I'm Ryan from extremeterrain.com, and in this video, we're gonna talk all about my favorite
rocker armor in a couple of different categories for your 2007 and up four-door JK.
Now, there are a lot of different reasons that you want to install armor on the rocker
area of your Jeep.
That's an area that's very susceptible to damage when you're doing some more hard-core
off-roading, and if that does come in contact with a rock or stump, any one of those off-road
obstacles, it can push the rocker up into the door, creating a situation where you can't
open and close the door properly and a very expensive repair.
So, rocker armor is going to give you a lot of peace of mind and ensure that you're not
going to have that issue.
Now, most rocker armor is going to be there for protection.
As it says right in the name, this is armor.
But, a lot of it's also going to provide you with a step.
Now, the step that you'll get from something that is not armor and just a step is going
to sit low and away from the Jeep, it's going to be a very useful step.
The step that you're gonna get with armor is a little bit more of a secondary function
of the piece.
So, it's not going to be quite as useful, but it's still gonna help you and your passengers
get in and out of your Jeep.
So, today we're gonna talk through a couple of different options for bolt-on armor.
This is not armor that requires you to drill a whole bunch of holes in your Jeep.
That's kind of a whole different category.
So, today we're gonna talk about bolt-on armor.
Make sure that you subscribe to our YouTube channel to check out the product videos for
each one of the pieces of armor that we're gonna talk about today and also to check out
a bunch of other great Jeep content.
So, today we're gonna talk through the Smittybilt Side Armor.
That's going to attach in a way that is going to give you some nice protection but not going
to be quite as strong as some of the other options, and it's also going to be a little
bit less expensive than some of the other options.
The next one we're gonna talk about is the RedRock 4x4 Side Armor, and that's going to
be a very similar design.
However, it's going to attach a little bit differently and be a little bit stronger.
Then we'll talk about the Barricade Enhanced Rubi Rails, which is going to attach in much
the same way as that RedRock 4x4 armor, but be a completely different design.
This is going to look very much like a factory Rubicon rail that would come on a Rubicon
right out of the factory, but with one extra bar to provide a little bit more of a step.
And, finally, we're gonna talk about the Barricade Rock Sliders, and that's going to be one of
the strongest options of the four that we're gonna talk about today based just on how it
mounts to the Jeep.
So, let's get into the first option.
So, the first rocker armor I wanna talk about is the Smittybilt SRC Rock Crawler Side Armor.
Now, this is going to be something that is going to add some protection.
It's also going to add a very useful step.
It's going to be one of the less expensive options of this design and is not going to
be quite as strong as some of those other options out there.
This is going to be a very useful step for you, because it is going to be this very traditional
three-bar, almost triangle shape design.
So, it is going to stick out a good bit from the side of the Jeep.
It's gonna give you a nice flat stepping surface.
In fact, you can see here this has some steel welded on it to give you more of a nice flat
stepping area.
Then this three-bar design is something that you are going to see from a couple of different
manufacturers, and you're actually going to see one of the other pieces that we're gonna
talk about today.
But the main thing that makes these different from one another is going to be how they mount.
I briefly touched on that a little bit before.
So, the mounts that this piece has here are going to be just two mounting on the four-door,
where you just have two mounts instead of using the third one in the middle here.
And these are going to mount to the smaller body bushing bolts.
So, these are the smaller bolts that put the body bushing in place, not the larger, stronger
body bolt in the center.
And, of course, because it only has two mounts, it isn't going to be quite as strong as some
of the other ones.
So, if you're looking for a little bit of a lighter protection, you're looking for a
very useful step, then I think this is still going to be a pretty good option.
But, if you are looking for even more protection, I would probably go to one of the other options
we're gonna talk about that will add a third mounting point and even additional features
that make it that much stronger.
This next option is the RedRock 4x4 Side Armor, and you can see it's a fairly similar design
to the Smittybilt that we just talked about.
It's going to have the same three-bar triangular design although it's a slightly different
shape.
Any other difference is that this doesn't have that flat steel welded on the top of
it.
This is still going to be a very useful step, because it gives you a flat surface across
these two bars here that sticks out a good bit from the side of the Jeep, giving you
a nice usable step.
Now, the difference is, and I mentioned this before, all about how these are gonna mount
onto your Jeep.
This is going to have three different mounting points.
They're gonna mount to the bottom of the tub using these plates here, and then it's also
going to mount onto the pinch seam.
Again, completely bolt-on.
You're not gonna have to drill anything out here.
But because this mounts in three locations and because it mounts here and here on two
different planes, that's going to help absorb any sort of bending or flex that you might
get from the additional leverage of something like this.
This really takes away some that mechanical advantage that you get if you were to put
a lot of weight on the step far out here or going the other way, put a lot of the Jeep's
weight down on a rocker, another obstacle on this part that's so far away from the vehicle.
Having these two mounting points on two different planes really helps to alleviate any of that
flex you might get from having all of that leverage.
So, this is gonna be something that's gonna mount nice and securely onto the Jeep, giving
you a good bit of protection.
The next option I wanna talk about are these Barricade Enhanced Rubi Rails, and these are
gonna be a very different design from the last two that we looked at.
They both share that sort of triangular tubular design.
This is going to be very similar to a factory Rubi rail or Rubicon rail that you find on
a Rubicon model Jeep right out of the factory.
The enhanced part is the fact that it has this additional bar on, and that additional
bar is going to give you a little bit more of a stepping surface, but it's also going
to add even more protection, keeping any sort of obstacle that much further away from the
vehicle.
This is going to mount in a very similar way to the RedRock 4x4 Side Armor that we just
talked about.
It's gonna mount to the bottom of the tub and also onto the pinch seam.
So, it's gonna do a really good job of protecting your Jeep and holding up to a lot of weight
on the top while not stressing the bottom of this bar, and this is going to not stick
out very far from the Jeep.
It's gonna be tucked in nice and tight, so you're gonna have even less potential for
that leverage that can cause some twisting and eventually causing damage.
Now, having it closer to the Jeep is going to be a less useful step.
However, it's also going to give it a nice, sleek, and unobtrusive look.
So, if you're looking for something that's a little bit more low-profile, you're not
as concerned about the step, again, you need to step on this, but it's not going to be
quite as useful, then I think this is gonna be a good option, also giving you a good bit
of protection.
And the last option I wanna talk about today is the Barricade Rock Slider, and this is
going to be the strongest option of all of the ones that we've talked about today.
As far as the design goes, it's going to be a tubular design, kinda similar to the Smittybilt
and the RedRock that we talked about, but it doesn't have that lower bar.
These are just going to be two upper bars, and they are going to actually slant away
from the Jeep a little bit.
What that's designed to do is not get you hung up on a rock or an obstacle when you're
off-road.
If you are sliding down off of something, this is going to help to push the Jeep away
from the obstacle instead of getting hung up on it.
That's why it has that little bit of an angle there.
Now, because you are getting rid of one additional bar and because this doesn't sit flush, or
flat, or parallel to the ground, it's still gonna be a step, but it's not going to be
as useful.
As you can see, the trend is we get a little bit away from being a step and more and more
about protection.
Now, these are gonna be big, beefy bars.
They have a couple of gussets.
There's a ton of strength there.
But, what really makes this a nice strong option is the fact that it mounts, again,
in three locations, like the last two that we've talked about, but this is going to mount
onto those big, beefy, strong body bolts.
Now, I've seen these rock sliders take a lot of punishment off-road.
These can definitely stand up to pretty much whatever you're gonna be throwing at them.
Now, like I mentioned before, if you are going to be willing to drill a bunch of holes in
your Jeep, you can get some armor plating that is going to be just that much stronger,
but for a bolt-on option, I really like the rock sliders that attach onto the body bolts.
I've seen these things definitely take a beating, and they are going to be one of the strongest
options that we've talked about today.
So, those are my picks for a couple of different types of side armor that are going to attach
to your Jeep in different ways, providing more or less protection.
We talked through the Smittybilt Rock Crawler Side Armor, also the RedRock 4x4 Rock Crawler
Side Armor.
We also went over the Barricade Enhanced Rubi Rails and, finally, the Barricade Rock Sliders.
So, make sure you comment below.
Let us know which of those pieces of armor you like best, which ones you want to install
on your Jeep and why, or which ones you already have installed and how they're working for
you on the trail.
Also, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel to check out product videos on all
of these items as well as many others.
Remember, these are just my picks.
We have a lot of other options on the site, so make sure you subscribe to check those
out.