These sliders will work on all SRW 3500's and 2500 models
Last week I got my new Maple Wagon rock sliders. Let me tell you Neil is great people. The sliders went on fairly straight forward, just remember they are HEAVY!!!!! First off, they are put together very stout. They have 3 mounting legs that attach directly to the frame with half inch 1x3 plates (I'm sure maple will correct me if im wrong) that are gusseted very well (see pics below). From there the legs going down to the slider/step support are 2x2 steel box tube. They come down at a slight angle to position the slider about an inch under the body panel. From there each of those 3 legs are attached to a single box tube 2x2 that runs the length of the slider front to back for 99 inches covering from the front fender opening to the rear. The kick out bars and the guard bars forming the outside of the step are made from 2 inch .150 (same construction as DOM but not the dimension so it cant be called as such) wall tubing, its big and stout. All this is attached to the frame with half inch grade 8 bolts. I have no doubt that it will protect my truck if i ever need it.
As to the kick out and the protection bars, the outside bar is one piece front to back, instead of other brands where the back kick out is separate. Being a single piece I can see could provide more strength by eliminating a break point or a weld joint. The support bars are all short directly between the outer bar and the support tube. My sliders were the first made with diamond plate tops, which I wanted for protection from thrown rock living in Houston. The diamond plate looks very sharp as well as giving my family a bit of a step to use getting into the truck.
On to the install. I received mine in bare metal and took them to my local powder coat shop, if you live in Houston, Mojo Tones
MOJO Powder Coating did my sliders and I would highly suggest calling Ron for any powder coat jobs. Once I got them back from the PC shop, I did the install single handed. One thing you must know is that there are some brake line bundles and a fuel line that must be moved to bold up the sliders and make room for the sandwich plate (pictures below). Once those plastic tabs have been pushed off the frame, mounting is very straight forward. I did it solo with the use of a floor jack and jack stands.
The front foot plate is really the locator for the step, or so it would seem, it just so happens to fit perfectly into the frame splice that is under the driver door. This is where the brake line bundle lies, the plate goes directly under this, pop it away and the plate slides right in place. The middle and rear bars are a real bear to get to with the fuel tank so when the first foot goes on and has the bolts placed, it kind of keeps things more secure and still. (I worked from the middle of the truck so I was not under a suspended load) To get the plates and nuts on next to the fuel tank, you either need to remove the skid plate or have long arms ( I used the latter). Once the bolts are in place being nylock bolts, tighten to around 70lbft torque, enough to clamp these things down but not enough to bend the sandwich plates.
The passenger side is much easier to install with one caveat, there is a grounding stud where the middle foot goes, 5 minutes with a Dremel tool and a small cutoff wheel worked great. I also happened to be doing my muffler at the same time as my sliders so I did the muffler first to provide more room.
The sandwich plates do have an oblong hole on the top, which allows for a bit of adjustability, so once I got everything nice and snug, I took my flood jack and pressed it up till it all looked level with the body line. After doing that I tightened the nuts and bolts down to make it fast and semi permanent. As a test of install, I took my floor jack and picked up the whole side of the truck and It maybe deflected less than a half to a quarter inch. I am very impressed.
