MOPAR Rock Rails Install- NEED HELP

5364 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Snow Leopard, Sep 20, 2017

spinxt

Discussion Starter · Nov 22, 2013

I'm having one heck of a time installing my Rock Rails. I followed the instructions to at "T" and I'm a pretty mechanically savvy person. For those of you that have installed these, I'm having an issue getting the nuts on the 12 short allen head bolts that poke through the door sill. I have the 3 flag bolts loosely installed and the pinch weld bolts loosely installed. The problem is the flange on the rock rails is not sitting flush against the door jam. If the bolt threads were just a hair longer, it would be a non-issue. I have no idea why MOPAR wouldn't make the bolts a bit longer (there's plenty of clearance.

ANY help or suggestions would be helpful. I've tried a floor jack, hammer (causing too much damage), and using my legs as leverage while having a helper.......NO LUCK.

What a PITA job.

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ldiv2002

· #2 · Jan 13, 2014

spinxt said:
I'm having one heck of a time installing my Rock Rails. I followed the instructions to at "T" and I'm a pretty mechanically savvy person. For those of you that have installed these, I'm having an issue getting the nuts on the 12 short allen head bolts that poke through the door sill. I have the 3 flag bolts loosely installed and the pinch weld bolts loosely installed. The problem is the flange on the rock rails is not sitting flush against the door jam. If the bolt threads were just a hair longer, it would be a non-issue. I have no idea why MOPAR wouldn't make the bolts a bit longer (there's plenty of clearance.

ANY help or suggestions would be helpful. I've tried a floor jack, hammer (causing too much damage), and using my legs as leverage while having a helper.......NO LUCK.

What a PITA job.

Hey brother, I am having the same problem installing mine. If i take out the stiffner screws I can get most of the flange nuts on. However, i cannot get the stiffner screws back on and vise versa.

What did you end up doing to get the flange nuts on?

Thanks in advance.

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spinxt

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 13, 2014

ldiv2002 said:
Hey brother, I am having the same problem installing mine. If i take out the stiffner screws I can get most of the flange nuts on. However, i cannot get the stiffner screws back on and vise versa. What did you end up doing to get the flange nuts on? Thanks in advance.

Here's what I did:

*Remove the rock rail if it's in place.

*Slightly enlarge the holes along the pinch weld using a drill bit or Dremel tool

*Put the rock rail in place and thread the flag bolt nuts just enough to hold it on

*Support either end of the rail with a jack stand.

*Use a floor or bottle jack to raise the rail into place until it pops over the studs (hopefully you got those retaining nuts pushed all the way on, because there aren't a lot of threads to work with).

*Starting in the front, jack the rail into place using the tubular part of the rail. This forces it back and allows you to barely thread each nut on. I used a nut driver and socket so I could put additional horizontal leverage using my body weight.

*You may have to reposition the jack several times along the rail to get all the nuts in place.

*Now place the stiffener in place and use the jack on the bottom of the rail to get the pinch weld bolts installed. Now that you've rounded out the holes in the pinch weld, even if they don't line up exactly, you should still be able to get the bolts started.

Good luck!

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Cowpig

· #4 · Aug 1, 2017

anyone know if the current version of the MRR still requires the 'stiffener strips'?

i'm now being told they may no longer ship the rails with those strips / no longer required (?)

i've received 2 boxes of these, 1 already returned, neither had the stiffeners. the dealer ordered a 3rd set to send me the missing stiffeners.... none in that box either. He says he has another customer who was also missing the stiffeners .... ????

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kc135

· #5 · Sep 9, 2017

I recently bought the TH rock rails from a MOPAR online store and will do the install myself. However, the hardware that came with the kit is actually for the other "tube-type" rock rails. I've tried to get the supplier to get me the correct hardware but no luck. They tell me all the kits have the tube hardware and that I should be able to make do with what I have. Very frustrating. So I'm thinking about moving forward and trying to put the rock rails on using the hardware they sent. While there appears to be some overlap in hardware between the two types of rock rails, its not complete. My question is, has anyone else run into this problem where the hardware for the TrailHawk rock rails does not match? And if so, were you able to get the correct hardware OR did you have success in installing the rock rails with the hardware originally intended for the tube rock rails?

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Cowpig

· #6 · Sep 9, 2017

? the only difference is the older style has the tube on it, the current style / trailhawk version doesn't

they both still attach to the jeep the same way. i was never able to get a supplier to send me the rails without the box getting destroyed and half the hardware going bye bye in shipping. I also never got the stiffener strips - one supplier advised mopar stopped using those/supplying them but I have no idea if that's true. I ultimately got a huge discount/refund to just keep the rails and hardware (minus the strips) to basically just 'go away'. i fabbed my own stiffener's using stock steel from lowes (1"x6' piece ... drill it out...done)

i have extra hardware though (flag bolts etc) so if you're missing pieces let me know i can send them to you for shipping cost + paypal fee if i have what you need

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kc135

· #7 · Sep 11, 2017

Cowpig....thanks for sharing your experience. Also I appreciate the offer of your spare hardware, which I think I won't need because I should be able to duplicate the missing parts. Regardless, its easier to move forward knowing you were successful in your endeavor-which sounds very similar to mine. I also like the fact you were able to fabricate the stiffeners (which I never got).

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Snow Leopard

· #8 · Sep 19, 2017

Hi,

I need help with buying cross rails for my 2014 Overland. Can anyone provide me with a part number for Mopar or Yakima for generic rails? I will be using them to install J-racks for kayaks.

Thanks for your help.
Snow Leopard

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Cowpig

· #9 · Sep 20, 2017

Snow Leopard said:
Hi,

I need help with buying cross rails for my 2014 Overland. Can anyone provide me with a part number for Mopar or Yakima for generic rails? I will be using them to install J-racks for kayaks.

Thanks for your help.
Snow Leopard

the rock rails in this thread go along the door sill to protect from rocks, not the roof

fwiw i have the rhino rack cross rails, they're stout and silent at highway speed - they have all the usual assortment of add-ons for bikes, skis, boats, etc

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Snow Leopard

· #10 · Sep 20, 2017

Thanks for explaining. Silly me, I saw the word "rails" and thought ya'll were talking about roof rails.

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