Home made rock sliders

foresttracks88

Forum Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2013
Messages
25
Location
pakenham, Vic
Hey guys,

just wanting to know if anyone has attempted to make their own rock sliders and install them on to their subbie.
I am thinking of doing it today to mine but it doesnt look like my 99 forry has a chassis to mount/weld it to.

just wanted to see if i could get any advice prior to wasting my day lol

cheers

PS. ill post up pics if i end up doing it, hopefully i get the thumbs up from you guys. Oh and im not worried about losing ground clearance or anything like that.
 
Its an interesting idea, I've thought about it a little and gone off the idea as the unibody chassis (body forms chassis like in most cars unlike 4wds) has too much flex and twist. Just get one wheel in the air and open the boot (I had to get my recovery gear out) and you'll find out the boot won't close from all the body twist.

Maybe it would work to make sliders that sit on the sills on rubber mounts to isolate it from twist. I'd talk to an engineer first though about how that'd stiffen the body and if that could be dangerous I've no idea.

Some sort of extra protection would be great, I've been known to have to stamp back down the floor pan after a days drive on the tracks
 
^ I guess that's why Subaru added a number of extra subframes to the SG and beyond, Id. Also stiffened up around the passenger cell. This probably accounts for tales that the articulation isn't as good ...

All the doors and boot lid open and shut with the SG even if it's parked at ridiculous angles (or off road suspended somewhere ... ). Haven't tried it with the SH, but I understand that its body shell has been strengthened again over the SG.

Monocoque construction bodies are generally far stronger (particularly torsional rigidity) than cab/chassis construction. Also much easier to build in safety features such as pre-determined crumple rates and the like.
 
I think some people have purchased/made rock sliders but I havent seen any for SF foresters. As you have said there really is not a heap to attach them to. I think there are a lot more important parts of the car to protected before you do rock sliders.

Number 1 on the list is a sump guard (if you still have the plastic one that is). I have a home made sump guard which is awesome and IMO the single most important mod you can do to your forester. There are commercial ones available but I think mine is better.

If you are keen I might do fuel tank protectors as mine have dents and are 6L down on capacity... Rear foot wells are also prone to being bent up as idw said.

After all that I might look at rock sliders but I dont think they are really worth it. I have damaged many other parts of my car doing some pretty crazy rock driving and the sides are all still fine.
 
Well Blinky is a bit of an outlier as well, since at some time early in its life (before i bought it and maybe 11 years ago) he's had a hit in the rear d/s quarter and front door and been fixed properly , paint wise whats been repainted is the only part no de-laminating (thanks subaru!!), putting on my towbar i found the bolts are .75mm out on each side, nothing a sledge hammer to the towbar couldn't fix before it went on.

But i was thinking rocksliders wise, if you could make a frame the car's sills sat on it might work, but there's the downside there all the extra weight, and the frame keeping the sliders together is just another thing for the underbody to get hung up on when navigating obstacles. But I think it could be done! (famous last words), maybe by tieing into as many mounts on the bottom as possible there's the gearbox cross member,diff carrier etc. I mean the sills are designed to carry the cars weight they are the jacking points after all, that sitting sliders on them should be fine if the sliders have a frame that supports themselves, I'd like to hear some other peoples opinions on this. I personally think thought its more work and effort than I'm prepared for, and the usefulness would out-weight the benefits. Fabbing a 2'' lift has only cost me $80 i haven't finished cutting and welding it yet, But getting the underbody further out of danger is probably better in the long run then sliding over it. With my raised springs and bigger tyres vs. dedman's 2" strut lift and raised springs, dedmans deffinately got a more capable and useful lift.

Might be worth looking into sliders made for the tj jeep wrangler and how they are mounted as i know they mount to the body rather than the chassis for the swb. Sliders could probably be done if thought out properly before hand (which is the opposite of how i tend to fab things, i design as i go)

My next mods are probably a fuel tank protector.
 
Superu Legacy Did some rock sliders on his Legacy (Liberty) by welding a length of angle to each sill. I like this idea, plus adding tabs to the slider so flat sheet could be bolted to the undertray for as much of the full length of the car as possible. This way I could slide down tracks without worrying about damaging anything. It would also make the underside more aerodynamic which would increase fuel economy (I know, it adds weight but a lifted Foz sucks a lot more juice, IMO due to more air going under the car & increasing drag)

idw said:
Sliders could probably be done if thought out properly before hand (which is the opposite of how i tend to fab things, i design as i go)
Click to expand...

Dedman said:
:rotfl:Thats how I roll
Click to expand...

idw said:
Pfft I've seen you work, there's no design involved just a big hammer and some steel plate! :raspberry:
Click to expand...

Lol :rotfl:
 
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