Barricade Extreme HD Rock Sliders; Textured Black (97-06 Jeep Wrangler TJ, Excluding Unlimited)

Video Review & Installation

I'm Ryan from extremeterrain.com, and this is my review of the Barricade Extreme HD Rock Sliders, fitting all 1997 to 2006 TJs. Today, we're gonna talk through the installation of these sliders, which I am going to give a strong two out of three wrenches. There is going to be some drilling through the body necessary to get these installed. Although the installation other than the drilling is fairly simple, so I'm gonna go with two out of three wrenches on this. I would set aside a good three hours to get this installed because you do wanna measure twice before you start drilling those holes, so it is going to take a little bit of time. Today, we're also gonna talk through the construction and a few of the features of these rock sliders.These are gonna be for those of you who do some hardcore off-roading and want to protect the rocker panels of your Jeep. The rockers from the factory are left exposed and if you do come down off of a ledge, or onto a stump or rock onto the rocker, it'll push that metal up into your door, which can cause a lot of damage to your Jeep. So protecting those exposed rockers is a good idea if you're going to be doing some serious wheeling. Now, there are rocker guards of all different types that mount to your Jeep in a lot of different ways, but for a TJ, the style like this that attach to both the body mounts and also bolts directly through the tub, are going to be the strongest. And these ones from Barricade also have a couple of bars on them which make them double as a step, which can certainly be helpful when getting in and out of your lifted Jeep. Now, and I don't like this, it's going to provide a lot of protection, it is very functional, it's a very heavy duty, so they are going to be a little bit expensive. However, if you are looking for protection, you are going to have to be willing to spend a little bit more money to make sure that these are going to do the job. As far as construction goes, this is some heavy-duty steel that's bent at a 90-degree angle to go up the side of the rocker, but also underneath and it has some cutouts so that it will slide directly into the body mounts that we talked about a minute ago. It also has all of the holes predrilled across the top that is going to be where you drill through your body and use nut and bolt hardware to attach this directly on to the tub. Again, that's the way that you're going to get all the strength. These are covered in a textured black powder coat finish which will hold up pretty well, but if you're using these for their intended purpose, which is dragging them across the rocks with the full weight of the Jeep on them, chances are that the powder coat is going to plague off. No matter how strong it is, it's just not gonna hold up to that type of abuse. So I would recommend because these are mild steel, to hit them with a can of spray paint when you do have some damage to make sure that they're not gonna rust away on you. If you do keep paint on these, they are gonna hold up for a good long time and provide a ton of protection. Speaking of protection, the bars that are welded on to these rock sliders has steps, are tilted up a little bit. And that is not by accident, that's how you slide off of obstacles as you're using these as rock sliders. Sometimes the bars that are on your rock sliders will be angled down, which can make them a little bit more useful as a step but can also get you hang up when you're on the trail. So all in all, these are built specifically for the trail. These are gonna hold up really well, offer a ton of protection and make sure that you can slide through obstacles without getting hung up. As far as the installation goes, as I said before I am going to give this a two out of three wrenches, there is some drilling through the body required to get these bolted up, and you are going to have to set aside over two hours to get these installed. The first step in the installation is going to be removing the small fender flare that is behind your front tire but in front of your door. Once that piece is removed, you'll loosen up two of the body bolts on your TJ in order to allow you to slide these into place. Then you can slide these new rocker guards into place on the body bolts, and tighten those bolts down once you have these sitting exactly where you want them on the body of the Jeep. From there it's a matter of marking and center punching the holes, removing the rocker guards, drilling a hole through the tub, replacing the rocker guards again and finally, bolting them into place using the included hardware. To get this done, you are going to need your traditional hand tools, you're going to need either a second set of hands or some called jack stands and a jack to hold this in place while you're locking everything up. And of course, you're going to need a drill with some good sharp drill bits. I said before that to get high-quality protection that's going to do its job on the trail, you are going to have to spend a little bit of money, and these are going to be a little bit more expensive than some of the other options out there. However, these are heavy duty, these are built well, they are designed for the trail, so if that's what you're looking for, I think that these are a good buy. If you're just looking for something to cover up existing damage, or you don't plan on doing some real hardcore off-roading and you just like the look of these, then there are some less expensive options that will be quite as functional. So if you plan on doing some hardcore off-roading with your TJ, and you wanna protect your otherwise unprotected rocker panels, this is going to be a really nice option. You are gonna have to drill directly through your tub in order to get these installed. So you can't go back to stock after you install these. However, if you're going to be doing some really hardcore wheeling, this is a great way to protect your tub. So that's my review of the Barricade Extreme HD Rock Sliders, fitting all 1997 to 2006 TJs that you can find right here at extremeterrain.com.