Rocky-Road Outfitters' XJ Step Rails
By Jason West

The rails arrived packed in about the most bubble wrap I'd ever seen - unwrapping these things probably took as long as it did to install them! As I was cutting through the layers bubble wrap, I figured if RRO put this much effort into shipping their rails, they had to have put that much more effort and attention into building them.

The step rails are made of 2x2x1/4" hitch steel, exactly like their standard rock rails, only the step rails are set out 2" wider to the sides. At about 30lbs per rail, these things are beefy to say the least. Forget bullet-proof, these things are bomb-proof!

RRO covers all their rock rails with their lifetime guarantee - if you manage to bend or break the rails, RRO will replace them for free. Considering they're made of 1/4" hitch steel, I doubt RRO has ever had anyone take them on that guarantee.

The instructions included with the rails were very clear and straight-forward. The rails mount to the body using the pinch seam and 2 support legs that bolt to the frame rails via self-tapping bolts. All in all you'll drill nine holes per side to mount them.

The first order of business during the install was to position the rails where I wanted them. A couple of well placed jackstands help the rails to the body while I lined them up and marked the pinch seam.

Because it would be rather hard to try and mark the five holes you'll drill in the pinch seam with the rails in place, RRO thoughtfully provides a steel tape template for marking the holes.

After positioning the rails and marking where the brace ends will touch the pinch seam, clamp the steel template to the pinch seam and start drilling. Be sure you have the template lined up correctly though, because the rails are left and right side specific.

Once the holes have been drilled in the pinch seam, you can use those bolts to hold the rails in place while you drill the holes in the frame rails for the support legs.

In this shot you can see four of the five pinch seam bolts as well as the rear support leg going to the frame rail. The rock rails themselves tuck way up close to the body, with the lowest point being a mere 2" below the rocker panel.

The finished product! The top of the rails are even with the bottom of the rocker, and the step rails extend out about 3.5" from the bottom corner of the rocker panel - just far enough to create a usable step.

The mounting setup makes these rails rock solid on the body, you could easily slap a Hi-Lift under there to jack the side up if you needed or wanted to.

The fit and finish of the rails is definitely top-notch, it'd be hard to imagine any rocker guards that could beat the quality of these things. There's no chance the rail itself is going to bend, so as long as the mounts and welds up hold (which I'm sure they will), these things should be near indestructable.

Since I do use them as steps some times and they can get rather slick when wet or muddy, I got some non-skid griptape from Lowes and put it across the top of the rails (you can kinda see it in the last 2 pics). Now there's no chance of accidentally slipping off the rails, even when they're wet.

At the time of this article, I've only been on two wheelin' trips since installing the rails, so they haven't seen much action yet, but I've jumped up and down on them, shook the rig with them, and generally tried to abuse them as much as I can, and they haven't budged a bit - some scuffs in the powdercoat is all I've managed to do.

The RockRails sell for about $230, while the StepRail version is about $244. Both versions are available for the Jeep Liberty, and the RockRail version is also available for Grand Cherokees.