Climbing in and out of the Jeep when you’re only 5’6 can sometimes be a challenge, and more often than not I find myself dragging my feet over the door sill and nicking the vinyl.
As many of you already know, a year ago I had our 2014 JKU Rubicon wrapped in 3M vinyl. While it has held up surprisingly well since the original install, I started to notice some minor nicks and tears which were mostly concentrated around the door sill areas of the Jeep.
You can see here some of my less than perfect patchwork on the vinyl.
Since I don’t use traditional running boards or side steps, you have to stand on the door sill of the Jeep to get in and out of the truck. Regardless of if you have vinyl or paint, eventually you’re going to start wearing out the finish, so I had to find a solution.
After doing some research and having every other Jeep bro tell me to either Line-X the tub or get over it because “it’s a Jeep thing,” I finally did what most normal Jeeper’s do when they’re in a bind. I grabed my credit card and started surfing Quadratech and then I proceed to buy crap I don’t even need.
I ended up purchasing the 4 piece OEM MOPAR JK Door Sill Kit (Part Number: 82210106AB) for $54.99 on Quadratech and told the local dealership to pound sand when they told me they wanted $112.99. In all fairness they said they would only charge an hour of labor to install them, but if you can breath, you can easily do it on your own.
Installation is a breeze, just make sure to get some extra alcohol (the rubbing kind, unless you only drink Everclear) to clean up the areas where the double sided tape is going to adhere to the body. Chrysler gives you 2 tiny pads, but they really are not enough. Also make sure to read the instructions because the door sill pieces are different for each side.
After thoroughly cleaning the area, all you have to do is remove the double sided tape and stick them onto the body. Total time to do the install is under 5 minutes, or the time it takes you to open and drink 2 Kirkland Lights.
I installed these right before our trip to Vermont, and they held up perfectly without issue. I have read on the forums that some people have had issues with them falling off, but the problem seems to be their lack of prep work when cleaning the door sill. They’ve now been on the truck for almost 6 months and have survived a DC winter and since they’re made of plastic, I’m pretty sure they’ll last longer than the Jeep.
For me, it solved the problem of my vinyl getting nicked when people got in and out of the Jeep, and for $50 and 2 beers I can’t really complain. The only thing I will say is Chrysler really should make these a standard feature, but then again this is the same company that still offers A/C as an option.
*Note, there are no photos of the actual install because it’s hard to juggle an SLR while using both hands to install the door sill kit, and since someone’s going to ask it, “No, I can’t camera bro”.
I know this is a old post, but I just wanted to add my 2 cents. I was tempted to get these but I ended up ordering the Bushwacker Trail Armor Rocker Panel and Door Sill covers. Have not had a chance to install them, live down a dirt road and seems like everytime I have a chance to wash my jeep, it rains again. Really hoping they clean up the bottom of the jeep since I took off my factory rubi rails and it left it kinda baron down there(put on full step bar).