NXTGEN Cross Terrain Steps (Rock Rail Steps) installed

[NXTGENAutomotive]

Here are a few quick points for those who are curious:

1) These are the only fully modular system ever created. We are not the only rail step, but we are the only drop-down clamp-on that can go anywhere on the rail.

2) The patented clamp is made to stay on for full clearance in many situations. As such, the step comes off the camp very quickly and easy if you need full clearance. If you are doing rock crawling where the slider will be sliding on rocks often, then the clamps come off too.

3) Many Gladiator customers only do front steps, here are some customer pics shared with us:

This is a Wrangler, but the customer wrote us about a condition that made getting in and out hard. Our steps were specifically chosen because of the flexibility in placement. Other steps for the standard rails so far have relied on using the pinch weld bolts for stability so the locations to place are fixed. They pushed the front steps way back for their specific needs. You would not norally see steps positioned there without our one-of-a-kind clamp system.

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[CST7081]

This is great information and visuals!! I will be ordering a pair very soon. Thank you!-Steve

 

[NXTGENAutomotive]

This is great information and visuals!! I will be ordering a pair very soon. Thank you!-Steve

Here is how the clamp system looks when you remove the side screws for quick disconnect. You use it like this for everything but rock crawling.

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[daveb]

I've had them for quite a while (right after they came out) they're great and they come off easily if you're going rock crawling and put them back on for the mall.

 

[White Eagle]

I’m running just the front too. I don’t particularly care for the look but the function is better than the others. its that function that gets me constant comments from people at a distance, always the same comment too…”there is a seatbelt or something hanging out of your door”. They may visually blend in well with a clean soccer mom mall jeep but when they are forever dirty with chunks of mud hanging off of them they stick out like a sore thumb.

I also didn’t care for the response from the company when I said they should include this tip for install. “You can slide it on from the ends”. The response was rather arrogant like they know best.

I kinda wish I could get a refund and go with the IAG, and if IAG comes out with the full length rail step I’m switching.

I have 10 fresh water crossings in and out of my ranch and they will rust too.

Again, functionally they are probably the best because the actual step is lower.

 

[gonemad]

Again, functionally they are probably the best because the actual step is lower.

This is why I picked them as well.

 

[CST7081]

I’m running just the front too. I don’t particularly care for the look but the function is better than the others. its that function that gets me constant comments from people at a distance, always the same comment too…”there is a seatbelt or something hanging out of your door”. They may visually blend in well with a clean soccer mom mall jeep but when they are forever dirty with chunks of mud hanging off of them they stick out like a sore thumb.

I also didn’t care for the response from the company when I said they should include this tip for install. “You can slide it on from the ends”. The response was rather arrogant like they know best.

I kinda wish I could get a refund and go with the IAG, and if IAG comes out with the full length rail step I’m switching.

I have 10 fresh water crossings in and out of my ranch and they will rust too.

Again, functionally they are probably the best because the actual step is lower.

I’m running just the front too. I don’t particularly care for the look but the function is better than the others. its that function that gets me constant comments from people at a distance, always the same comment too…”there is a seatbelt or something hanging out of your door”. They may visually blend in well with a clean soccer mom mall jeep but when they are forever dirty with chunks of mud hanging off of them they stick out like a sore thumb.

I also didn’t care for the response from the company when I said they should include this tip for install. “You can slide it on from the ends”. The response was rather arrogant like they know best.

I kinda wish I could get a refund and go with the IAG, and if IAG comes out with the full length rail step I’m switching.

I have 10 fresh water crossings in and out of my ranch and they will rust too.

Again, functionally they are probably the best because the actual step is lower.

I’m running just the front too. I don’t particularly care for the look but the function is better than the others. its that function that gets me constant comments from people at a distance, always the same comment too…”there is a seatbelt or something hanging out of your door”. They may visually blend in well with a clean soccer mom mall jeep but when they are forever dirty with chunks of mud hanging off of them they stick out like a sore thumb.

I also didn’t care for the response from the company when I said they should include this tip for install. “You can slide it on from the ends”. The response was rather arrogant like they know best.

I kinda wish I could get a refund and go with the IAG, and if IAG comes out with the full length rail step I’m switching.

I have 10 fresh water crossings in and out of my ranch and they will rust too.

Again, functionally they are probably the best because the actual step is lower.

This is why I picked them as well.

I had the IAG’s loved the way they looked and also made in USA, but they didn’t drop far enough for us. I still haven’t pulled the trigger on the NXTGEN product. I continue to look.

 

[CST7081]

I had the IAG’s loved the way they looked and also made in USA, but they didn’t drop far enough for us. I still haven’t pulled the trigger on the NXTGEN product. I continue to look.

I really like the contoured drop steps from rough country they cover the pinch welds and are contoured to the lines of the Gladiator. A lot like the existing rails. But would then need to store the oem rails somewhere in the roof of the garage.

 

[NXTGENAutomotive]

I’m running just the front too. I don’t particularly care for the look but the function is better than the others. its that function that gets me constant comments from people at a distance, always the same comment too…”there is a seatbelt or something hanging out of your door”. They may visually blend in well with a clean soccer mom mall jeep but when they are forever dirty with chunks of mud hanging off of them they stick out like a sore thumb.

I also didn’t care for the response from the company when I said they should include this tip for install. “You can slide it on from the ends”. The response was rather arrogant like they know best.

I kinda wish I could get a refund and go with the IAG, and if IAG comes out with the full length rail step I’m switching.

I have 10 fresh water crossings in and out of my ranch and they will rust too.

Again, functionally they are probably the best because the actual step is lower.

@White Eagle,

This is the owner of NXTGEN. I looked over the email that you referenced [I also didn’t care for the response from the company when I said they should include this tip for install. “You can slide it on from the ends”. The response was rather arrogant like they know best.]

I wanted to take a moment to reply to this and a few other points. At no time was our team trying to be disrespectful or come off as arrogant. If you interpreted our message as that, there was a misunderstanding and we are sincerely sorry about that. In your message, you had asked our team to add to our formal instructions about sliding on the clamps from the end vs pulling the rail out if there was not enough room to put the clamps on.

Our team gave a detailed explanation that, we appreciate the message and you are free to do as you wish on your vehicle, but we could not formally add this to our instructions. Putting the clamps on where there is not enough spacing can damage the vehicle while in use. Therefore, it was not something we could formally instruct customers to do. We can only provide instructions for the safe use of our product as developed, which requires the rail spacing our instructions already showed.

We appreciate your understanding of that and we didn't mean anything rude by it.

In regard to your other points:

- The look of 2 vs 4: we have a lot of Wrangler and Gladiator customers run only 2 steps vs 4 on a 4 door vehicle for various reasons. We constantly get feedback from customers with 4 steps that the look is OEM and they get a lot of compliments. We sell them as pairs so customers can buy the amount they desire and orient as they please. A rear pair can always be added to complete the look or add functionality if the look of 2 is not preferred.

- The other removable steps from IAG, whether they be the full length or not are powder coated steel like ours. Rust would be an equal factor for any of the removable step products currently produced. The most important thing is to maintain the finish by touching up abrasions in the coating per our instructions.

One big differentiation for our Cross Terrain steps is that ours is the only step product in the world at the moment that has absolutely zero welds. That makes them far stronger and more durable over the life of the product. It is also a vastly more complex and costly design to produce than any other step product currently available.

- The NXTGEN Team

 

[White Eagle]

I’m a fair minded retired GI. I can see the misunderstanding from the standpoint you’ll have people ordering and installing the product that don’t have enough mechanical aptitude to know when damage might occur. I think we can agree I just said what your guys wouldn’t say. I’m a straight shooter and thats where the misunderstanding came from. Don’t worry about hurting my feelings nor my gruff interpretation of the response.

I think I said “functionally they are the best” which is what matters in my world. I’m the guy that takes anything new and modifies it to be best for me, looks be damned. All my chit is Boba Fett !

The main reason I might go with IAG full rail is because it would possibly have some protection from the tires slinging rocks onto the side of the rig.

I can see where the balance of two on each side would maybe look better, I just gotta save up more money I guess.

I’ll just put it out there for potential customers. The Nextgen steps are functionally the best. In the case of the IAG, if you use them then you probably didn’t need a step anyway.

Take Care, John

 

[NXTGENAutomotive]

I’m a fair minded retired GI. I can see the misunderstanding from the standpoint you’ll have people ordering and installing the product that don’t have enough mechanical aptitude to know when damage might occur. I think we can agree I just said what your guys wouldn’t say. I’m a straight shooter and thats where the misunderstanding came from. Don’t worry about hurting my feelings nor my gruff interpretation of the response.

I think I said “functionally they are the best” which is what matters in my world. I’m the guy that takes anything new and modifies it to be best for me, looks be damned. All my chit is Boba Fett !

The main reason I might go with IAG full rail is because it would possibly have some protection from the tires slinging rocks onto the side of the rig.

I can see where the balance of two on each side would maybe look better, I just gotta save up more money I guess.

I’ll just put it out there for potential customers. The Nextgen steps are functionally the best. In the case of the IAG, if you use them then you probably didn’t need a step anyway.

Take Care, John

@White Eagle

John,

We appreciate it and your continued support!

Something we have not talked about much and I think we should talk about more. It would likely even be a good separate post in a new thread.

When we started designing and testing steps, one company called Archtype Racing had 2 options and they were the only one on the market. They had a rail-hight removable step, and a rail-height full length that they made for Bronco and Jeep.

They went out of business when we were part way into our development process and we were very interested in making a full length in addition to our drop down model.

We did actually test a full-length out to see how it performed wheeling and we found that virtually all perceptions about removable full-length steps are factually false and actually extremely misguided.

- The first thing that became very apparent was that reduced clearance is not just about vertical drop. Adding several inches of width past the sliders is as much of a catching factor off road as drop down. On tighter trails and off-camber obstacles, width is actually a bigger factor than height. We snagged the rail height step more than the drop down. In doing so, even with the proper spacing, it caused some significant damage to the Jeep. As you can see, the attachments to the rail dug into the body pretty nicely. This is also why we don't want people sliding our clamps on, and keeping the full spacing.

T

- On technical trails, we needed to remove the full-length as much as the drop down to avoid damaging the vehicle. It became clear that the higher full-length being left on for technical trails due to being higher was completely false. The drop down and full-length both needed to removed as often, yet the full length was not nearly as functional as a step given it's height.

- Full-length removable steps for weight considerations have never been solid. AR's was not, our tester was not, and the current ones for Bronco from leading creators like OEM, IAG, etc are not solid. Just like this:

We did not find any better rock protection from this vs stock without it. Rocks go right through it, and we have found that the majority of rock strikes are actually on our fenders, not the central part of the body.

If a vehicle is 74 inches wide and then you add the full lengths and it is now 86 inches wide, from a purely physics standpoint that is a massive change to your clearance and maneuverability.

After doing some really significant testing of a full-length unit, we decided to fully focus on our current design and engineer the first only drop down, no weld modular step solution instead.

- The NXTGEN Team

 

[White Eagle]

I never was concerned about clearance, its higher than the frame. My best option would’ve been just to take off the factory rails and put a full length solid step rail.

I just didn’t want to spend a bunch of money on upgrades of the factory equipment because this Jeep will be worn slap out within 3 years for me. Regardless of what “built” streetable rig you run, 6mph is about average speed getting in and out of my place.

Again, my punchline has always been “I’m offroad too much to put all of the offroad crap on my trucks”. My tires might last 10k, Even my winch is on a 2” receiver hitch So its an easy swap or removal.

Thanks for the info

 

[NXTGENAutomotive]

I never was concerned about clearance, its higher than the frame. My best option would’ve been just to take off the factory rails and put a full length solid step rail.

I just didn’t want to spend a bunch of money on upgrades of the factory equipment because this Jeep will be worn slap out within 3 years for me. Regardless of what “built” streetable rig you run, 6mph is about average speed getting in and out of my place.

Again, my punchline has always been “I’m offroad too much to put all of the offroad crap on my trucks”. My tires might last 10k, Even my winch is on a 2” receiver hitch So its an easy swap or removal.

Thanks for the info

Our pleasure!

Given this is a technical area, we'd like to show a couple of quick examples of what we mean so other members can make an educated and informed choice about what is best for their needs.

Clearance is highly dependent upon the type of terrain you are on and can be much more about side to side vs vertical, up and down.

Our steps drop down a good amount, but they are still above the lower bits of the Jeep.

If you are on terrain that doesn't have boulders, trees, roots, etc., you can clear some decent terrain with the steps. We've had Gladiator customers tell us they got stuck due to the length of the Gladdy before the steps hindered vertical clearance, like the above where the rear bumper bottomed out on a lifted vehicle.

We also had a customer several month back buy ours and the IAG and post a pretty in-depth review and video on their Wrangler. They discussed this exact situation, where the trails they did were tight and the step stuck out as much or more than the 35 inch tire width.

Rock sliders are very tight to the vehicle and don't really add much width. A full length step does, especially one that extends out from the slider. Just because a full length sits up higher, if you are on tighter trails it will clip a lot of stuff. A removable one will cause a lot of damage clipping things, so there is not much benefit if any vs a removable drop down. You'd really want to remove both, so the logic that it is higher and can cross more is not accurate in many cases.

Adding a full length can make your vehicle 15-25 percent wider.

- The NXTGEN Team

 

[RedwoodRoads]

I put on the @NXTGENAutomotive Cross Terrain steps last weekend, very nice steps they are well made and fit like a glove!

Link to the removable steps: https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/...rock-slider-rails-nxtgen-cross-terrain.96093/

These look great!

 

[aujeepgirl23]

This may be a silly question, but if you have passengers that prefer not to use them, do they angle out too far where people are hitting their legs when they step directly into the truck or if they are stepping or sliding out?

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