Valhalla's cat plates & RCI Slider Compatability, TL;DR - Yes

A few weeks ago, a question came up here regarding Valhalla's cat plates and compatibility with RCI's bolt-on sliders.

Out of the box, the answer is yes, however, just barely. A minor tweak to the rear cat plate should make it work just fine. The photos here are from a '21 CrewMax, and I sort of have no idea about other years or models, and the cat plates themselves are Valhalla's 3/16" aluminum version.

The front of the rear cat plate has two slots. The rear cat plate is fits in-between the front cat plate, a spacer, and the cross member; a long bolt sandwiches it all together.

The rear of the rear cat plate uses a Z-bracket to mount to the frame. Because RCI's slider covers the frame, you must mount the Z-bracket over the slider as it cannot mount underneath. That naturally puts the Z-bracket about 1/4" further out and 1/4" down than intended.

To get the Z-bracket to align with the bolt hole on the rear cat plate, you can see in the photos that my Z-bracket is as far back as possible; it is flush against the leg of the slider. I also had to push the rear cat plate as far forward as possible.

As you can see, it fits; however, the whole assembly is not square. None of this is evident unless you're sort of underneath the truck.

The bolts that Valhalla includes to mount the Z-bracket to the frame won't fit because RCI's bolts are a smaller diameter. You will need to get a larger washer or stack washers since the oval hole on the Z-bracket is large and the head on RCI's bolt is small. You can re-use your existing bolt from RCI; however, swapping to a 7/16"-2" bolt is probably better.

Last, since the Z-bracket ends up 1/4" further out on each side, you'll need to put a bushing in-between the bolt where it mounts to the rear cat plate. The bolt Valhalla includes for this is long enough to accommodate that bushing.

My recommendation would be to notch those two forward slots of the rear cat plate about 1/4" to allow it to be positioned forward a bit more, thus making that Z-bracket square. I plan to do this when time and energy permit and/or when I find someone who has better tooling to cut the thick plate. Alternatively, you could notch the Z-bracket itself or make your own Z-bracket, but that is a lot more visible should you make an ugly cut.

In summary:

- (2) larger 7/16" washers to account for the large-diameter oval hole in the Z-bracket
- (2) 7/16" x 2" bolts recommended, but not required
- (2) 1/4" bushings for the 2 bolts that affix the Z-bracket to rear cat plate mount, I think these were 3/4" bolts
- Notch the rear plate about 1/4" additional

I suspect that Tyler may modify his design to accommodate this, it seems like a no-op to me to have a little additional fore-aft play. This may be N/A for future internet searchers. +1 to @Classy63 for what seems like a well-built product.

 

Hey, @Classy63 -- I can confirm that a quarter-inch was more than plenty to get better alignment on that Z-bracket, everything looks nice and square now.

 

I’m super glad you figured this out, means I can probably buy a set! @Classy63 any chance you’ll make the change? Or, would it just be easier for me to have someone do it?

 

So, I have been thinking about this, and here are my thoughts. For 99% of people who buy my plates, the fitment currently is great, and adding that extra 1/4” would make for some finagling instead of slap it in until it hits the bolts and go. Also, taking out about a 1/4” of material really isn’t bad, and it can be ugly because no one will ever see it.

So in summary, I’m sorry but I won’t be making a change

 

No need to be sorry, that makes total sense. After talking with @clarkritchie, it sounds like notching that 1/4 inch out is super easy. He also said the exact same thing about the cuts potentially being ugly haha. I’m not too worried about appearance since they’re for a utility use.

Keep up the good work, don’t mind dummies like me.

 

@clarkritchie

Very nice write up, and your pictures are spot on. Any chance you have some good pics of the sliders installed?

 

Yo @Kratos, Here are three, happy to answer any specific questions you may have.