Body Armor Rock Steps

Those are awesome. Would you mind posting the link to those?

I was originally thinking you were talking about the lights you can see in this picture:

 

RioRand RR-2P-6W-6K-S LED Daytime Running Light (2-Piece Waterproof Aluminum High Power 6W 6000K Xenon Slim COB, White)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00C1YI2XA/

I didn't use the 3M double sided tape they provided. I went to Home Depot and bought loctite metal adhesive and used blue tape to hold them in place until it dried. Believe it or not those pictures I posted are of the lights with the blue tape over them so they're much brighter.
The pic I added is what they look like, I took it when I was testing different locations.

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Loctite-0-85-fl-oz-Metal-and-Concrete-Epoxy-Syringe-1405605/100371817

 

I have a 2015 TRD double cab, Body Armor didnt made a correct mounting brackt for the front part... You have to either install it with only one bolt or weld a piece of steel so u can bolt it on two holes... that sucks..

Im installing now, i think ill bolt it just on one hole for the front part

 

Just installed them with only one bolt on the front bracket

 

Yes, I've had mine installed for over a year with only one bolt on the front bracket. No issues.

 

Anyone install these on s 2016 DCSB yet? Do all the holes line up? Amazon has them for like $270 with free shipping, but it also indicates that they don't fit a 2016 Taco.

 

They do fit the 2016 Taco, I put them on today. On the box it says fits 2005-2011 too.

 

GEN3 Tacoma Install...

Ok, so i purchased and mounted these on my Gen3 DCSB Taco last week. Here's my story:

I ordered a set of Body Armor Rock Steps on Amazon and they arrived in nearly perfect condition 2 days later. I had a tiny bit of drop damage on one corner of one of the rails that was easily covered up with a black sharpie. 1 thin layer of bubble wrap and a single layer cardboard box is definitely NOT adequate protection when shipping 80lbs of steel. We've got Amazon Prime, so there was free 2 day shipping on this purchase (FedEx). I was really surprised that there wasn't more damage. You might get a pair in perfect condition, you might get a pair that's trashed... I guess it depends on how much of a perfectionist you are and how angry the guys throwing boxes at the FedEx hub are on that particular day.
There are 3 metal brackets for each step rail. The brackets in green plastic correlate with the rail that is in green bubble wrap. This wasn't in the instructions, I just made that assumption as the instructions are completely useless.

Here is what the 2 page instruction pamphlet contains:
1) Instructions that effectively say: "bolt the brackets to the truck body, then bolt the steps to the bracket."
2) An illustration depicting a profile view of the driver's side rail and passenger side rail that are too small to show in any detail the difference between the two. Additionally, there is no truck included in the illustration, so there's no way to tell front or back either. You'll need to just get under the truck and look at where the attachment points are, how the holes for the bolts are offset on the brackets and rails and figure it out.
3) A parts list and customer service contact info.

I did this install by myself using a cooler and rolling Rigid toolbox that happen to put the rails within a quarter inch of where they needed to be to screw to the brackets. It would have gone much faster if I had assistance. If everything had gone perfectly this would have been a 20 minute job (as noted in other posts in this thread), however mine took more like 3 hours (as noted in other posts in this thread). The rails are pretty heavy and working on your back and reaching up to do all the tightening can be pretty exhausting. Other than that, here's what else really sucked during the install:
1) The front bracket (all three are the same, but whichever one you choose to use in the front position) only has one attachment point on the 2016 Taco. I read this thread before purchasing, so I was expecting. What I didn't see mentioned anywhere was that the angle and shape of the body at the front attachment point somewhat prohibits the front bracket from lying flush against the metal as the other 2 points do. If the front bracket were a little shorter than the rest it would actually be more stable.

2) The threaded bolt holes in the rail are simply positioned too close together. There are two bolts that connect each bracket to the rail and when they are both threaded in place their washer are touching. They are so close to each other that the head of one bolt wouldn't allow me to use a socket wrench on the other. This was infuriating after getting all of the bolts in place and finger tightening them, then realizing I had to remove the closer of the two bolts completely in order to access and adequately tighten down the farther ones first.

3) The bracket shape when attached to the truck body cuts off access to the top of the bolt heads and wraps around 3 sides, leaving a small 2" square area next to the bolts for you to try and cram a tool in there. I found that my socket wrench would only fit into that space once the bolt had been turned down nearly the entire way (save for maybe one rotation), so I had to use a wrench. Given the tiny access point, I was lucky if I was able to turn the bolt 15-20 degrees at a time before having to pull my wrench back off and re-seat it. Each screw had to be turned down at least 10-15 rotations, so if you do the math I had to pick up and re-position my wrench about 300 times PER SCREW. Maybe y'all have some really skinny or short socket wrenches, but as someone who used to set up machines in a tool and dye shop, I honestly couldn't think of any tool that would have done a better or faster job given how tight the fit was, how close the screws were to each other and how awkward it was to work with such restricted access and range of movement. There was one screw on the first rail I was installing that literally took me 20 minutes to back out of the bracket (so that I could tighten the one behind it correctly) and another 10 minutes to screw back in.
My wife came out to see what all the cursing was about and if she could help and I told her all I needed was 5 minutes alone with the M-F'er that designed these brackets.


In the end, once everything was tightened down, the rock steps looked great and felt very stable. I'm 6'1", 220 and I jumped up and down on all 4 steps without feeling any flex or hearing anything pop or shift. I like the way they tuck right under the body (mine have no more than a 1/2" gap between the body and the rail. This not only gives the Body Armor Rock Steps a lower profile and more "custom" fabricated look than the big round tubes you see hanging off of nearly every other truck out there, it also lets you retain the most ground clearance while still providing a very usable step.

By the next morning I had cooled off enough to realize that at $290 delivered the Rock Steps were still worth the headache of installation. If I had to do it all over again I'd probably do the exact opposite of what it says in the manual and attach the step rails to the brackets first (allowing for much better access to those bolts) and then screw the brackets & rail to the truck body.

By the way, I'm going to pass on the optional LED light sticker strip or metal (screw-on) step pad... the black line-x type coating looks great and isn't really slippery when wet. If I find that I need something more grippy down the road, I'll go with some 60 grit traction tape.

 

Dude, after the last couple of days that I've had, I needed the laugh that this post just gave me. I'm sure we've all been there (replacing the air filter on my wife's Saturn Ion is one of these type jobs - I swear I've replaced motors more easily than that damn thing).
However, it's good info to know - I have a set sitting in my living room as we speak. Arrived Monday, surprisingly heavy and look really nice quality-wise. Packaging wasn't sufficient, one end had poked through the box and was a little scraped up but nothing serious enough to make me want to return them... a little touch up and nobody will ever notice. Install happens this weekend, life permitting.
Beach - thank you for the much needed laugh.

 

Sweet! That pic with the door open just made up my mind. They look good with the 3rd gen.

 

these look cool but would they actually hold up to any offroad abuse or are they for the mall

 

These are for the mall, which is fine. Not knocking them or the people that run them.

 

Do you think these are sturdy enough for a jack point? I recently lifted my truck so apart from carrying some wooden blocks and the stock jack I was thinking a hi lift will now be in order

 

No, I have these and they are strictly steps... But it's not because of the steps (my build thread has this as the first thing I did to my truck), it's just because they mount to the factory holes - so if a lot of weight were applied to these mounting points, you might damage your rocker panels. If someone fabbed brackets that attached these to the actual frame, I'd almost think they'd handle the weight of the truck. But as it is - they are just steps.

EDIT - Update: I went to torque the bolts down tight since they'd been installed a few days, and I was unable to get my socket on a few of the bolts that hold the brackets to the steps. In my build thread, I stated I didn't experience this during the install. Not sure if the extreme heat in AZ has made the bolts swell, or if they shifted around or what, but I will admit that I also experienced the issue of the bolts being too close together.

 

I just installed these today by myself. It took a total of about an hour using a five gallon bucket, which happened to be nearly a perfect height to support the rail. I didn't find it that difficult, however I could definitely see where it could be a real bitch given the right circumstances. In case anybody else is looking to install these, I had better success by mounting the brackets to the rail first. There were two sets of mounting holes on the rails to attach the center bracket (I am assuming this is to accomodate different years of Tacomas, mines a 15). If you decide to mount the brackets to the rail first, make sure you have the center bracket mounted to the correct set of holes. I actually went ahead and torqued down the bolts connecting the brackets to the rails prior to mounting them. As stated in previous posts, it is nearly impossible to torque them down after the rails are installed finger tight. The mounting points on the brackets (connecting to the rail) are slotted horizontally allowing movement of the rail forward and backwards to get the holes lined up to the factory holes under the cab. Once the bolts mounting the brackets to the rails were torqued down I had an issue with the rear bracket not being aligned to the holes in the cab on the passenger side. What I found was that by using a rubber mallet I was able to knock the bracket back enough to bolt it in without damaging the the powder coating on the bracket. Overall I like the look and function of these rails so far. They are solid and don't flex with my big ass (6'3" 280) on them. As stated numerous times these are not going to stand up to jacking up the truck, or sliding the weight of the truck on some rocks, however it isn't due to the rails as they are pretty heavy duty. It is due to the mounting method. Hope this helps anybody who may be looking at installing these.

 

Looks good! I did the same thing - five gallon bucket worked perfectly.

 

Thanks bro

 

just ordered these from Amazon for about 275 can't wait to get these installed. Love the look of it.

 

Came home to these this morning. Now just need to get them mounted