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The Adventura Company recieved a special package in the mail a couple of weeks ago. Well, a very big package. It came from Shrockworks down in Texas in the form of new sliders for our Xterra Project. Rock sliders are perhaps the most important part of armor on any vehicle doing offroad traveling. They protect those costly to replace rocker panels along the bottoms of your doors. In most cases we beleive that sliders should be strongly considered as a first upgrade on any adventura vehicles. Many 4x4 shops and welding shops can fabricate them according to your vehicle for varying prices. We had heard good things about Shrockworks and decided to go with them. To find out how our install went and the resulting field test (yes we scratched them up on some big rocks) click the Read more link. * Note:* Step rails are NOT rock sliders. The damage caused by trail obstacles can actually be increased by most factory and after market step rails. Generally these step rails are made of thin materials that bend and break easily. Rock sliders offer true rocker panel protection, and in many cases can double as step rails.
Quick Stats Product: Rock Sliders Application: Protect underside rocker panels of offroad vehciles; Step rails; Parking lot protection Installation Difficulty: Easy - Some minor drilling required on some models Manufacturer: Shrockworks Manufacturer Website: http://www.shrockworks.com/
It felt a little funny plunking down over 400 bucks (after s&h) for some metal tubes. To save some money we ordered the bare steel bars (-$50.00) and painted them ourselves. The powder coat would have looked nice but we figured it would be getting scratched of onto the trail anyways. Our order came in just over 2 weeks, although some people have claimed to have waited much longer for sliders. The time of year may have something to do with this. As with most outdoor and offroading products, ordering during the spring months means the possibility of being on waiting lists. Prepping and Installation Before we could slap these bad boys onto our truck they needed a little prep work to prevent rusting and for looks. The literature recommends an Acetone wipe down of the steel first. After allowing the steel to briefly dry in a ventilated place for a brief while we primed all of the steel black with Dupli-Color flat black Sandable Primer. Make sure to get everything covered. 
After priming we need to actually paint the steel. Shrockworks recommends the usual paint products once again. This is where we went our own direction and took a risk on Krylon's Wrinkle Finish product. The idea was to add a good looking weather proof coating that was slip resistant onto the step rails. The product does need to be applied fairly thick and it was a challenge to get that thick even coat onto the tube sections. It took us several coats to get the texture thick and close to even. In the end buying 2 cans barely covered our tube sections and the underside of the square sections with a good texture - mileage may vary. 
After letting the sliders dry for a solid day came the actual installation. I installed them without any help but an extra pair of hands would have moved things along more quickly. If you are working by yourself make sure to have something to prop the sliders onto as you work under your truck. The instructions provided are pretty straight-forward and should get most people through the task, although the pictures are not very clear. You will need some standard size wrenches or sockets, and a decent drill with a 1/2 inch bit that can handle steel. You will need to drill two holes that are marked out by hanging the sliders from your frame and marking the holes if you are installing onto an Xterra. We highly recommend pulling the sliders off to drill these holes, although it is not required. Don't drill these holes until you have adjusted the sliders where you want them exactly. Once everything is in place torque down all of the bolts and you are set to go. Don't forget to double check all bolts and nuts after a couple weeks! Field Test Field testing vehehicle armor is pretty simple. Just run it through some abuse. With an Xterra running at stock height on a Colorado trail this was not that hard to accomplish. 
At the end of a 1 night adventura we found ourselves very glad to have the Shrockworks sliders strapped on. We could hear the sliders catch the ground about 4 or 5 times when driving over the break over point of bumps, hills, and large rocks. Carefull investigation of the underside of our Xterra following these ordeals showed scratches along the underside of the sliders but no damage to the vehicle itself. Except for the scratches (some went through the paint texture to the steel and some did not) there was no damage to the heavy duty sliders. Looks like they did there job well and held up pretty dang well. Some notes on performace for this product: We enjoy having the step rails for climbing into the vehicle and for accessing the top of the roof rack and cargo bin on the Xterra. They are sturdy and the wrinkle finish gives us sure footing. The wrinkle finish holds dirt a bit better than smooth paint we figure, but it is not bad. I am ok with taking scratches and dents on the trail, but parking lots dents anger my soul greatly. These sliders will give enough damage to a careless car door to cause the parking lot criminal to think about their actions. 
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