Review and How-to Installation: White Knuckle Off Road Product Rock Sliders for Gen 3 Ram 2500/3500 4×4 Trucks…
When our electric retractable running board motors failed, we searched the market for the best solidly mounted step boards. In this HD video review and installation, see why White Knuckle Off Road Products’ rock sliders became the replacement for our retractable running boards.
When our retractable running boards were new in 2005, the electrical side of the installation included R&R of the truck’s instrument panel, wire splicing with rosin core soldering, heat shrink tubing plus careful wire routing to assure that the wiring behind the dash would not someday create an electrical short.
Today, rather than tap into intricate dome light wiring circuits for each doors, these retractable boards use Wi-Fi transmitter signals to activate the boards. Despite these gains, the risk of parts obsolescence and high initial purchase cost made avoid buying another set of retractable boards.
We searched the field for the best alternative to retractable running boards. Aside from their convenience and the clean profile when the boards retract, the electrical and mechanical installation only adds to the initial expense. (We do all our installation work, but labor time is money.) Worse yet, retractable boards or the many extruded aluminum “running boards” do nothing to protect the vehicle’s body sills, the bed edge or the cab. Only frame-mounted rock sliders—doubling as step-up running boards—will do so.
A colleague and friend mounted a pair of White Knuckle Off Road Products rock sliders on his 2017 Ram 2500 4×4 with a flatbed camper. Attractive entry steps for the truck’s 35″ tires, on closer scrutiny these boards were built of rugged materials, showed excellent craftsmanship and offered a solid, frame mounted design for maximum body protection. We called White Knuckle Off Road Products.
Our rugged all steel White Knuckle Off Road Products rock sliders are built with 0.188″ DOM tube, 1/2″ steel brackets and 1/4″ reinforcement gusset plates. These boards clamp directly to the frame rails with 1/2″ Grade 8 bolts, nuts and hardware. Designed specifically for each vehicle application, White Knuckle Off Road Products rock sliders become an integral part of the truck’s chassis. The engineering for our make and model Ram Truck is excellent. The brackets align well to avoid frame attachments and obstacles, and these rock sliders can be installed faster than most fixed running boards.
To understand why we rate these rock sliders so highly, see the video for details. Installation takes a professional shop approximately an hour to complete. Even as a first-time installation, it took us only a few hours, which included the time for filming. We’re sold on these White Knuckle Off Road Products rock sliders. For our use, they double as the ultimate-duty running boards!
