Westin HDX Xtreme Nerf Bars - Textured Black Powder Coated Steel

Video Transcript for Westin HDX Xtreme Nerf Bars Installation - 2023 Chevrolet Silverado 3500

Hey, guys, it's Jake here with etrailer. Today we have a 2023 Chevy Silverado 3500, and we're gonna be taking a look at and I'm gonna show you how to install the Westin HDX Xtreme Running Boards. When we take a look at a set of running boards, what we'd like to do is, we'll look at what it's like to live with it. So right off the bat, you go to get in your truck, it's gonna be a nice, large space to put your foot. I have a size 13 boot, which a boot is typically a little bit larger in size than a typical tennis shoe or a sandal. So you can see there is more than enough space, about six inches extra past my boot, to be able to put your foot on that, get up in your truck nice and safely.

What I really, really like about these is that they're not a pass- through running board, so your foot is gonna hit this wall here, whereas on a set of traditional running boards, this would be open and your foot could pass through. I really don't like those because I have larger feet, and my foot often gets stuck underneath them. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does, and when it does, you'll definitely know it. The tread plate is going to have a few different designs on it, but it's definitely gonna have these nibs that's gonna bite into the bottom of your shoe and give you that premium grip when it's raining or snowing or even when it's dry. Some factory running boards, it's just a straight pattern kind of like this, but it doesn't have these little nibs on it, and it doesn't have texture like the rest of this does.

I think what I like most about these running boards is that they're gonna look really aggressive. Even on a truck like the High Country that comes with a lot of chrome on it, these steps are gonna look like they're factory because of the bed steps, it'll match that. It'll match the black borders around your wheel wells, if you have rock guards like we have here. They're a much more aggressive-looking running board than a traditional tube step. I personally don't like the looks of tube steps because I think they hang down too low.

Although I'm a taller person, I'm 6'5" so there's a lot of vehicles that I don't need to step in, and a lot of those tube steps get in the way 'cause they tend to come out a little bit further. But I think they did a nice job with the style of this getting away from that standard tube step look. Now, compared to the front, the rear is also going to be placed in the perfect position when getting into the backseat. A lot of times, they don't line up very well, and they almost become intrusive when you're trying to get in and out of a vehicle if the step is not in the right spot. And in addition to that, if you have the step here, and you're trying to wash your truck or get something off the roof if you decide to put a roof rack or something up here, the step is wide enough to where, again, I could put two 13 size shoes on here and stand here for a long time, load up a cargo carrier.

Or maybe you have a roof bag if you ran out of space in the bed of your truck, you can put all that stuff up here and not have to worry about slipping off your running board. Something else with these running boards is they're gonna be made out of a sturdy steel construction with a matte black powder coat finish which is going to help to hold up against rust and corrosion over time. We all know that rock chips will happen when you're headed down the road. If you ever get a scratch or anything like on these, what I like about them compared to chrome or a gloss paint is that all you have to do is scuff it up with a little bit of steel wool, a finer steel wool or some fine sandpaper, and then hit it with some matte spray paint, and it should blend right in, and you don't have to worry about having to look at that rust. Now, when it comes to the installation, this kit is gonna be very, very easy to get installed. It took us about 45 minutes to an hour to get both sides installed. You'll have 12 bolts that you'll need to install on both sides to get the rails up. If you don't have factory weld nuts, like you'll see we have on this truck, you will have clips that come in your kit that you can install, and then that becomes your weld nut. And you'll just thread it in, tighten everything down and torque it up. With that being said, let's go ahead and pull it inside and show you how we did it. To begin ours installation, we need to start by removing the plastic plugs that are filling up our weld nuts. In our case, our plastic plugs are already removed. You can use a screwdriver or a trim panel tool to pop these out. It'll look just like this. We had a factory set of running boards on this truck that we're swapping out today, but you're gonna wanna use, towards the rear of the vehicle, there's two sets of holes. You'll use the rearward set there. Come towards the front of the truck, you'll have a body mount here, use the set right next to that, and then even more so towards the front of the truck, you'll only have one set that you'll be able use here. You get all those popped out. Ours had bolts in there so we know that our threads are clean. If you do not, I recommend taking a tube brush and cleaning these out so that you know that your bolts will thread in. We'll take a bolt that comes in our kit. You'll have several of these. We'll take a split lock washer, put it on first, then a regular washer, and we'll thread these into the holes. On the front bracket and the back bracket, actually, there's gonna be four that look identical, and two brackets that will look different. The two brackets that are different will be the center mount brackets. We're gonna repeat this process for the rear bracket. Your center bracket for each side is going to have this much larger bracket. The passenger side will be labeled PC. The driver's side will be labeled DC. They're essentially a mirror image of each other. We'll take this and throw it up here the same way we did our front and rear, threading our bolts through our holes. You do wanna leave this hardware loose. It's so that we can get our running board on smoothly. If you tighten them down, you'll have a harder time getting the running board adjusted. And with an extra set of hands, we'll lift our running board up into place. Make sure that you're mounting the brackets on the same side that our weld nuts are on. Slide it over. Use that same hardware combination. We'll just get a couple of them started here. The inner weld nuts are gonna be difficult to get to because of how thin this gap is. So we take a short socket that the bolthead can't go down into and line it up. You just want to be really careful that you do not cross-thread these. (tool whirring) Once you find the threads smoothly, it should go in. Now with all our hardware in place, we're gonna leave the hardware loose on the running board but tighten the brackets on our vehicle. We'll tighten our bottom bolt first and then the top one. (tool whirring) This is the time where you wanna make any adjustments to the running board before we tighten those final six bolts. We found that I personally think it looks best with the running board pulled all the way out towards the side of the truck. And then to level out the running board, you will lift up on it as far as it'll go, and we'll tighten the bolts just like that. If you'd like them to look a little bit more recessed, you can push them in. But to me, you're losing some of the step by having it underneath the rocker panel. So we'll pull it out, push it up, and we can tighten them down. (tool whirring) Then we'll come back with a torque wrench and torque down all of our hardware. And once you complete that, we'll repeat the same process on the driver's side. Once you have the other side installed and everything is torqued down to the specifications in the instructions, that's gonna do it for your installation. Well, guys, hopefully this video helped you decide whether or not the Westin HDX Xtreme Running Boards are right for you and your 2023 Chevy Silverado 3500.