Rock Slide Engineering (RSE) Rail Reliability

[jh3113]

Mine are over a year old. I was stupid and left one of them open when offroading. Racked it on a rock and completely annihilated it. Contacted them, bought a rebuild kit with replacement motor for like $250. Replaced it and the motor was bad. I think I removed and replaced the step like 10 times while troubleshooting with them. They ended up just sending me an entire new side step and had me send back the old one, all for free. I am happy. They were working flawlessly before and also working flawlessly since i got the replacement step.

One thing I do recommend is to make sure your magnets are in the perfect spot. If they are off, the steps stay stuck out and that is annoying. It takes a lot of time to find the perfect spots for the magnets and the reed switches, but once you do, they work great.

I'd give them 8/10. They work great when off-roading. Customer service experience was great. I am only docking them points because I think the reed switches they use are bad. I would almost prefer a mechanical switch so you don't have to fiddle with the positions so much.

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[Raptor911]

I want these also BUT have read some customers saw their battery drained by the steps if their broncos sat for 2-3 weeks.

 

[Yukon65006]

How do you know they're deploying?

When you open the door you can hear them deploy so a few times I have opened the door and the step is already down. One occasion I went into the garage and the step was down. Another time while pulling into the drive with I heard it deploy, even adjusted the mirror to verify it was down before opening the door. Since this started I have tried make an effect to listen for the step retracting and deploying with the door.

 

[Hossamus Prime]

My main reason for the question is wondering if anyone has had issues outside the warranty 12m period and had to pay up for mechanism that failed and it became costly. I don't think these measure up to some "true" rock sliders, but they seem acceptable for mild use. I'm most concerned about a warranty for mechanism only lasting 12m

I have a set, and had a minor issue of one hitting a little when closing and i was asking if there was a way to adjust them. They sent me a new one, quick responses and really no questions asked. The Bronco sliders have different mechanism the the jeep ones did have, I think they updated the Jeep ones this year.

 

[Yukon65006]

One thing I do recommend is to make sure your magnets are in the perfect spot. If they are off, the steps stay stuck out and that is annoying. It takes a lot of time to find the perfect spots for the magnets and the reed switches, but once you do, they work great.

Prior to installing I had read about the magnet alignment issues and one of the recommendations was installing longer magnets than the supplied ones. I used these and this random step deployment is the 1st issue I have had.

I also keep an extra set of magnets stuck to the body near the jack incase one falls off a door.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08L3FVFFZ

 

[Yukon65006]

Just received a reply from them and they suspect a bad door sensor and are sending me replacement(s). Will disable the steps until they arrive.

Will post back if they solve the issue.

 

[LABlueBronco]

In the 4 months of having mine, no issues at all, not batteries, deploying when door closed, etc. I feel confident recommending them. If you don't want or need rock protection (these protect from rocks being thrown by the front tire, btw), I can definitely recommend AMP research steps as a great alternative. AMP is Ford's "factory" step manufacturer, so I used them for 9 years on a F150 Platinum.

 

[Herbie]

When you open the door you can hear them deploy so a few times I have opened the door and the step is already down. One occasion I went into the garage and the step was down. Another time while pulling into the drive with I heard it deploy, even adjusted the mirror to verify it was down before opening the door. Since this started I have tried make an effect to listen for the step retracting and deploying with the door.

I know what you are experiencing as I experienced the identical thing. Mine started opening and closing so much I had to pull the fuse. It did it while the truck was parked in the garage, it did it while I was driving and turning off the kill switch didn't even stop it from happening. Again, I had to pull the fuse.
It is one of two things (based on my experience anyways). Either something has gotten stuck up on one of your cross beams or gussets where the step comes to rest inside the housing and preventing the step from closing all the way. When the step encounters resistance it opens (or closes in the instance that the resistance is external i.e. a rock on a trail or a person's leg). Kind of like the safety mechanism that is in place if by accident it started closing and someone's hand was in the way, it will open back up.
Option 2, the control module is bad and you just need to call them for a new control module and they will send you one for free.
I got my steps very early on. Ordered them from Tc Customs before they were even manufactured in September of 2021 and apparently for some of their very early models they used a control module that had a chip from a different manufacturer than they usually use (story sound familiar) anyhow they swapped them out as customers called about it. I swapped my drivers side out about six months ago and coincidentally just swapped the passengers side out one week ago today.
As others have said, their customer service is awesome and their technical support and trouble shooting is great. Despite the fact that I had to swap out both control modules, I freakin love the steps.
Hope this was helpful.

 

[Herbie]

Just received a reply from them and they suspect a bad door sensor and are sending me replacement(s). Will disable the steps until they arrive.

Will post back if they solve the issue.

I hope that is all it is. Check out my response to you I posted while you were typing this one. If you want to pm me I would be happy to give you my number to talk it through.

 

[Yukon65006]

I hope that is all it is, but I doubt it. Check out my response to you I posted while you were typing this one. If you want to pm me I would be happy to give you my number to talk it through.

Thanks for the explanation of your issues. Will definitely keep your situation in mind while working through this problem an may take you up on the offer if the problem persists after trying the door switches, sealed magnet switches can fail but not often.

With my wife being 4’10” she loves the step and while I don’t need it I do like having it.

 

[Herbie]

Thanks for the explanation of your issues. Will definitely keep your situation in mind while working through this problem an may take you up on the offer if the problem persists after trying the door switches, sealed magnet switches can fail but not often.

With my wife being 4’10” she loves the step and while I don’t need it I do like having it.

Good luck, one last quick question. If you turn off the step power switch near your fuse box does that stop the defective one from randomly deploying or did you need to pull the inline fuse?

 

[Lucky Nut]

I've had no issues with mine. 2 door owner here and they are life savers when loading the dogs into the back seat.

 

[Yukon65006]

Good luck, one last quick question. If you turn off the step power switch near your fuse box does that stop the defective one from randomly deploying or did you need to pull the inline fuse?

Since it is not driven everyday it took a few days to figure out what was going on. Today will be the 1st day trying the switch. If that doesn’t work will pull the fuse and contact RSE.

will use testing the steps as an excuse to go golfing the next few days if the weather stays nice.

 

[Yukon65006]

So wanted to give an update on the drivers side step randomly deploying. While waiting on the replacement sensors from RSE I pop the door sill cover and moved the wires around on the drivers door sensor. Could get the step to retract and deploy with the door open by moving the wires around at the sensor.

Replacement sensors arrived in 5-6 days, my mail person has a whole lot of no f#^%s given. Replaced the driver door sensor then went on vacation for a week followed by getting the covid for the 1st time. So after a few 100 plus mile trips and some around town it appears to be good to go.

As a bonus RSE sent two sensors so I have a spare incase this happens again.

 

[RainbowStix]

I was curious about these too, thanks for your input guys. Seems to be problems across the board for aftermarket powered steps. I had a set of powered steps for a truck that had a sensor issue only after a year of use, resulting in one of the steps staying down perpetually.

I'm sure marketing a powered step for offroading only adds to the issues.

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