Westcott Designs = Trash!!!!!!

Some of the reply's in here are absolutely hilarious. I wonder what would happen if some of you accidently wandered off of the pavement and had to use a set of sliders or skid plates for what they are intended for??

 

So you ignored the 1 year powder coat warranty at the time of purchase?

 

Come again? The local company I spoke to felt that the sliders weren't properly prepped hence the rust already appearing. Folks, if I drove this thing every day I'd probably feel a lil different. It's kept clean, it's serviced, etc. Guess my expectations of customer service are on a different level,..... Got it 1 yr warranty....

 

I own the ladder and the roof rack from wescott, been over 3 yrs and I live in hot Texas, the ladder has a couple of spots but what's the big deal, all of these things will do this eventually. Touch it up and drink a cold one.

 

I do own several of their products and one of them being the DOM sliders with tig weld and top plates. 3 years later and you are complaining about rust spots living in NY. Is Westcott suppose to offer a lifetime warranty on their products???

Have you ever been to their shop and seen all the different stages of quality control each product goes through? Jeff is a very stand-up kind of business owner and always tries to make things right when a customer is not happy with his products. There is always two sides to every story and knowing Jeff and how he operates I put my trust in him 100%.

Maybe try a different company where they mass produce all their items and maybe you will get better service down the road. For me and thousands of other 4runners and Toyota owners we will stick with WD anyday of the year!

 

I live in NY as well. Rust is inevitable here, unless you under coat religiously. If you don't intend to use it for what it is made for. Just post it for sale. Get an aluminum slider and call it a day.

 

Do you live where there is salt put on the roads, or on gravel?

 

Unrelated to OP's post but your truck looks sweet with the rack delete and the roof black. I generally don't like aftermarket wheels, but those really tie the room together, too. I give you two snaps up in a circle!!!!

 

As someone who spent the better part of a week trying to properly prep a pair of tube steel sliders, one thing becomes pretty clear. It’s just as much work as fabricating the sliders.

Aftermarket companies making sliders have to decide if they’re making armor, or cosmetic accessories. For actual armor, it just doesn’t make much sense investing in the equipment and processes needed to ensure OE levels of corrosion resistance. You can only really do this at huge mass-production scale, otherwise the costs of proper prep would be prohibitive.

There are some companies that only sell them in raw steel, to avoid the disappointment, But most throw on some powder coat probably from customer demand. I would imagine they don’t sell very well unfinished.

But here’s the thing, I don’t think it’s possible to do perfect prep and powder coat. You can do pretty good on most things that don’t have to suffer gravel impacts (my warn bumper is still rust free), but pretty good isn’t enough for sliders if you live in the salt belt. If you get one tiny hole in the powder coat from road gravel on one spot where the adhesion is not perfect, it’s game over. Within a year or two, rust starts to separate the paint from the steel, allowing more water in, more rust, and on it will go underneath the powder coat.

My powder coated Caliraised sliders looked way worse at two years of age (rust unrelated to “sliding”). Local touchups by scraping bubbled coating with touch ups didn’t do much. By the third year they looked horrible. But once I started stripping them down, I realized they were actually 10 times worse than they looked. That’s because the gnarly, deep rust lives under the powder coat that hasn’t flaked off. Those are the areas where salty moisture is held to the metal and never dries out. I’m embarrassed to say how much time I spent stripping, removing rust till it was bright and shiny steel, then prepping it for new paint. It was enough time to know that it wasn’t worth the effort. Would have made more sense to buy unfinished sliders, prep those for paint, and paint them with a good primer and rustoleum spray paint. Thinner paint is much easier to maintain/touch up. It falls off easier when it rusts from gravel chips, which means the rust wont travel behind the paint.

The only thing that will actually reduce slider’s vulnerability to rust is to prevent gravel/road grit/rock salt impact. That means the front tires need large mud flaps. Much larger and longer than the factory ones.

 

I agree. Maybe even a z formation is in order.

 

I appreciate that you got the reference!

 

Powder coats are never really very good and the prep is ridiculously important. I'm revisiting looking for skids, and am leaning RSG do to what looks like good quality. But IDK. Victory 4x4 has a removable top plate which is awesome when they eventually rust or get damaged from use.

Just looked at Westcott and remembered this thread. Really doesn't look like bad rust yet, but concerning enough to spend extra on something better. Looks like its a very thin powder coat.

 

I'm going to quote myself like a weirdo.

BUT, I feel like the way most of us use our 4Runners, aluminum sliders are the answer. No rust, all the aesthetics, ding prevention, steps, and can take a hit if you do slide into something. I don't really see the reason to strap on 80+ pounds of potentially maintenance intensive metal when there is a better alternative for lighter duty use. Sure, can't use a farm jack, but farm jacks are dumb with again, better (safer) alternatives.

I also find it funny when I see a 4Runner with sliders but no armor anywhere else. It's like somebody thought sliders were cool without really understanding what they are used for.

 

....

I’ve used my sliders on trees, but don’t have any aftermarket armor yet. At this point sliders seemed better use of my money, than armor.