OEM vs ridge demon

OEM rock sliders are a great design but it is not executed properly. One reason is the tube surface area that the brackets cover. To help under stand better I'll explain it like this, if you take a piece of paper and push the eraser on a pencil through it you will need a lot more force to push it through than the sharp lead end of the pencil. This is because the area that the eraser covers vs the area that the sharpened lead end covers is much greater and disperses the force over a larger area. This works the same on the rock sliders. The small skinny bracket that the OEM sliders have is focused on a very small area of the tube where the ridge demon rock bashers disperse the forces over a much larger area. This greatly increases the chances of the tube not bending.
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OEM slider covers less than 3/16" of surface area on the tube including the weld
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Ridge demon rock bashers covers almost 3/4" of the tubes surface not including the 3"+ of the gussets.
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And on both sides of our gussets which the OEM's do not contain at all.
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OEM rock sliders don't weld both sides of the most critical brackets on each end lessening the surface contact area even less.
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Ridge demon rock bashers put a nice fat bead weld and all four sides of each bracket, top, bottom and both sides greatly increasing the surface contact area. The other big advantage to this is that there are no crevasses for debris and moisture to set allowing corrosion to start.
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You will also see this on the extension fins in between the tubes. OEM only weld one side.
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Ridge demon rock bashers weld all 4 sides on eacd tube, top bottom and both sides.
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And also on each side of the fins on our 1/4" bash plate which OEM's don't have.
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OEM sliders have open ends and weep holes on the bottom. This is fine but water and mud still get inside them clogging the weep holes and allow water to sit which is how rust starts.
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Ridge demon rock bashers close the tube off completely keeping mud and water out so they will last much longer than OEM's.

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Bracket size
OEM mounting brackets were clearly designed with cost in mind. They are just too small and do not cover enough area.
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Ridge demon rock bashers use the proper gauge steel which is much larger than the OEM's. Even with the OEM's in the foreground of the picture you can see the size difference.
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OEM sliders do not stick out from the body leaving the doors open for unwanted damage. Ridge demon rock bashers stick out from the body of the H3 keeping the likelihood for body damage to a minimum. Also keeps people from opening their doors into your door. They will get the door damage instead.
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Awesome explanation Brodie. You usually get what you pay for and this pictorial sure illustrates that. If you are going to invest in sliders RidgeDemon has the best on the market.

 

I don't need an explanation....

I saw a guy (purposely) land on a rock so hard he broke the rock and almost chipped a tooth, even complaining he hurt his back and neck with the impact....

and only scratched the paint off of the rock bashers....

 

Very nice! I was just looking at a set of OEM ones yesterday, guess Im going to scratch that idea! What finish do the RidgeDemon have on them and what is the cost of a set?

 

go to Ridge Demon

Brodie used to offer them in raw steel or powdercoated. Not sure what the options are now. They are more expensive than OEM or RR but they are also much better.

 

go to Ridge Demon

Brodie used to offer them in raw steel or powdercoated. Not sure what the options are now. They are more expensive than OEM or RR but they are also much better.

 

So who all has expressed an interest in these?

 

A handful saying that they are saving up. I've sold 10 now for the H3T and 2 for the H3.

 

I just saw a post from the owner of set #7 on another forum. He ordered his set unfinished and had just installed them. Very happy customer. He was very impressed with the quality.

 

I saw a few posts on these rock bashers and made my mind up this was the best product on the market and wanted a set. Emailed and got:

"We are currently closed. We will reopen again before the end of Q1 2013. Sorry for the inconvenience."



NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I don't want to settle for less, but need something to protect my panels