After having a small issue with the lack of sliders on my 08....
I just had the rock slide engineering sliders installed on my 11 CTD.
After doing a lot of research of what was available out there for either power wagons or CTD like mine, I found that there were not a lot of options.
I looked into fabbing something that mounted to the frame rail, but because the rocker panel of the truck is only 1" or so above the level of the bottom of the frame rail, anything that I mounted there would have to dip down and either hang a few inches below the rocker, using up precious ground clearance. or dip down and then come back up. Either way, it would look stupid or would waste a lot of space. Not to mention that the outside of the body is 15" away from the outside of the frame, creating A LOT of leverage that would push a frame mounted slider up into the body.
So, for me, mounting to the frame was not a viable option. And also from a purely cosmetic standpoint, round tube, doesn't at all match the lines of the truck.
There are quite a few "nerf bars" or Tube steps out there for these trucks. After looking a a dozen or so different kinds, including the ones available from Mopar, they all mount to the body, on the back side of the rocker. Using the factory threaded holes there. These are for the most part sturdy enough to stand on and do the job of being just a step just fine. But none of them would come close to supporting the truck. Either the material of the step it's self wouldn't hold up, or the single plane mounting would deform too much.
That led me to the rock slide sliders. I liked the fact that they didn't take up any of my ground clearance. I also liked that being 3/16 plate steel and being supported by 2 different mounting planes they seemed very sturdy.
There was some worries about being mounted only to the body, but then I realized that Jeeps have been doing this for years, and even brand new Jeep JKs use body mounted sliders. I of course realize that my truck weighs a lot more than your average Jeep, but the proof of concept was there.
I was able to watch the entire install process, and I was very pleased with the outcome. The sliders tuck up tight against the body, and along the bottom of the rocker, so, I'm only losing ground clearance of the 3/16 thickness of the slider. Then since I do live in Utah, and the winter salt on the roads is a concern here. I had the installer add a bead of silicone along the entire slider mounting, front and rear. This will keep any water/salt/mud either from running down the side of the truck and behind the slider, or any of the same being flipped up by the tires. I will of course keep an eye on this and re-apply as needed, if ever.
Now... Do they work? Short of finding a large rock to scratch up my new sliders on.....
I had the installer lift the entire truck my just the sliders. The front arms of the lift would not shorten enough to get the pads on the sliders, so he used some rubber mats to set the sliders directly on the lift arms, and the pads were just chilling in the void between the slider and the frame.
Picture of the front lift arm on the slider and the lift arm pad in the void
There was no distortion at all of either the slider, or the body.
However, even being a heavy truck, everything was spread out over 4 lift points. So I had him remove all the lift arms but one and under the front passenger side of the slider lift the truck until both passenger tires of the truck were off the ground.
Again, no distortion of either the body or the slider.
Now, the issue of the bed.
I have thought a lot of what to do here....
You can't mount anything really to the frame because of the leaf spring mount, and the frame rises right behind the cab.
And you can't connect the cab slider to the bed slider because they have to move independently of each other. I'm not sure how much, but even Dodge saw fit to leave at least an inch and a quarter gap at any given point between the bed and cab.
I spoke with rock slide about this. They offered to extend the slider to the rear wheel well. But didn't want to attach it for obvious reasons. The slider would still be ridged there but it would essentially be floating out in space. And with out either leaving a rather large gap or having the chance of crushing the bed side when the cab and the bed flex independently.
I saw the pictures posted of the ADD steps/sliders, and while theirs do go all the way to the wheel, they are still just floating there and offer minimal to no actual protection.
If anyone has a practical solution for this, I'd love to hear it. But other than purely cosmetic, or a flatbed.... I don't see a decent solution.
So, my solution for this is..... Be a good driver, be careful, and use a spotter if/when you are in that type of situation.