Westin HDX Nerf Bars with Drop Steps - 4" Wide - Black Powder Coated Stainless Steel

Video Transcript for Westin HDX Xtreme Nerf Bars Installation - 2023 Chevrolet Silverado 2500

Hey, guys, it's Jake here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at and I'm gonna show you how to install the Westin HDX Xtreme Nerf Bars on our 2023 Chevy Silverado 2500. Right off the bat, you're gonna notice that these running boards are gonna have a very aggressive look on your truck. They're very stylish. The thing that I like about them compared to other running boards is that they're only gonna have a step where you need it. A lot of the other tube styles are just a very generic look.

If that's the look you're going for, that's fine, but these are gonna have a much more stylish look on the side of our truck. They'll have a rugged, textured, black powder coat finish. It is matte black. I think it adds to the looks of the truck because there's a lot of plastic accessories on this truck, and it blends right in. Let's go ahead and show you how big the step is.

I have a size 13 boot, and you can see here on this step, I have more than enough space to be able to step on this and get up in the truck. Now, you can see this plate is going to accommodate just about every foot size out there. That's the big problem that I have with side steps is that they're usually not big enough or deep enough to be able to fit my foot on it. We do have another version of these available that do not have this backing plate on it, and the step is about half as big as this plate is. I like these personally because when I get up into this truck, I can put one foot on and then get in.

Now, I am tall enough to just kind of hop up into this truck, but I can tell you, after a long day's work, being able to get out, use the step to help you get out is gonna be a lot more comfortable. This step is gonna give you a lot more grip than, say, a polished finish or a smooth finish 'cause it's gonna have all these little nibs and grooves that are gonna help to redirect the water and ice and snow so that you still have a premium grip getting up into your truck. A lot of running boards, what they'll have is they'll have their rear step to enter the back seat of your truck either a little bit too far back or a little bit too far forward, but Westin's got this dialed in to where it's perfect if you're trying to get in the backseat of the truck. Another use that we often think about here at etrailer, 'cause we do a lot of stuff with roof accessories, is that if you're trying to wash your truck or put an accessory up on top of your roof, maybe you just ran out of space in the bed of your truck or you like to go camping and you can't put too much stuff in the back and you decide to get a cargo bag or a rooftop basket, anything like that, these steps are wide enough to where you can put two feet on it and stand up and reach the top of your roof, depending on your height of course. A lot of those tube steps, too, are gonna have a pretty significant drop.

These are about three inches below your rocker panel, so it doesn't give you a whole lot of drop to be able to get into it, but for the sake of getting you some extra height to get on top of your roof, it's really gonna help. Now, one thing that I don't like about tube steps that have a pass-through or any type of running board that has a pass-through is that because I have a big foot, usually what ends up happening is if I step on it too fast, my foot will go underneath the rocker panel, and then if you're wearing boots or any larger shoe, if you have a pair of, like, waders or mud boots that you like to wear when you're working, chances are you're gonna get your foot stuck underneath the rocker panel. But with these, your foot can only go as far as that backing plate is, and, to me, that's probably the best feature about these, in addition to the rugged look. I do like how they go from wheel well to the end of your bed, so it's a good, clean factory look. You don't have to worry about getting a bed step, too, because they do have these with a third step for the bed. But when you're using it with the '23, you've already got a step in the bed right here. But all in all, I think it's a very clean look. The installation is very, very simple. There's no drilling required. You just have to take out some plastic fasteners that are covering up the bolt holes. But with that being said, let's go ahead and pull it into the shop and show you how we did it. To begin our installation, we're gonna start by removing six plastic plugs on each side of our vehicle. We'll use a trim panel tool in order to pry these out. You can also use a flathead screwdriver. But the ones on the front that we're gonna wanna use are the forward most, which are these two. You'll see that it's between these two nibs. And then we'll come back, you'll see two more sets. We'll use the rearward set. And then come all the way back to the back of our frame, see two more sets, and we'll use the rearward one on that set, too, these two plugs all the way up the frame. Then we'll take some penetrating oil, and we're gonna spray some in each one of our threads here. Now, our truck only has about 500 miles on it, but I'm telling you, these things can get gunked up pretty quick. Even from the factory, they could have stuff in them. Those plugs are designed to help keep them clean, but stuff still gets in there. We're using a toothbrush in order to clean them out. Now to get our hardware in place, we'll take one of the bolts that come in our kit, we'll put a split lock washer on first, then a flat washer. This is gonna be the hardware combination you'll use for all of your brackets. These two holes, this hole and this hole, are going to get this hardware, and you can see they match up perfectly on the frame of our vehicle. If you do not have a factory weld nut back in here, kit will come with some snap nuts that you can slide into place in order to get these brackets mounted up. But the reason we cleaned those holes out is because you want to be able to turn the bolt by hand to hand tighten it without having to use a tool, which ours are nice and clean. We'll wanna leave all of our brackets loose, and then at the end, once we get our running board on, we can line everything up, get it where we want, and tighten them down. For the four corner brackets for the end, we'll have one bracket here, one bracket at the front of our running board. Those are all gonna be the same bracket, so don't let it confuse you when you're going from one side to the other. They're all gonna look exactly the same. They'll install perfectly. The center bracket is what's going to matter, and we'll show you that next. Now, you will have two brackets that will look different from each other and different from the rest of the brackets. The bracket for our passenger side, you want this tab to go towards the rear of your vehicle, so when we mount it up, this is what it's gonna look like. On the other side, the bracket will just be flipped, and this tab will be over here. Another thing that'll help you identify which side these brackets go on is the passenger side will say PC and the driver's side will say DC. Now, with an extra set of hands, we'll lift our running board up into place. Just make sure your brackets are on the correct side, and you'll find some of these threaded holes in our running board that we'll thread that same hardware from earlier into. Now, if you have a ratcheting wrench or a regular wrench or just a socket actually, the further in bolt, it's kind of hard to get to. So what you can do is you can use a light, line up your holes, and just make sure that your bolt is going straight in. (tool whirring) You should feel very, very little resistance when putting that in. If you don't, that means it's cross-threaded, and you need to back it out and reinsert it. Now we can come back, and we'll tighten all of our brackets onto the truck first and then tighten the bolts on our running board. (tool whirring) Now, when you're installing these at home it's gonna be much easier to tell what it looks like 'cause you'll probably be doing it from the ground. Again, this installation is very easy to do from the ground. But what you wanna do is, this is the time where we need to adjust them, either move them in or out based off of the look that you're wanting to go for. We want maximum step accessibility. If you have it pushed in, you lose, I'd say, maybe a half inch. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna pull them all the way out on the front and back, pull all the way out and then lift up on it while we tighten. (tool whirring) And usually, if you get one tight, then it'll hold that running board in place, we can tighten the rest of them down. (tool whirring) Once you have everything snugged up, you'll wanna repeat that same process to get your driver's side running board installed, and then we'll come back with a torque wrench and torque all of our hardware to the specifications in the instructions. Well, guys, hopefully this video helped you decide whether or not the Westin HDX Xtreme Nerf Bars are right for you and your 2023 Chevy Silverado 2500.