcasing models with bad double entendres about "bolt-ons" and "headlights". What do boobs have to do with rock sliders?
Agreed, that design would cause rust in a hurry.

White Knuckle sliders are the only option.
Do you drill holes in the frame for the WK or use existing holes? I understand what yall are saying, I would prep and seal the holes in the pinch weld before mounted anything. I could see any kind of surface damage causing a problem around salt. Prevent it before it's a problem.
RED's mounting instructions call for using the slider as the drill guide. You're supposed to clamp it in place, get the outside rivets in place, then drill and rivet the rest of the holes as you go. I suppose you could try to clamp them up well enough to drill all the holes, then remove them and re-paint the holes, but you might end up with alignment problems.


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Re: Rock Rails

Post by FirerescuePW » Wed Aug 24, 2016 11:37 am

On 3G trucks, WK fully clamp around the frame, and there are 2 welded on tabs with holes that the instructions say are optional. You drill the frame and run a self tapping bolt into each one to prevent the sliders from moving on the frame. I'm not sure that they would, but I drilled them anyway.
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by Adam_C » Wed Aug 24, 2016 9:06 pm

MikeKey wrote:The RED rails aren't much cheaper than the WK. And they aren't going to keep you away from something. Recently in northern Idaho while in the woods I cut a corner that otherwise my entire rear passenger door would of caught a tree, but instead the WK sliders caught the tree and pushed the truck out of the way. The kick out in the rear did exactly what it's suppose to do.
I see what you're saying, which is why I added the tube option. Well that, and I wanted something to step on. They stick out about as far as the WKs on my friend's 2016....at least by my aging eyes measurement :lol: No doubt in my mind these wouldn't act as a pivot. But yes, not much cheaper than the WKs. I have nothing but love for the WKs, but I'm pretty confident these will hold up to the same punishment.

You decide on something yet scoutermike?

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Re: Rock Rails

Post by MOPARManiac » Wed Aug 24, 2016 9:36 pm

Will wrote:
MOPARManiac wrote:
Low_Sky wrote:Of all the body-mount sliders I've seen, Randy Ellis looks to have the best one. I would be concerned about drilling that many holes in the rockers with a design that looks like it would trap water and road salt/grime against all those holes. I think they'd be fine in the Southwest, but I'd be worried about my rockers turning to cheese in Alaska or any other place that gets real winter weather. On a completely subjective note, I don't like his sex-appeal marketing strategy. His home page has a scrolling banner showcasing models with bad double entendres about "bolt-ons" and "headlights". What do boobs have to do with rock sliders?
Agreed, that design would cause rust in a hurry.

White Knuckle sliders are the only option.
Do you drill holes in the frame for the WK or use existing holes? I understand what yall are saying, I would prep and seal the holes in the pinch weld before mounted anything. I could see any kind of surface damage causing a problem around salt. Prevent it before it's a problem.
The ones designed for 2010 up until they changed do not use any holes. They sandwich the frame with the mounts/bolts going above and below the frame.
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by usmc369 » Wed Aug 24, 2016 10:41 pm

2014's up utilize one hole on each side, rest are clamped. (WK)
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by adeluca73 » Thu Aug 25, 2016 11:34 am

It's an issue of strength. Drilling serial holes longitudinally along sheet metal (regardless if it's the thicker pinch weld area), mounting heavy steel beams, and then exerting vertical forces (upward normal force of rocks vs the W=mg force of the truck) creates a stress fatigue concentration problem. Von Meiss stresses in the area of the fillets increase dramatically, leading to surface failures, which propagate through the material as cracks or possibly from deformation yielding. All of this is exacerbated by salt/water leeching between the dissimilar materials fomenting an environment for galvanic corrosion to stage a material insider attack. They might work fine for dry desert climates w/moderate use, a good option if you don't mind drilling a bunch of holes & if they were really cheap in comparison to WK.
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by Mr.Smith » Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:38 pm

^I love this...hahahaaa! Well played Sir, well played!

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Re: Rock Rails

Post by jseal5757 » Fri Aug 26, 2016 10:02 pm

i have a set of raf raf sliders and they are awesome. I'm very happy with them and they were half the price of wk because I'm in canada and he's close to me so no shipping or anything. And they are strong, i will be testing them next spring in moab. I'm very excited to see how they do.

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Re: Rock Rails

Post by scoutermike » Fri Aug 26, 2016 10:31 pm

Do you have a link to contact Raf Raf? I am also in Canada. The deep south.....
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by jseal5757 » Fri Aug 26, 2016 10:34 pm

just on fb i have it. he is located in calagry alberta.

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Re: Rock Rails

Post by Redman1973 » Sat Aug 27, 2016 6:06 am

Look at my photobucket link below. It gives you an idea of what I can do... I am heading back to Jacksonville NC in about 6 months. If anyone wants bumpers or rock rails just hit me up. My price is that you drive down to me, buy the medal which cost me roughly around $350 for the medal and another $50 to rent the welding shop and all the tools... build... And after the build we run to Uharrie and hit the trails (optional). I was able to build both front and rear bumpers with the medal I bought. I took me two weekends to build everything.

Rock rails would only take one day to make... Then another day to install.

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Re: Rock Rails

Post by scoutermike » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:43 pm

Anyone have a link to Raf Raf from Canada?
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by jseal5757 » Wed Aug 31, 2016 4:16 am


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Re: Rock Rails

Post by scoutermike » Wed Aug 31, 2016 10:36 pm

Thank you very much.
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Re: Rock Rails

Post by bdk » Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:52 pm

I need a set of steps for my truck and I'm looking at getting a set of white knuckles. I don't really wheel my truck right now but I like the idea of having the extra protection from side impacts and in the future I plan to build my truck into an overland style rig. Right now I really just need to make it easier for my wife and kids to climb into the truck as it is our primary family vehicle. My question is how well do the WK function as steps? They don't appear to sit low enough to help much as they were primarily designed for protection not convenience.

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