Review & Install Video
I'm Ryan from extremeterrain.com and this is my review of the Smittybilt SRC Classic Rock Rails available with and without the step, available for all 2007 and up JKs.
Today we're gonna to talk through the installation of these steps which is a very simple one out of three wrenches because these are designed to bolt directly onto your jeep. We're also gonna talk through the construction and a few features of these steps. These rails are available for both your two door and your four door JK, and the ones without the step look very similar to an OE style Rubicon rail.
Something I really like about these rails is that they finish off the otherwise unfinished pinch seam of the Jeep. They do a really nice job of making the profile view of the jeep look a lot more finished and the version of these with the step also provide a useful way to get in and out of your JK whether it's lifted or of stock height. Now, these aren't going to provide quite as much protection as an OEM Rubicon rail because of the way the mounts are designed, however, they will still provide a good bit of protection certainly against door dings and some light off-roading. And, again, if you get the ones with the step you have that added functionality as well.
As far as construction of these rails themselves, they are very well built. In fact, the four door version with the step that we have here weigh in at 88 pounds, so, you can see there is a lot of steel here. One of the nice things about these compared to some of the other Rubicon style rails on the market is that these have molded steel end caps. A lot of the other ones will actually have a plastic end cap instead. One down side to that is, depending on your suspension and tire set up, if you decide you need to trim these rails for tire clearance, of course, you won't be able to easily remove the plastic end cap, cut it, and put that end cap back on. With these, if you want to retain the end cap, you'll have to make your cut and then do some welding to put everything back together.
Like I said before, these are steel covered in a textured black powder coat finish to help resist rust and corrosion, and the version with this step does provide a very useful step. Although, of course, with these steps being mounted right onto the Rubicon rail, the step is a little bit higher up than a tubular side step would be. So, these are really more of a balance of protection. And the step is a little bit more of an add on versus a full tubular step which is going to hang a lot lower, be a great, very useful step, but also provide very little protection.
Now I mentioned before that these aren't going to protect the Jeep quite as well as a true OEM Rubicon rail, and the reason for that is right here in this mount. The Ruby rail has an additional bend in it that provides some more strength from this piece here straightening out when you really drop the Jeep off of a ledge onto a rock. This does not have that so you could get a little bit more flex out of these then you would out of that OEM Rubicon rail. So, that is something to consider if you're doing some lighter off roading, you want to step, you want some door ding protection, these are going to be more than enough. However, if you want some really hard core off road protection, maybe you wanna run these either in conjunction with some other rails or pick a rail that has a little bit more structural integrity as far as the mounts are concerned.
So, as I said before this is a very simple one out of three wrench installation because these are designed to be completely bolt on. The first step in the installation is removing any side steps or rails that you may currently have installed on the Jeep. Of course, these are not going to work with any of those other rails.
Once those are removed, you can remove the body bolts that are along the rocker of your Jeep...that area directly below the steps and set your new rail into place. These have a couple of studs that will go through the existing holes in the pinch seam and these tabs here will actually line up with those body mount bolt holes. From there, you can use the included hardware to put over the studs through the pinch seam and reinstall your factory body bolts through your new rails and then up into their existing OEM locations.
Now, something to consider with these rails is to run a tap over all of these studs. These studs can have some powder coat on them right out of the factory, and it can make it a little bit difficult to get the nut over the stud. You certainly don't want to cross thread anything, so running a die over top of those threads will clean them up and make sure there's no powder coat. You get all of the hardware in place nice and easy. This whole installation shouldn't take you more than two hours and you won't need any specialty tools to get it done, just some hand tools and as I've mentioned before, if you have a tap and die set that will certainly help.
I think that these rails are fairly priced for what you get. As I mentioned, they're not going to be quite as much protection as an OEM Rubicon rail because of the way that these mounts are designed, however, these are also going to be less expensive than an OEM Rubicon rail if you're purchasing one new from Jeep. If you can find a Ruby rail that's a take off from somebody, you might be able to get a pretty good deal on 'em, but these are going to be brand new right out of the factory. They do have the welded ends which adds a little bit of structural integrity, and is otherwise a pretty nice feature unless you want to go ahead and cut the rail. So, I think that these are a really well-built piece that look really nice, and serve their function all for a price that's really fair.
As I said before, these are available both with and without the step, and if you decide to get the version with the step they're about $100 more than the version without. So, if you're looking for that added functionality, again, I think $100 is well worth it.
So that's my review of the Smittybilt SRC Classic Rock Rails available for all 2007 and up JK's that you can find right here at extremeterrain.com
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