fridayman
Well-Known Member
Once you start using your LC offroad like it is supposed to, you very quickly realise that the side steps, are just steps. Very soft bendy steps, that offer very limited protection to the body sills.
I looked around and there are not a lot of options to upgrade. There are a few types of slider available in Australia, but most people in the UK end up getting them custom made (or make them themselves). So when Gary (J66P) said he was thinking about making and selling them, I was pretty near the front of the queue.
When they arrived in bubble wrap I had a good chuckle thinking about what these are, and what their life was going to be like. The bubble wrap was probably more for the benefit of everything around them.
The special coating that Gary had done is the business!
Removing steps:
So first thing was to get the old bent steps off. This is very easy and takes about 5 minutes each side. There are 3 brackets holding each step on (all 6 of mine were bent too). The middle and rear brackets have 2 bolts each and the front bracket has a bolt & a nut - all are 12mm.
I wish we had under body car washes in this country like they do in Australia... Each time I work under the car my eyes are scratchy and blurry for hours afterwards from all the mud and dust falling in my face.
The rear bracket is hooked over this peg...
... and the front bracket rests on this bolt, so that the step doesn't fall off when you undo all the bolts.
Driver side step removed in no time at all.
Same procedure on the other side.
I like to keep these bolts. They should clean up nicely and it would be nice to have some spares as these are used all over the truck e.g. the bash plates.
Fitting sliders:
This is what comes with the kit (not the tools):
Note the longer bolts go on the front (where the chassis rail is wider)! The K4 badge is a nice touch - I am just deciding where to mount it, but on the side of one of the steps seems the obvious place.
I started on the passenger side. If you want to do the easy side first, begin with the driver's side.
I used axle stands to line them up.
At the rear it looked like the cables and connectors mounted to the chassis rail would need to be relocated.
They ended up just being annoying but OK where they were.
Once I had it lined up perfectly using my hands only as my vision was a hazy muddy blur by that point... I realised that the bolts wouldn't go through the holes because of the coating.
This was quickly sorted with a drill and 10mm bit.
There is some tubing running along the chassis rail, with just enough room to slide the bracket in between the tubing and the chassis rail.
The same tubing toward the front:
Some of the bolts went on the outside of the chassis rail and some on the inside because: a) the lower hole on the mounting foot is very close to the slider arm, so you won't be able to turn a nut on this side (I prefer to hold a bolt still while I fasten a nut with a washer):
(I used the small hammer to knock the front bolt into position - see the marking on the coating where it caught by a fraction of a millimetre)
and b) there was not a lot of room to get the front top bolt in once the slider was near its mounting position. It would be possible, but then I wouldn't have been able to get a socket on the nut because of the tubing on the inside of the chassis rail.
Once all the bolts had a washer and a nut on the end I lined it all up before fastening them. I could only just get the two mounting plates to squeeze in between two seams on the chassis rail. I wasn't sure if applying pressure to the welded seams would be a problem, but preferred to spend a bit of time positioning the plates so that I wouldn't worry about it.
Rear plate:
And front plate (you can just see the seam at the bottom right of the plate):
And rear all tightened up:
Then over to the driver side which is more or less the same story, but a lot easier without the tubing in the way (and with some of my vision returning). On this side there is the exhaust at the back (not a big problem):
And the body was very close to the chassis rail at the front making it difficult to get my 1/2" ratchet in there, so I used a 3/8" with a flexi joint before nipping it up with an open ended spanner:
The driver side took less than half the time of the passenger side.
Here is the end result:
I am very pleased. Very pleased indeed. Thanks Gary!
I looked around and there are not a lot of options to upgrade. There are a few types of slider available in Australia, but most people in the UK end up getting them custom made (or make them themselves). So when Gary (J66P) said he was thinking about making and selling them, I was pretty near the front of the queue.
When they arrived in bubble wrap I had a good chuckle thinking about what these are, and what their life was going to be like. The bubble wrap was probably more for the benefit of everything around them.
The special coating that Gary had done is the business!
Removing steps:
So first thing was to get the old bent steps off. This is very easy and takes about 5 minutes each side. There are 3 brackets holding each step on (all 6 of mine were bent too). The middle and rear brackets have 2 bolts each and the front bracket has a bolt & a nut - all are 12mm.
I wish we had under body car washes in this country like they do in Australia... Each time I work under the car my eyes are scratchy and blurry for hours afterwards from all the mud and dust falling in my face.
The rear bracket is hooked over this peg...
... and the front bracket rests on this bolt, so that the step doesn't fall off when you undo all the bolts.
Driver side step removed in no time at all.
Same procedure on the other side.
I like to keep these bolts. They should clean up nicely and it would be nice to have some spares as these are used all over the truck e.g. the bash plates.
Fitting sliders:
This is what comes with the kit (not the tools):
Note the longer bolts go on the front (where the chassis rail is wider)! The K4 badge is a nice touch - I am just deciding where to mount it, but on the side of one of the steps seems the obvious place.
I started on the passenger side. If you want to do the easy side first, begin with the driver's side.
I used axle stands to line them up.
At the rear it looked like the cables and connectors mounted to the chassis rail would need to be relocated.
They ended up just being annoying but OK where they were.
Once I had it lined up perfectly using my hands only as my vision was a hazy muddy blur by that point... I realised that the bolts wouldn't go through the holes because of the coating.
This was quickly sorted with a drill and 10mm bit.
There is some tubing running along the chassis rail, with just enough room to slide the bracket in between the tubing and the chassis rail.
The same tubing toward the front:
Some of the bolts went on the outside of the chassis rail and some on the inside because: a) the lower hole on the mounting foot is very close to the slider arm, so you won't be able to turn a nut on this side (I prefer to hold a bolt still while I fasten a nut with a washer):
(I used the small hammer to knock the front bolt into position - see the marking on the coating where it caught by a fraction of a millimetre)
and b) there was not a lot of room to get the front top bolt in once the slider was near its mounting position. It would be possible, but then I wouldn't have been able to get a socket on the nut because of the tubing on the inside of the chassis rail.
Once all the bolts had a washer and a nut on the end I lined it all up before fastening them. I could only just get the two mounting plates to squeeze in between two seams on the chassis rail. I wasn't sure if applying pressure to the welded seams would be a problem, but preferred to spend a bit of time positioning the plates so that I wouldn't worry about it.
Rear plate:
And front plate (you can just see the seam at the bottom right of the plate):
And rear all tightened up:
Then over to the driver side which is more or less the same story, but a lot easier without the tubing in the way (and with some of my vision returning). On this side there is the exhaust at the back (not a big problem):
And the body was very close to the chassis rail at the front making it difficult to get my 1/2" ratchet in there, so I used a 3/8" with a flexi joint before nipping it up with an open ended spanner:
The driver side took less than half the time of the passenger side.
Here is the end result:
I am very pleased. Very pleased indeed. Thanks Gary!
