Hi I’m Ben from APT. One of the most common accessories fitted to vehicles these days are rock sliders. And for good reason, not only do they protect your sills and your lower extremities, they also protect your doors. The APT Land Rover Discovery 2 rock slider design not only provides you with a step to get into your Land Rover Discovery 2 but also rock solid protection for your lower guard and your door sills. The fully encapsulated sleeve section spreads the load across your sills and prevents sill separation. New premium quality fixings are supplied so all you need are a couple of basic hand tools and you are on your way. So what do you get?
Fully encapsulated sleeve: Replaces the plastic Land Rover Discovery 2 sill 350 MPa Australian 4mm plate steel laser cut, precision brake formed, mig welded.
Rock Rails / Tree Bars: 350 MPa Australian steel tube 42×4.0mm laser cut mig/tig welded. These attach back to the sill sleeve in four points.
Optional Tread Plates: 5005 Australian aluminium plate 100x3mm laser cut and reverse dimple died.
Bolts: Sealed rivets and M10 8.8 zinc plated high tensile bolts and nylocs.
The APT Land Rover Discovery 2 Rock Slider replaces the factory sill so we need to remove the plastic sills via the retainers; these are the entire way down the sill. The tools for removing the retainers will be a flat bladed screw driver, a pair of slide cutters and a 10mm socket. We will start at the back of the sill on the driver’s side and work our way forward. Firstly there is one secret screw that we remove with the flat blade to expose that thread. And after that we need to pop the clips all the way down to the front, this is where I use the flat bladed screw driver and then the side cutters. Once you have removed all of the internal clips, there is one more sneaky bolt at the front of the truck that you need a 10mm socket for to get off.
Once the factory sills are removed, it’s a good time to wipe down the sills. If you are working by yourself you are going to need some type of help or mechanical means to lift the sill into place. Today I’m just going to use the jack. You will notice a ‘cut out’ on the rock rail side of the sliders, this is to be lined up with the door pillar. Position the slider in place with the encapsulating sleave surrounding your sills and use the jack to lift the sliders as high as possible. Try and line up the two holes closest to the door pillar with the two holes in the encapsulating sleave. There are four bolts to fit the sliders each side of the truck. So we need to do is reach under the sills and find the corresponding hole in the sill then use your 10mm drill and clearance all four existing holes so they are ready for the 10mm bolts to go through. Next climb underneath the truck and do the same on the inside of the sill. To get the bolts to go the whole way through the sill, we need to drill the inside of the sill ourselves. So using the existing holes in the sliders as a pilot and a 10mm bit, drill through the four holes. Once all eight holes are drilled (four inside / outside) it is a good idea to give each of the freshly drilled holes a good squirt with Lanolin. Once done, wipe the excess off the outside so it does not get too messy. So we should now have the slider jacked into place and the four holes drilled ready for the installation of the bolts. The bolts go through from the outside with the nut and washer going on from the inside the truck. Loosely start all four bolts, nuts and washers through their relevant holes to hold the slider in place. Once all four bolts, nuts and washers are started I’m going to remove the jack to give myself some space.
You will notice that we still have some open holes. These it’s good to be able to get a hose in there from time to time and give the sills a good clean out as they can get filled with mud.
Now for the tightening sequence we are going to use a 16mm spanner a 17mm socket. It doesn’t really matter which bolt you start first but here is a handy little hint. As the socket goes around it can rasp marks on the powder coat so we will use the socket on the inside where no one can see any marks and we will leave the spanner on the outside. Tighten off all four bolts and remember that the sills are fully encapsulated in the sleeve so you can really get all four bolts really nice and tight.
So there folks you have done it. Rock solid protection for your sills and lower doors done in your driveway at home. I’m Ben from APT, if you have any question give me a call or email me. I look forward to seeing you out on the tracks. To find out more visit the Land Rover Rock Sliders page on our website http://www.aptfabrications.com.au/land-rover-rock-sliders
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