After having Rick Norman of NAXJA trail test these for me all over the Southwest (home of big rocks) and beating them hard at Moab, it looks to me like a set of Kevin's XJ1 Extreme Duty Rock sliders® protects much better laterally and as good or better from underneath as any other name brand heavy-duty slider designs that I have seen out there.  I have seen several rocker panel protectors bend upwards and crush the rocker panels on the Jeep.  You certainly don't want to have your rocker panel protection crush under the weight of the Jeep when coming down hard on a rock, so my design utilizes a very thick tube so that you get much more surface area to absorb the impact from the rock, and as a bonus the outer rail offers a step for accessing the roof rack. 

 

During the design process, I decided that I also wanted them to stick out a little further than what was on the market so I could protect the doors from large rocks when trying to squeeze between a "rock and a hard place".  After all the trails I've run, I STILL haven't gotten any body damage on the doors!!!  (the bumpers are another story, LOL!)  Rick hasn't hurt them yet after over a year of abuse on some of the hardest-core trails in the Southwest!  If you want proof, check out the "sliders® Club" gallery. 

Let's talk about design for a moment.  I've gotten some questions from potential customers about my design versus various competitors' products, and as soon as I explain the reasoning, they are far more able to make an educated decision.  First, there is no pinch seam mount on our design, which makes the install go easier, but makes most people just gasp and think that they must be weak, lol.  First of all, even if I *WANTED* a pinch seam mount, Jeep varied the distance between the frame rails and the pinch seam over the years, so it's nearly impossible to have a fixed length leg that will fit EVERYONE'S rig.  So, what I did was sit down to come up with a BETTER idea by re-thinking the common conception that you NEED one.  So, why do you need a pinch seam mount?  Well, it's to fight the forces of gravity on the rocker panel protection (so they don't fall of your Jeep), to fight the forces of gravity of YOUR weight when you stand on them, and to "pre-load" the rocker panel protection tightly against the bottom of the Jeep...that's all.  It's *NOT*, as common conception would have you believe, to support the Jeep upward when the rocker panel protection hits a rock!  If a rocker panel protection design DOES need the pinch seam mount for that reason, they are asking your pinch seam bolts/hardware to take the entire blow, and you're asking a *LOT* of that thin metal that the pinch seam is made out of if you elect to do so.  The ENTIRE BODY of our Rock sliders® distributes that upward force over the entire rocker panel area because it's mounted flush against them, rather than concentrating the upward forces onto the pinch seam, like other designs available on the market today.  Because our sliders® are mounted TIGHT against the rocker panel and the 2" wide rail is 60" long, when you slam down on a rock, the upward forces are distributed across 120 square inches of rocker panel.  So, if there is a 120 lb. upward force, essentially there is 1 lb. of force per square inch on the rocker panel.  240 lbs of upward force means 2 lbs. of force per square inch and so on.  It's real easy to understand why these are one of the strongest and most effective designs on the market, and at the price, the best "Bang-For-Your-Buck" you're going to find.  Other designs that attach to your pinch seam only require that 240 lbs of force to be distributed through several bolts "in shear", meaning that the bolt is horizontal to the force vector, just like you are cutting them with scissors.  In this design, you are asking several bolts to hold the Jeep away from the rock, rather than asking the body to distribute the forces over the entire rocker panel.  NOT a good idea.  Oh, 1/4" of deflection.  That's the amount of movement that these sliders® have downward when I stand on them with my 225lb frame, and when I jump up and down on them, they deflect no greater than 1/2" if they are mounted according to the install instructions HERE.  So, if anyone tells you that you HAVE to have a pinch seam mount in order for a set of rocker panel protection to be strong, link them to this page so that they can understand the forces at play.  In the hundreds of these that I've sold, I've never once had someone tell me that the bolts have weakened over time or that they have more downward deflection than they used to. 

Secondly, some manufacturers are touting using 1/4" thick hitch steel, adding an extra 40-50 lbs to the weight and additional shipping, but after extensive testing, we've found that my triangulated design with .188 and .120 wall steel is MORE than sufficient, saves on shipping, and will last you many many years of usage. 

Regarding cost, I figure that you can't go wrong!  The more price comparisons you do, the better a bargain these become. These are at the bottom tier in pricing and upper tier in protection! These come ready-to-paint and are easy to touch up after banging into rocks.

 Due to the ever-increasing cost of powdercoating, and until I have an extra $100k laying around for our own powdercoating setup, I've discontinued the option to have them done prior to shipment.  There are two options: you can search around and see if a local company will get you taken care of (paint or powdercoat) or you can order up a set of JKS SuperNerfs HERE.  I recommend using a good quality primer like Krylon and then an overcoat of semi-gloss black Krylon.  Another option is POR-15, but I've never used it, so can't give you much in the way of advice there.  Bear in mind, however, that ALL coatings, powdercoating or otherwise, will come off when scrubbed on a rock.  The nice thing about using Krylon semi-flat black spray paint is that you can touch them up when they get scraped on a rock.

So, if you have decided that you absolutely cannot live life without a set of Kevin's Offroad Rock sliders®, you can now order online. (please include your phone number). 

SALE PRICE GOOD THROUGH THE END OF THE MONTH

Install Instructions HERE