By Powered Step Sliders for the New 2021+ Ford Bronco!
In this article, let’s take a close-up look at the combination powered drop step and rock slider for the brand new 2021+ Ford Bronco made by Rock Slide Engineering. If you need a step for getting in and out of your vehicle for you and your family, but you also know you’re gonna wheel hard and you need the maximum off-road ground clearance and protection against obstacles on the trail, nothing compares to the step slider you’re gonna get from the company with the name that says it all.
They make this in a two-door and a four-door application and it’s an easy plug-and-play installation that uses factory mounting points with no cutting, no drilling, and no splicing into wiring that’s going to void your warranty. We are also going to make a separate step-by-step video, but before you buy let’s talk about what you need to know about these step sliders from Rock Slide.
Video: Powered Step Sliders for the New Ford Bronco!
The Powered Step
This might seem super obvious, but the way the power-retractable step works is that when you open the door to your Bronco it triggers the included sensor and it drops the step down and out. When deployed, the step comes out by about 5 inches but it drops down a full 12 inches from the top of the step slider, making it a full 18 inches from the inside door sill of your Bronco. This is more drop step than you could ever see from any sort of static step on the market because you will just sacrifice too much ground clearance. When you close the door it retracts right back up providing you the maximum off-road clearance giving you the best of both worlds. The weight limit on that step is 600 pounds which is almost certainly more than you could ever fit on that step.
Smart Motor Technology
These power-retractable steps also have a very important safety feature called pinch protection thanks to the smart motors in here which have sensors inside them that are going to detect if anything is in the opening between the step and the housing. When it’s retracting back up into the body you can imagine if you’ve got kids or a dog around, nobody wants to lose anything. The step is extremely sensitive and if it senses anything in there, it is going to stop to make sure nobody gets hurt. That technology also works in the opposite direction and it has object resistance detection. If you’re out on the trail and there’s a rock, log, or another obstacle in the way when the step tries to extend, if it senses something it will try one more time, then it’ll stop if it hits it again and will stay that position until the door is closed or until you hit your close button which is an accessory I’ll talk about later.
These smart motors are also fully submersible and waterproof which means that you’re not going to have to worry about exposure to elements over time. You can even go forging through deep water and not have to worry about damage to the electrical components.
LED Light Kit
They also sell a LED light accessory kit which is also fully submergible and that can be added at any time. The LED light kit mounts right inside the step and plugs right into the step’s wiring harness so it’s concealed, safe, and easy to install. This kit illuminates the steps in the dark as you would imagine, powering on when the step is lowered, and turning off when the step is retracted.
Construction Quality
Rock Slide Engineering stands behind its product with a limited lifetime warranty on all the electrical components and even the powder coating finish. In order to offer a warranty like this, it means that these steps have to be built tough and that takes us to the rock slider features of this product. Built by Rock Slide Engineering out of Logan Utah, this product is entirely designed and manufactured in the United States and is also tested in Moab which is home to some of the nastiest trails you can imagine, so the thing’s got to be tough. They are using materials that are designed to take a beating. The housings are made out of 10-gauge stainless steel which is the same thickness of steel you will find on most off-road bumpers. It is also etched using an acid treatment process on the raw steel that then is coated with their ultra-durable textured black powder coating which is much more resistant to scratches than your average powder coating. The internals continues to use stainless steel like the articulating arms where it matters, but then they use aluminum in other places to save a little bit of weight but still maintain that resistance to rust.
The Additional Armor
Rock Slide says that these will stand up to moderate off-road abuse but if you’re really planning to go hard in the paint and you think you’ll drop your Bronco on a boulder from a few feet up, you might want to consider getting the extra armor protection. This comes in the form of an additional skid plate that is 10-gauge steel just like the main slider, doubling down on the strength which is going to really protect the chassis and the step slider itself. The basic steps also have exposed bolt heads which this armor covers up providing a nice, smooth surface for sliding over obstacles.
We have opted for this skid plate. We don’t plan to bash the Bronco from several feet onto boulders, but we know for a fact we’re going to scratch up the rock sliders during our offroad excursions. What we don’t want to do is scratch up the main rock sliders — these are fairly expensive and not terribly easy to install. However, if we scratch up the skid plates we can easily remove them, have them re-powder coated, or simply buy a new one for about an eighth of the price of the normal step slider.
The Door Delete Kit
One of the other accessories you can consider for this whole system is their door delete kit. The basic step does come with a power button that allows you to cut the power to the step so when the door is closed and the step is up, you can switch off the power, open the door, and the step won’t deploy and will just stay in that position. It doesn’t allow you to control the step though. The door delete kit allows you to take the doors off and still control the steps with a simple press of a button, but this has more functionality than just when you take the doors off. If you’ve opened the doors and you’re loading stuff in the back seat and you don’t want to smash your shins on the step while it’s dropped, you can hit the button and the step goes up. We can also imagine using that when you’re out on the trail if the object detection causes the steps to stay down, you can hit that button and the steps will come back up without worrying about the doors. It is just a lot of extra control for an accessory that’s under $100.
If you would like to take a look at these steps on our website, there are links down below. Now, we also can be reached on live chat at Motoroso.com or toll-free at 833.MOTOROSO if you have any questions about the steps or anything else for your Bronco. We will be making a step-by-step installation guide and you can also check that out down below. Thanks for reading!
4-Door Step Sliders
Shop the 4-Door Step Sliders for the Bronco Here!
Shop the 4-Door Skid Plate Armor for the Bronco Here!
2-Door Step Sliders
Shop the 2-Door Step Sliders for the Bronco Here!
Shop the 2-Door Skid Plate Armor for the Bronco Here!
Accessories
Shop the Door Delete Kit Here!
