How long to install rock sliders?

[Lyon]

Specifically the Rover Specialties variety. A year ago it wouldn't have mattered but with a 9 month old baby around my time is not my own and needs to be scheduled a lot more closely.

Anyway, there will be two of us working on it and neither one of us is all thumbs with a wrench. What kind of time for installation am I looking at here?

 

[zdas04]

I did the first one by myself and it took 4 hours. My wife "helped" with the second and it took 9 hours--not really, I couldn't resist the cheep shot. With someone there to hand me tools it took a couple of hours, but I was pretty tired by that point.

The biggest problem by far is keeping the rubber grommets on the posts. I had to drop the slider a half dozen times to reposition the grommets back on the first one. On the second one I slathered heavy grease on the bottom of the grommets and they only fell off once.

Also I didn't have a torque wrench and broke one of the small bolts. Next day I bought a torque wrench and about half the bolts were WAY too tight and half were pretty loose. A $16 torque wrench is pretty cheep way to get it right.

Good luck, I'd expect two competent people with a pair of floor jacks to be able to do it in a couple of hours--the instructions are really good.

David

 

[Lyon]

Thanks David, I only have the one floor jack but I think that your little tip about using a heavy grease to "stick" the grommets to the posts will be useful and I'm glad to hear that I'll need the torque wrench; I was on the fence about getting one but I'll be swinging by Sears or something tomorrow and grab one.

Phil

 

[zdas04]

When you go to Sears, get a second floor jack. It will save you way more time than it will cost. Also, I forgot to say, I found that a movers trolley (3 ft square platform on 4 steerable wheels) really works well for getting the slider lined up before you jack it into place. You can position the sliders with the floor jacks, but they usually have two fixed wheels and two steerable wheels and manipulating the sliders into place with them can be awkward (that is where the grommets fell off most of the time when I couldn't get the jacks to move smoothly on the first slider).

David

 

[Lyon]

That's not a bad idea. I can use the second floor jack when I swap tires. That way I can do one end at a time. As for the furniture dolly well I'll look at into getting one!

 

[Boaz]

I paid a shop to put mine on, and they did it with two guys in slightly under 2 hours. They said they were the easiest to install sliders they ever put on a Rover before. They put the LR3 on a lift about a foot off the ground, then one guy just "bench pressed" the slider up in place, while the other guy bolted it on. No jacks used to lift the sliders themselves. Here's a link to the photos of the install if that helps.
http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q132/boaz63/Sliders/

 

[Lyon]

I paid a shop to put mine on, and they did it with two guys in slightly under 2 hours. They said they were the easiest to install sliders they ever put on a Rover before. They put the LR3 on a lift about a foot off the ground, then one guy just "bench pressed" the slider up in place, while the other guy bolted it on. No jacks used to lift the sliders themselves. Here's a link to the photos of the install if that helps.
http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q132/boaz63/Sliders/

I figured it out on Friday. It wasn't technically difficult but I was trying to do it on uneven asphalt and it was difficult to get the thing to line up correctly. I can only imagine what kind of a hoss that guy needed to be to bench press one of those sliders up and hold it up while someone else bolted it on.

 

[flysurfer]

I paid a shop to put mine on, and they did it with two guys in slightly under 2 hours. They said they were the easiest to install sliders they ever put on a Rover before. They put the LR3 on a lift about a foot off the ground, then one guy just "bench pressed" the slider up in place, while the other guy bolted it on. No jacks used to lift the sliders themselves. Here's a link to the photos of the install if that helps.
http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q132/boaz63/Sliders/

Thanks for sharing pictures. What option did you choose? Looks like option II? Did you have to drill holes or something? Or is it simply bolt in?

 

[Boaz]

I figured it out on Friday. It wasn't technically difficult but I was trying to do it on uneven asphalt and it was difficult to get the thing to line up correctly. I can only imagine what kind of a hoss that guy needed to be to bench press one of those sliders up and hold it up while someone else bolted it on.

They're only about 100 pounds each. I hope most of us could still bench only 100.

 

[Boaz]

Thanks for sharing pictures. What option did you choose? Looks like option II? Did you have to drill holes or something? Or is it simply bolt in?

Yes, Option 2. I didn't want the full skid plate all the way out. Mud an water just flow through this way. Spiker has the Options 3's though, and there are good drainage holes. I just liked the #2's better.
No holes need to be drilled. They are made to bolt on to the frame itself into existing holes. Piece of cake.