The OEM JK Rubicon Rock Rails are quite stout for factory parts, but in order to utilize them with 35″ tires you’ll have to give them a little haircut.
All JK Rubicons come equipped from the factory with MOPAR Rock Rails, and while I don’t consider them to be full on rock sliders, they’ll provide substantially more protection than a set of running boards. Unfortunately in order to run a 35″ tire or larger, you’ll have to slightly modify them so you don’t run into rubbing issues. With a truck load of modifications on the way, we needed to make sure the Jeep would be ready.
The job is pretty simple, the sliders are mounted to the body with six 10mm bolts, and three 13mm bolts on each side. Feel free to remove all of them, you don’t need to worry about the sliders hitting you in the face because they are held in with 3 studs.
After you remove the rock rails, you’re going to have to decide how you want to cut them down. There are numerous options but we decided to go with the chop saw and it made quick work of steel. AEV recommends that you cut off 1″ from the rear end so that’s exactly what we did. Make sure to remove the plastic end cap, you’ll be able to reuse them.
Now that you have the rock rails cut down you can clean them up with a file and hit them with some rattle can. We used our standard Low Gloss Black and it’s close enough to the factory color that you won’t notice the difference.
Unfortunate I’m no Monet so the paint isn’t perfect, but considering I’ll never really see it, I’m fine with how it looks. Get it bolted back up and you’re ready to throw on some real tires.
Hopefully we won’t have any issues with the new 35’s, and if they rub at least it won’t be on the rock rails.
You must be logged in to post a comment.