DewHawk
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Rob
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2021
- Threads
- 16
- Messages
- 614
- Reaction score
- 1,221
- Location
- Aurora, CO
- Website
- www.instagram.com
- Vehicle(s)
- '21 JLURD, '04 M3
- Occupation
- USAF F-16 Crew Chief
I'm gonna be biased here and say Metalcloak Overline rails.
I had Smittybilt Apollo's before which were super cool and didn't take a ton of effort the customize or bolt on (to the frame), but my Overlines 100% will kick the snot out of them without breaking a sweat and take their lunch money for fun.
They are purely body seam mounted as opposed to using frame or body bolt style mounts. That might sound like a huge fail but consider my perspective for a moment (even if it sounds bat $hit crazy). What is the primary area you're trying to prevent damage from with rock rails? The body, right? If you reinforce the body impact area rather than attach something that curls over it that while attaching to the frame, you've got a little more room to clear over obstacles while still protecting the impact zone itself. Jeep wasn't totally crazy when they designed the factory rock rails, they just didn't give it enough strength. That's where Metalcloak picked up and decided to beef up what the engineers were thinking without being constrained by the accounting department. Credit where credit is due, there are a TON of great options out there that will MORE than cover you if you gotta rub over some boulders by pivoting on the rails (Next Venture Motorsports rails are amazing but require permanent welding). If you can get damn near the same kind of protection with a simple bolt on install, wouldn't that be worth exploring? That was my thinking. I've yet to really bang the absolute snot out of my rails to put that theory to the test, but I have yet to see where this design has failed to do exactly what it was designed to do.
Again, I'll admit I'm biased, but for good reason. Metalcloak doesn't put garbage on the market that doesn't hold up to abuse. Unless you're trying to out crawl purpose built buggies on trails rated for experts, I really don't see why you would need more than this. I'm sure there's gonna be plenty of owners that will pipe up as to why it's a waste of money, but until I see physical proof stating otherwise, I'm gonna keep rocking them without any worries on trail.
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