Loving my ROAM frame-mounted side steps/rock sliders

[Jeffkam]

I love these rock rails and they look great. I did have to do a little work to loosen brackets from the frame, get the rail fully seated and attached to the brackets then retighten the brackets to the frame. I’ll look to wire the lights in the future. One challenge for me which I assume is “me” is the rivnuts. For the life of me, I could not get them to compress. I managed to get two installed on the passenger side and ended up buying new stainless steel bolts to run straight through the frame on the drivers side. I even bought an impact wrench which helped me get the two installed that I did. Again...I expect the issue to be me as evidenced by the fact that I did not own an impact wrench (or two 18mm open end wrenches).

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[SeanS]

I also had serious issues with the rivnuts. I ended up buying this rivnut tool (http://www.amazon.com/Riveter-Riveting-Setting-totally-mandrels/dp/B00R1FYLWU/). There are others that are slightly less expensive that might work just as well too. I went from unable to get one started after about an hour using the two wrench method to doing all 6 in about 2 minutes with the tool.

 

[Fastmover]

Picked up my 2 door Rock Rails package from UPS today. Somewhere in transit over the last 5 days they completely pooched the box. The 2 foot part at the bottom is completely detached and was slipping off. It's where the brackets and other small packages were packed. Luckily no damage to what I received. I don't blame Roam for this.

This box held the 2 door Rock Rails. I have the rails....is there anything you see that's missing from my parts pic? That's everything that was in my box. Thanks.

 

[TTEChris]

Picked up my 2 door Rock Rails package from UPS today. Somewhere in transit over the last 5 days they completely pooched the box. The 2 foot part at the bottom is completely detached and was slipping off. It's where the brackets and other small packages were packed. Luckily no damage to what I received. I don't blame Roam for this.

This box held the 2 door Rock Rails. I have the rails....is there anything you see that's missing from my parts pic? That's everything that was in my box. Thanks.

Looks like you have everything. Are there 4 nut plate/brackets in that lower left shrink wrapping?

 

[Fastmover]

Looks like you have everything. Are there 4 nut plate/brackets in that lower left shrink wrapping?

Thanks for the reassurance. I need that bad. I will crack that package open tomorrow and see what's in it.

 

[TTEChris]

Thanks for the reassurance. I need that bad. I will crack that package open tomorrow and see what's in it.

Here are the parts laid out. We just put a set on our 2dr today

 

[Peanut Butter]

I love these rock rails and they look great. I did have to do a little work to loosen brackets from the frame, get the rail fully seated and attached to the brackets then retighten the brackets to the frame. I’ll look to wire the lights in the future. One challenge for me which I assume is “me” is the rivnuts. For the life of me, I could not get them to compress. I managed to get two installed on the passenger side and ended up buying new stainless steel bolts to run straight through the frame on the drivers side. I even bought an impact wrench which helped me get the two installed that I did. Again...I expect the issue to be me as evidenced by the fact that I did not own an impact wrench (or two 18mm open end wrenches).

Too late for you....

But I had the same problem. I get why the rivnuts are required for the passenger side (gas tank is in the way). However, The drivers’ should just come with 4.5” bolt/nuts.

I could not get the rivnut to stop spinning with the included bolt/nut, leading to a drive to Harbor Freight. They didn’t stock a big enough driver. When I got home, I looked on Amazon for the right tool. But, they looked massive and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to set the rivnuts on the top.

So, I watched a couple of YouTube videos and found one with a British guy using a custom made tool to keep the rivnut from spinning. It was just a flat piece of metal with a hole in one end that went between the washer and rivnut. It was long enough to wedge against the frame.

I had a bent putty knife laying around. I drilled a hole in it and used it was my “custom tool”. It worked great. Though, it still required a metric F@&$-Ton of force to turn the nut. I couldn’t use a standard box wrench. I have to add a 1’ bar to the end of it to get enough force to set the rivnut.

Anyways, cheap, simple and worked. Hope this saves someone a few hours and a $100 worth of one-time-use tools.

 

[Fastmover]

Here are the parts laid out. We just put a set on our 2dr today

I have the 4 nut plate/brackets. I haven't counted the nuts and bolts as that package was not torn open. Hopefully they are all there.
Looks like I have everything. Phew!! What a relief. Thank you very much for posting this parts layout pic. It helps a lot too.

 

[Twistedfab]

I can’t stand rive nuts! 2 fails. The rivnut is smaller than hole by like an 1/8 causing it to expand into the whole and not behind it. I gave up for today.

 

[Twistedfab]

What size are the rive nuts anyway? I need to get 2 new ones.

 

[Andy2434]

What size are the rive nuts anyway? I need to get 2 new ones.

They are M12.

 

[Peanut Butter]

I’d just go to Ace and pick up m12x120mm bolts for the driver side and use the left over rivnuts on the passenger side. Save yourself the trouble.

 

[Souki]

Hi,
I am thinkting to buy the ROAM sidesteps as my Rubicon always gets so dirty with the stock rock rails. How ist your experience with the ROAM sidsteps preventing the side of your JL from getting dirty? The Sahara sidestepts do this job quite well, but don't look so good....

 

[Twistedfab]

I think I am going to use 1/2-13 rivnuts. They fit the hole with better and make expanding the rivnut easier. Then I just have to get some grade 8 bolts.

 

[TexasJeeper]

To the ppl that are just using long bolts that go thru the frame. Probably won't make a different but you are going thru a hollow frame and puting clamping forces on both sides of the frame, you probably will be collapsing the frame a bit when you tighten them down. In most cases that you do this it should really have a sleeve that keeps it from doing this.

I tried to use the bolt and nut provided for the rivnut but it didn't workout well for me, probably just user error. I found the the bolt and slightly too big nut with the washers trick worked better.

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