If you’re anything like us, you’ve probably dropped some serious cash on a shiny new Jeep or other 4x4 for you and your family. Or maybe you spent the last couple of years lovingly restoring your Jeep CJ7 to better-than-factory specs. While they are indeed beautiful machines, these rigs are meant to be driven and pushed hard. The last thing anyone wants is to back off a fun trail for fear of ruining their new pride and joy or the labor of love you spent many months wrenching on. What's the point of all that work if you can't enjoy it?
Big rocks, steep hills, and sharp breakover angles are a part of Jeep life, and they should be a fun challenge, not a source of fear. Adding a little bit of body armor to your rig is probably the best solution for this problem, but adding heavy protection is a balancing act.
Add too much weight to an already heavily packed rig and your vehicle will be sluggish and handle poorly. On the flip-side, forgoing any armor at all on challenging trails will likely result in expensive bodywork damage (not to mention drivetrain). So where’s that fine line? Well, rock sliders are considered by many to be an essential piece of protection.
The Purpose of Rock Sliders
The primary use case for rock sliders is to save your bodywork from trail damage. Big rocks, felled trees, ledges - they all pose a threat to the underside of your vehicle, more specifically your rocker panels. Most factory running boards and lightweight side steps will offer a little bit of protection, but it usually only takes a few hits before they bend and end up damaging bodywork anyway. Rock sliders are built to support the vehicle's entire weight as they slide over those obstacles, sparing your sheet metal.
Adding to this, most also function as side steps for climbing into your rig. These vehicles are leaving the factory taller and taller before we even get our hands on them and start pushing them up even higher with lift kits and big tires. On top of just making climbing in and out easier, these will also give you a good leg up for strapping gear down on the roof, and to get your gear back down when the time comes. Big spare tires and full gas cans are heavy enough as it is. Truth be told, 99% percent of the use your rock sliders will see will be as an extra sturdy step ladder, and we’re OK with that.
Depending on your vehicle and preference, most rock sliders either bolt/weld directly onto the frame or sometimes bolt to the bodywork itself, as is the case with the tubs of our Jeeps. Either way, the job is the same, to take the hit from rocks and give a smooth, resilient surface to slide across without taking your factory bodywork with it. It’s a simple job, but not necessarily an easy one.
Do You Need Rock Sliders?
As we hinted at above, the two key questions for you regarding rock sliders center on the kind of trails you see and the weight of your setup. True rock sliders, like those from Poison Spyder or Evo, are robust enough to hold up the weight of your rig over large obstacles. That usually means they tend to be quite heavy when using steel (aluminum options are available to help offset that weight). Be sure to calculate carefully with the mass of the rest of your build in order to decide where the added weight should go.
Another important point is to think about the trails you frequent most often, and those you seek out when you're traveling far from home. Do you prefer more rock-crawling challenges over exploring fire roads? Are you exploring out in remote areas where trail data is in short supply, and you might find unexpected obstacles? Then rock sliders might be a solid investment for you.
