blackbetty14
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2014
- Posts
- 2,769
- Reaction score
- 1,548
- Location
- CT
- Ram Year
- 2024
- Engine
- Hemi 5.7 VVT/Etorque
Let me start off stating that I had rivserts/nutserts. If your going to do that u get a threaded **** and weld it in. But in our case you don't really have a choice. But you always have the issue of the rivserts pulling out of the thin rocker panel.
So I decided to install my Father's Day gift without using 1 damn rivsert! Took the better part of 6-7hrs but that also includes removing the old steps and brackets. And once I figured out the mounting it was easy peasy.
Side note, I was very unhappy to see "made in China" on the Westin box. I thought for sure I would be getting a American made product and Chinese powdercoating is usually absolute garbage. Step box was beat up and ripped at one end but the steps survived and only had a few small scratches/chips. So now sure what I want to do about that. Bracket design is meh, and I wish they would have reinforced the fronts off the body mount bolt like my old steps to help with flexing. I also had a huge gap on the driver front bracket where it bolts to the bottom of the rocker weld point. Like 3/16-1/4" where I drilled out some 1/4" nuts to make up the space otherwise it would have pulled the bottom in and chipped all the paint off. Not real happy about that. I will say besides some flexing (6'1" and 200lbs) they look damn good and I'm happy with the looks at this point. Hope the powder coat stands up to NJ winters and salt we use.
I used some old bolt tabs from the old steps and modified the new ones to work together. Without the old bolt tabs it would have just required some 3/4"X1/8" or 3/16" thick steel. Drill one hole and tack weld a bit for the thread of your choice. So it would only cost u about $8 to make your own with lots of material left over.
Anyways I let the pics do the talking. I'm going to have to go back in and reduce them as I'm sure they will flip and do weird **** once uploaded. I used not one rivsert.
So I decided to install my Father's Day gift without using 1 damn rivsert! Took the better part of 6-7hrs but that also includes removing the old steps and brackets. And once I figured out the mounting it was easy peasy.
Side note, I was very unhappy to see "made in China" on the Westin box. I thought for sure I would be getting a American made product and Chinese powdercoating is usually absolute garbage. Step box was beat up and ripped at one end but the steps survived and only had a few small scratches/chips. So now sure what I want to do about that. Bracket design is meh, and I wish they would have reinforced the fronts off the body mount bolt like my old steps to help with flexing. I also had a huge gap on the driver front bracket where it bolts to the bottom of the rocker weld point. Like 3/16-1/4" where I drilled out some 1/4" nuts to make up the space otherwise it would have pulled the bottom in and chipped all the paint off. Not real happy about that. I will say besides some flexing (6'1" and 200lbs) they look damn good and I'm happy with the looks at this point. Hope the powder coat stands up to NJ winters and salt we use.
I used some old bolt tabs from the old steps and modified the new ones to work together. Without the old bolt tabs it would have just required some 3/4"X1/8" or 3/16" thick steel. Drill one hole and tack weld a bit for the thread of your choice. So it would only cost u about $8 to make your own with lots of material left over.
Anyways I let the pics do the talking. I'm going to have to go back in and reduce them as I'm sure they will flip and do weird **** once uploaded. I used not one rivsert.
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