I guess I never posted my comments on the Terrafirma sliders.
I bought a set on a whim last August as I was prepping for my Colorado vacation. For the price ($468, shipping included from Lucky 8), it was a bit more than just an impulse buy for me, but not quite the pill that the Tactical or Proud Rhino sliders are to swallow.
There seems to be a few areas of concern with regard to these sliders, and I'll address them one by one.
First, in terms of the holes for the mounting hardware, they mostly all lined up. The issue is that the mounting hardware would probably all line up if they were all just barely threaded before tightening them up. The problem, however, is that it's nearly impossible to do this as you have bolts coming into the sliders both horizontally and vertically, meaning the vertical bolts need to be snug before you can install the horizontal bolts, or vice versa. As a result, there was one or two holes on the passenger side I needed to enlarge just a little, but I think it all worked out on the driver side once I realized the deal.
In terms of modifying the sliders to get them to fit generally, the passenger side went in without much fuss. There was one hose clamp that I needed to rotate a little, but it rotated pretty easily with a pair of pliers. The driver side, however, needed quite a bit of modification. The issue is the portion of the slider that turns upward and is meant to be installed on the inside of the sill. It came into contact with the compressor and its associated mounts. Not sure if the slider was designed for a vehicle with the compressor removed or what, but there was no way I could install it without taking a jigsaw and removing most of the rear portion of that upward part of the slider.
The third issue is protection. These sliders just mount to the body and not the frame of the vehicle, so they clearly cannot withstand the same abuse (or protect from the same abuse) as either the Tactical 4x4 or Proud Rhino sliders. That said, they are also nowhere near as heavy, and will probably be enough for some slight, incidental contact (i.e. not dragging the vehicle on the sliders). In this regard, on the passenger side they are pretty damn good for what they are. On the driver side, however, they do not to much of anything at all to protect either the compressor or the air tank. To do that, you'll probably need to add something like the APT compressor and tank guards, but I have my doubts that the combination of all that approximates what you'd get if you went with the T44 or Proud Rhino sliders in the first place.
All in all, it was fine for what I needed. At this point, I have the sunk cost of the sliders, so I may go the APT route, particularly because I don't want to deal with the added weight of the T44 or PR sliders 50 weeks out of the year when I wouldn't need them. I'm not doing the Rubicon with this thing--the most ******** I'll go is probably Pearl Pass or Scholfield Pass in Colorado--so the Terrafirma and APT stuff will most likely be the best overall compromise for me.
