jbehrn
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- JP
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2020
- Threads
- 61
- Messages
- 550
- Reaction score
- 540
- Location
- Montgomery
- Vehicle(s)
- 2022 Jeep Gladiator Rubicon
- Thread starter
- #1
I recently purchased a pair of Bestop’s Granite Rock Rails and I am leaving my honest review of the product. To be fair to Bestop, they were great to work with - their customer service is awesome!
~TLDR - The rock rails look great, are awesome steps and are very sturdy. Unfortunately, the fitment is poor and I couldn’t achieve the desired fitment (symmetry is off for both sides, gaps between the pinch seam are different on both sides) which led to minor damage to my Jeep and ultimately me ret
I ordered a pair on Black Friday and they were shipped quickly, arriving at my door in about a week. The packaging was superb and no damage was found to when I opened the boxes.
Bestop’s instructions for the install are pretty straight forward and easy to follow; they recommend an hours time, but it took me a couple of hours as I was installing by myself. The first issue I encountered was that the brackets that mount to the rails have slots that allow for the rails to be adjusted to the front or back of the Jeep (photo below demonstrates the slot).
There isn’t a reference point to use as a guide so it’s up to you to find the best position; and there isn’t a way to adjust the rail to bracket mounts once the rail is attached to the truck. These brackets are then mounted to the frame using existing holes and the middle body mount:
Bestop supplies various mounting plates and a custom u-bolt that provides a way for the brackets to be securely attached. They also included an handful of metal shim plates for the brackets to be pushed away from the pinch seam. The middle mount is designed to allow for bracket to moved to/from the frame for minor adjustments. Unfortunately this is where I ran into issues. The driver’s side rear mount was flush against the frame without using any shim plates and I had ~1” gap between the pinch seam and the rail:
On the passenger side I encountered the opposite issue - I used several shim plates in an attempt to push the railaway from the Jeep body w/o success. This caused the rail to eat into the side damaging the paint and body metal (barely visible in photo below).
The passenger frame has a bracket that prevents the front frame mount from being fully secured (this wasn’t mentioned in Bestop’s installation instructions); I suppose I could have cut the bracket off - but I chalk this up to poor design:
Here are pictures after the initial install:
In an effort to resolve the fitment issues I removed and remounted the rails several times to adjust the brackets and shims w/o luck.
Overall, I think Bestop could have a quality product in their hands if they spend some time to address the issues I encountered. I really like the look, and I think that the rails are well built (ignoring the mounting issues) and would address my needs. However, I wouldn’t recommend them at this time. Of course, YMMV.
~TLDR - The rock rails look great, are awesome steps and are very sturdy. Unfortunately, the fitment is poor and I couldn’t achieve the desired fitment (symmetry is off for both sides, gaps between the pinch seam are different on both sides) which led to minor damage to my Jeep and ultimately me ret
I ordered a pair on Black Friday and they were shipped quickly, arriving at my door in about a week. The packaging was superb and no damage was found to when I opened the boxes.
Bestop’s instructions for the install are pretty straight forward and easy to follow; they recommend an hours time, but it took me a couple of hours as I was installing by myself. The first issue I encountered was that the brackets that mount to the rails have slots that allow for the rails to be adjusted to the front or back of the Jeep (photo below demonstrates the slot).
There isn’t a reference point to use as a guide so it’s up to you to find the best position; and there isn’t a way to adjust the rail to bracket mounts once the rail is attached to the truck. These brackets are then mounted to the frame using existing holes and the middle body mount:
Bestop supplies various mounting plates and a custom u-bolt that provides a way for the brackets to be securely attached. They also included an handful of metal shim plates for the brackets to be pushed away from the pinch seam. The middle mount is designed to allow for bracket to moved to/from the frame for minor adjustments. Unfortunately this is where I ran into issues. The driver’s side rear mount was flush against the frame without using any shim plates and I had ~1” gap between the pinch seam and the rail:
On the passenger side I encountered the opposite issue - I used several shim plates in an attempt to push the railaway from the Jeep body w/o success. This caused the rail to eat into the side damaging the paint and body metal (barely visible in photo below).
Here are pictures after the initial install:
In an effort to resolve the fitment issues I removed and remounted the rails several times to adjust the brackets and shims w/o luck.
Overall, I think Bestop could have a quality product in their hands if they spend some time to address the issues I encountered. I really like the look, and I think that the rails are well built (ignoring the mounting issues) and would address my needs. However, I wouldn’t recommend them at this time. Of course, YMMV.
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