I called and ordered a set of Sliders for my Xterra on Tuesday and they were delivered by UPS on Friday.
Thank you Calmini for the prompt delivery and great customer service.
John Medley

Mine took two months!

Just arrived the other day though, glad the wait is over.

what exactly is a slider? Any pics of this thing in question?

Body Armor that protects the rocker panels, can be used to "slide" over rocks and a hi-lift jack point among others things.

Picture shows Snoopy using the CALMINI ones to successfully navigate a fun rock garden

Or you can use them to pivot your truck around an obstacle if you have ones that protrude far enough away from the body panel. (non-Calmini pictured)

It all depends on the obstacle.

The EOE sliders are 2x4" tubing, CALMINI are 3x2" tubing, others are 2x2".

I'm sure there are plenty of rocks out there that even a 2x6" slider wouldn't get around.

I have had no problems pivoting around many rocks, and prefer the fact that the CALMINI sliders offer an extra inch of ground clearance and don't hang so low and wide, yet I'm still waiting for a cool 2" tubular design like Olympic 4X4 makes for Cherokees, except the Xterra door has too little body below it.

Great picture Toolbox! I have had no problems with the CALMINI sliders. My rocker panels are completely free of expensive dents thanks to CALMINI!

Well not exactly...



but close.

I saw those on your truck during the last run in San Diego at Corral Canyon - they look sharp.

Pretty obvious a custom fabrication, but where did you get them done?

Dirty Parts.

I still think that the EOE sliders stick out too far..

Negatives for EOE:

More levered force on the frame due to the fact that the protrude out farther. (I think there have been some reports of this about tweaked frames)
Gets you dirty when you exit the vehicle (again due to the protrusion - just like the OEM rails)

Positives:

Great place to step to get to the roof
Can use a Highlift Jack on them
Protects from rocks (but don't they all?)
Lets you pivot around trees and rocks that are so far away from the truck they would never touch anyway.


Negatives for Calmini:

Not as easy to use a step for the roof (there is a bit of a ledge and if you don't have Yetti feet you can use it - but hey these are rock sliders not step rails, right?)

Postives:

Closer to the body/frame which reduces stress and levered force on the frame (this comes into play when you actually hit something)
Higher from the ground (less chance to drag them on something)
Can use a Highlift Jack on them
No annoying messy pants leg when you step out of the truck
Can be used to pivot around rocks and such to avoid nasty body damage

For the record I have neither of these designs. But have seen both in action.

Carlton, how do you use a hi-lift on the Calmini slider?

Also, under negatives, you forgot that they don't protect against tall obstacles (like the one in Schlud's pic). Dunno about the trails in your area, but up here we seem to pivot around large trees, stumps, rocks and other obstacles quite often.

We have members in PNWX with the Calminis, and they love them. So do I, for the fact that they don't look so damn ugly. The EOE's (and our own custom sliders, seen here ) do a great job but IMHO they ruin the look of the truck.

Has anybody attached their sliders to the pinch seem also. The Cherokee designs usually attach
to the pinch seem,and actually have a piece of steel the rests under the body of the Jeep to distribute any force from a hit. My Cherokee sliders are like that, and they are way bomb proof. I literally dropped my jeep on the passenger side slider, and it saved me a ton of damage. I just recently built a set for the Xterra, and I used 3x2 tubing with 2x2 tubing for the "legs". I was thinking about attaching them to the pinch seem for extra support????

The Calmini sliders work just like the Fabritron sliders that I have. You open the door and place the jack where you want to lift. I have done this on my sliders more times than I would like to admit.

This is good for the reason that if your jack does shift instead of banging the crap out of your door is simply lays over without any damage to the body. (although I do not believe that this has happened to anyone - be it Calmini, Eoe or Fabratron)

I may not have as many trees as you do, but my sliders (which are tucked in as much as the Calmini sliders) have never failed to protect me from tree stumps (that plus carefull driving and proper tire placement).

It is true that the EOE sliders will allow you to be more careless in your driving when around abnormally large tree stumps and such but I still perfer having the bars closer to the vehicle. ( I think of is sort of like the outriggers on some boats.. when you get good enough with your tire placement/balance/whatever you don't need something sticking out that far to help you around things..)

To each their own.. If you are happy with them and they do what you need then great.

man, that red Xterra on your slider page kicks ass!

Aww... I have seen better.. wink wink nudge nudge

Nice passive agressive dig there Carlton. How about just giving Jens and I credit for knowing what we need on our trucks where we wheel without chalking it up to some lack of driver skill or carelessness.

On my last trip, the Canadian sliderz (that Jens is talking about) proved to be better as they stuck out even more than my set. This is because of the off-camber trail and obstacles we were coming across on the side of a mountain.

I'll go for too much, rather than hope just enough is adequate for where I wheel. I realise that some people need them more for coming down on rocks, and then a higher set might be more applicable. We don't get a lot of rock gardens here. We get big rocks and stumps that have to be negotiated around usually right at a nice off-camber section of a trail.

All of the models available have advantages and disadvantages. It just so happens that nearly all of the trails here in Washington are cut for Wranglers (some even feel like they were cut for Samurais), and they have alot of hazards such as Jens and Schlud described. At the expense of a little rocker clearance, and perhaps a little more potential leverage on the frame rails, we have sliders that suit our terrain better, regardless of driver ability.

Exactly.

Roger Brown's do; the 5' of pinchweld is leveraged via 2"x2" length of box steel & there are angled "ladder rungs" that connect to another 2"x2" box steel which sits higher off the ground than the piece of steel under the pinchweld.
Great design & best value I believe.
Link HERE
Also, check out his modded 4Runner...methinks he knows what he's doing WRT mechanical design.
Just ordered mine

LAXterra...that was meant to be a compliment!!!

Those sliders look better and seem more functional than most I've seen on the market. I figured the only way to get something like that was custom.

I thought it was just me reading it that way. :rolleyes:

I figured that you of all people would have appreciated that after your years of doing it here on XOC and the other Xterra boards :p

Not really, they don't attach to the pinch weld, the tubing just sits underneath it.

In an impact, that can damage the seam.

You've got the wrong Ian.

Do I?