Aries AscentSteps Running Boards w/ Custom Installation Kit - 5-1/2" Wide - Powder Coated Steel

Video Transcript for Aries AscentSteps Running Boards Installation - 2020 Chevrolet Silverado 1500

Hey everybody, Ryan here at etrailer. Today on our 2020 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 we're going to be taking a look at and showing you how to install the Aries Assentstep Running Boards. So kind of my first impression of the running boards on our truck is I think they're going to be a great blend of functionality, as well as an appearance upgrade. I mean, to me, they kind of just go with the flow having nice modern look to them but they're still going to allow us to actually use them as an advantage whenever we get in and out of the truck. And that's because I have a nice wide board it's five and a half inches. So you're going to have no problem actually, you know getting your foot or your boot up there to help you in and out of the truck.

And one of the things I do kind of like about these is the fact that whenever you have all the doors closed they don't look like huge, big, bulky running boards. You know, if I kind of just glance down with the side of our truck here, it's about flush but whenever you open the door it really gives you that impression and all that running board there until I'd easily step on it and get in and out of the truck. One of the things that I personally noticed and what pretty much everyone else here at the shop notice as well that kind of separates these from some of the other running boards is the foot pad itself. So it's going to have these raised portions here and these raised portions are actually rubber and that's not something you see a lot of times it's just kind of like a hard plastic. So I feel like these are going to do a great job of keeping your footing.

I know if some of the other styles that are just full hard plastic all the way through a lot of times if you've got wet shoes or anything like that it kind of gets slick. Even if they have a. you know, a traction pattern in there. So don't think that's really going to be the case with this rubber, you know, everyone knows as well as well as I do, even with wet shoes when you step on a rubber surface like this it kind of just grips and helps you get your traction and get in and out of the truck. So there is one thing I noticed with these as well that definitely give them an advantage compared to a lot of the other type of running boards.

And that's a fact that they use four of the support brackets. A lot of the other ones just use three. They use two in the front and then just one here in the very back. And so that leaves a big open space for this portion of the running board. And a lot of times he gets some flex there and everything else.

So with this extra bracket it makes everything a lot more secure kind of giving an example of that. If I just hop up on this back portion here I am about 200 pounds and I'm kind of jumping up and down. You can see this thing's barely flexing at all. It's more or less moving the whole truck. So a really secure, rigid, and we'll get the job done. So the step pad here, the overall width of it it's going to be five and a half inches. So definitely gives you a nice big footprint. And the running boards themselves are going to be made from steel. So, you know, they're going to be durable and they actually have a kind of a neat finish on them. It's called a carbide black powder coat finish. But to me it almost feels like almost like a layer of hard plastic. Once you kind of get it in your hands, you can you could see what I'm talking about. So to me it feels like it's stay in pretty good shape for, for quite a while. I feel like the scratching and stuff would be very minimal. I mean, over time at the end of the day you are going to get some scratches here and there but I feel like this will do a good job of minimizing that. So when it comes down to it if you're looking for running boards. I feel like this is a good all around choice. You know, not only as far as the functionality goes but how good it looks on the Silverado. As far as the installation goes really not bad at all. There's no modifications required or anything like that. More or less the brackets just bolt right up. And then you're able to bolt on the running board. So a really straightforward and shouldn't really take you out a whole lot of time. Speaking of which let's go ahead and put them on together now. To begin our installation we're going to be here on the side of her truck. And the first thing that we need to do is locate all of our attachment points. So we're going to have a total of four locations and they're all going to be just underneath the body of our vehicle on the inside edge here. So now underneath of our vehicle if you look along this edge here this is where our attachment points are going to be. Now, chances are pretty good. They're going to be covered by these rubber plastic caps and we'll eventually pull those out, but for now let's just see where they're actually at. So we're going to be using these two here and this is the ones closest to the front of our truck. And if you work our way back I have two more that are identical to the ones that we just saw continuing towards the rear of our truck. We'll have these two then here at the very corner we're going to have our last two. Now to get these rubber plugs out what you're going to do take a trim tool, or even a flat head screwdriver kind of just pry underneath the head of them. You're able to pop those out. So I am going to do that same thing to get all of our plugs removed. Now, even though our attachment points we're covered I do suggest taking a toothbrush and cleaning them out. That way you can get rid of any debris or rust or anything that may have formed inside. And now what we can do is grab our brackets and get them loosely installed. So these are all going to be the same. And the hardware that we're gonna use will be a bolt. You're going to put on a split lock washer followed by a flat washer. So split lock washer is going to be the first one you put on closest to the head of the bolt. We'll line, these up. And just get these started hand tight. Once I have this one done I'm just going to repeat that same process for the rest of our attachment points. So now that we have all of our brackets loosely installed I'm going to take a 13 millimeter socket and just snug them down. So I'd like to start with this bottom one first And then we can move up and snug up the. One on top. Once I have this done, we're going to do the same thing for the three remaining brackets. So now that we have our brackets in place what we can do is get the board itself ready to install. Now these are side specific. So make sure you see your instructions make sure you have the right side one quick way that I noticed to identify them that the front pad here, it's gotta be longer. Some longer of the two pads is gonna face towards the front of the truck. That makes sense. Well, with that being said what we need to do is just kind of flip this over, like, so and there's going to be kind of this channel or this track on the bottom side of our board and these square plates, if you will are going to have some threaded holes in them and you're going to slide these in and these are going to line up with our brackets. So you can see, imagine if this is in the running board when we set, you know, the running board up here. We're going to have a spot to get our bolts to attach them to the bracket. So I'm just going to get these installed and then kind of get them close to where we think they're going to line up with their brackets. And again, we're going to have a total of four of them. Once we have these in we can take our running board. Set it in place. And then work on getting it, lined up exactly how we need it. So once we kind of had the running board lineup where you want it, you can take those blocks And line them up with the slotted ends here in our bracket. Or do you use that same hardware combination, a bolt a lock washer, and a flat washer. And we're just going to get all of these started hand tight for now. So once the running board is loosely secured. You are going to have some adjustability as far as how far in or out you want it to sit. So what I think I'm going to do is just kind of go in the middle, split the difference. And once you find that spot that you like he can then simply just come back and all those bolts that we just put in we can actually grab our socket and snug them all down. And finally, what we can do is come back with a torque wrench and tighten down all of the hardware to the amount specified in the instructions. So once you have the side installed you'd simply just repeat that same process over on the other side of your truck. And that'll finish up our look at and our installation of the Aries Assentstep Running Boards on our 2020 Chevy Silverado, 1500..