Installation Time
(approx) 2 Hours
Difficulty Level:
Mechanical expertise or professional installation required.
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Ryan: The Bestop Powerboard NX Automatic Running Boards are for those of you that have a 4-door, 2007 to 2018 JK, that are looking for a retractable running board, a power running board, one that's going to flip down when you open the doors to give you a good use of a step and then flip up out of the way and out of sight when you're not using it. This is going to be a three out of three wrench installation. We're gonna show you how to do it. It is going to be fairly involved. However, it is not as involved as some of the other brands out there. And that's something I'm going to get to in just a second.But first, when you're looking for running boards or sidesteps of any kind, you are really going to find two main categories. Those that offer protection and usually aren't as good of a step, or those that are a great step but don't offer protection and in fact are a hindrance when off-road because part of them being a good useful step is the fact that they hang down and away from the vehicle a little bit more than ones that do some protecting.This is not going to offer you protection. It is going to hang down nice and low to make a very good, useful step for you and your passengers to get in and out of your Jeep, but then when you close the doors and you don't need these, they're going to be tuck up out of the way. Again, not offering a lot of protection but not being as much of a hindrance off-road because they are tucked up out of the way and also visually you don't have a sidestep that's hanging down real low. Again, with a sidestep that static, that isn't powered, that doesn't move like these ones do, you can't really have a step that is maybe halfway between where you need to step to and the ground because that's just way too low. You can't be driving around like that all the time.This is allowed to come down very low, be a very, very useful step for you and then you get up out of the way when you don't need it. So the running board itself, the power board itself, is going to be an aluminum piece here. It has this textured coating on it and not just the regular textured black powder coating that's textured visually, if this is actually textured to the touch to give you a good, grippy step, even if there is water, rain, snow, mud, whatever it might be, you're gonna have a good grip on the step. Of course, it does run all the way front to back. So both the front seat and the backseat passengers are going to be able to take advantage of this. Like most of the other powered steps on the market right now, this is going to come with a lighting kit which is very convenient. It looks pretty cool and it also allows you to make sure you can see exactly where you're stepping at night.This is going to be one of the hinge mechanisms, so this is going to be mostly an aluminum piece as well that's powder coated, all very well put together, all of the quality that you would expect from Bestop. Over here you have one of the motor assemblies. Again, you can just feel when you pick it up in your hand that it's heavy duty, it's strong, it's going to hold up well. These have up to a 600-pound carrying capacity so they are going to be very, very strong for you. And again, you have two of these hinges here on each side. You're going to get two of these steps themselves, of course, one passenger and one driver's side and then all of the wiring, the lighting, the motors, everything that you need to make this work. Now that is where we get into something that makes these a little bit unique.So obviously with something like this, there's a lot of wire. You have to power the motors, but not only that, you have to give the signal from the doors to the running board. So when you open the doors, these automatically flip down. And what that usually requires is pulling out some of the interior, flipping up carpets, pulling off interior panels, finding wires, tapping wires, whether you're cutting and splicing, or using a vampire clip, whatever it might be. These are a little bit unique in that yes, you still have to power this motor, that still needs to get power, but the actual signal from the door to the running board happens wirelessly and happens with a magnetic setup. So you put one sensor on the door jamb, one on the door, and that is what indicates to the system that the doors are open or closed. And that signal is, as I said, wirelessly transmitted to the brains of this operation.So not only do you not have a wire going from the body to the door and not only are you not tapping the factory wiring that senses when the doors are open or closed, but you're not running anything from that area to the brain. That all happens wirelessly. So that's something that's pretty unique about this setup and one of the best parts about it is it doesn't drive up the price anymore. These are pretty much the same price as the other versions of the powered steps that you'll find on the market right around that $1,300 price tag. And they're very high quality and they have that wireless aspect to them. They make the install a little bit easier and a little bit cleaner, also means you're not hacking up the factory wiring harness, which if you're like me, you don't like doing anyway.So these have a lot going for them. And, as I said, especially for the price, you would expect to pay a premium for that wireless technology and just for the quality that you get from a company like Bestop, but these are very, very fairly priced, especially for what you're getting. If you're looking for a powered sidestep and you're looking at some of the competition, I would take a second look at these, especially for that wireless tech that make the install that much easier.Speaking of the install, it's still gonna be a three out of three wrenches. You are gonna have to do some drilling, you are gonna have to do some wiring, even though you don't have to do wiring for those sensors, you do have to still power these. So there is still going to be a good bit to the installation. Certainly not something you cannot do in your driveway if you choose to, but of course also no shame in taking these to a shop and having them install them for you. Either way, we're gonna show you how to install them right now.Man: Tools used for this install are 3/8 impact gun, short 3/8 extension, 5 millimeter Allen wrench, 10 millimeter socket. All right. The first step is you're gonna want to open up the wiring harness and you need to find the fuse and we need to remove the fuse. I'm just gonna pull out on it. All right. Next thing we're gonna do is open our hood up to gain access to our battery. Next thing we're gonna do is take our positive and negative wires off of our wiring harness and connect them to the positive and negative terminals of our battery. Now, make sure you have your fuse removed. We don't want to send power to the rest of the wiring harness. This will be the very last step to reinstall our fuse. So I have a 10 millimeter socket. I'm gonna remove the nut on our battery terminal here. And I will attach the islet. And we'll do the same thing for the negative.Next thing we're gonna do is take our control box and plug it into our main wiring harness here. Once we do that, we're gonna use the two supplied 7-inch long zip ties and zip tie it to our main wiring harness of the vehicle right here. And make sure you push this in as far as you can so that the locking tabs fully engage. You want to hear that click. Next thing we're gonna do is take the longer leg of our wiring harness and route it behind the engine here and it's going to get us down. We're gonna run it along the frame rail of the Jeep to get it down to where the side steps are gonna be mounted to.All right. Once we've got it over to the driver's side, we can pick a spot in here and drop our wires down. We just want to make sure we keep it away from our exhaust. Next thing we're gonna do is locate our controller module in our box and we're gonna plug it into the 4 pin connector on our wiring harness and in the same box that this controller was in, you're gonna have some 14 inch long zip ties and we're gonna find a good spot under here to get this up and out of the way.All right. Next thing we're gonna do is mount our door sensor. So we're gonna peel off the 3M backing tape here and what we're gonna do is come on the inside of our door and line it up with this notch right here. We're gonna line the bottom of the sensor up with the bottom of the notch on the hinge. And then we'll push. All right, after this we need to get the magnet mounted on the hinge itself here, and take the magnet and there's also a magnet holder right here that we'll put on last. And I'm gonna put the magnet on our hinge and I'm gonna test the door, opening and closing it to see where this falls.All right. Once you've got it lined up, we can throw the magnet holder right on here. All right. Next thing we're gonna do is take our idler bracket here and attach it to the pinch weld of our vehicle. So we're gonna use the supplied 3/8 hardware and get these started in here. All right. Once you've got both bolts started, we can go through and tighten these up. And I'm just going to leave these somewhat loose for now.Okay. Next thing we're gonna do is attach the rear motor assembly. I'm gonna get one hole started in the back.All right. So the next thing we're gonna do is attach our torsion bar to the frontline gauge and the rear motor linkage. Now make sure you grab the correct torsion bar. They're labeled D and P for driver's and passenger. And what we're going to do is slide a sleeve over our torsion bar and then we're gonna line up our holes on our front linkage chair, slide the torsion bar back over. And we're gonna get a bolt started in here.All right. So the next thing we're going to do is take our wiring harness and get it routed to the back motor here. Once you have it somewhat routed to the way you want it, we can go ahead and plug it in. The other wire we have hanging here is for LED light. All right. So we are now ready to put our sidestep into place. And last but not least, we're gonna stick our LED lights on here and we're going to peel our 3M backing tape off. We'll stick these guys right on here, put some pressure, then we'll route the plug back behind our motor linkage here and plug it right in.All right. We're gonna do the same thing on the front here, peel our backing tape off. All right guys, that's gonna wrap up our review and install. Be sure to check out more at extremeterrain.com.
Features, Description, Reviews, Q&A, Specs & Installation
Gain Added Sleek Styling. All sort of different additions can upgrade your Jeep Wrangler's style. Few can look as seamless or impress as quickly as automatic running boards, though. You’ll feel like sci-fi is entering real life as these Bestop Powerboard NX Automatic Running Boards automatically extend out from under your Jeep when you open the doors. They are powered through Wi-Fi and a wireless connector, then run the length of your front and rear doors. Dropping their sleek rectangular shape 6 inches down, these running boards make your Wrangler's style sharp and modern.
Constructed to be Practical. On top of the style they add to your Jeep Wrangler, these running boards are handy because they are practical. They add protection to your rockers and undercarriage. They also function as a side step so that cab access is easier. The boards can hold up to 600 pounds, so you know they are strong enough to make cab entry safe and convenient.
Wi-Fi and Wireless Contoller.One of the major drawing points of these running boards is the wireless controller and Wi-Fi modules. The modules connect to the door jambs and sense when the doors open and close. From there, the modules speak to a wireless connector, which uses programmed logic to work the boards.
Everything You Need for Installation. In order to install these running boards to perform automatically, they come as a kit. The kit includes the 2 running boards as well as motors, a controller, hardware, Wi-Fi modules, and an LED light kit.
Application. These Bestop Powerboard NX Automatic Running Boards will fit all 2007-2018 Jeep Wrangler JK 4-Door models.
CA Residents: WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm - www.P65Warnings.ca.gov
Installation Info
Installation Time
(approx) 2 Hours
Difficulty Level:
Mechanical expertise or professional installation required.
What's in the Box
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