Reviews for Aries 3036571 ActionTrac Powered Running Boards for 18-21 Jeep Wrangler JL Unlimited

Love these steps on our 2022 Wrangler Rubicon. Our Jeep is an XTreme Recon with factory 35” tires and it wasn’t easy to get in and out of until these steps were installed. It took me about 4 hours to install them with no help.

Plug and play

Sleek

Installation was a real breeze but you’ll for-sure need a whole Saturday and patience just to make sure you’re plugging everything in correctly.
I always get compliments on how they look, specially when they open the door. Real good product for the price. Just have to wait and find out how they’ll hold up on the trails!

The construction of these steps are really nice and sturdy. I have these steps installed on my JLU and they work incredibly well. Our jeep has a 3.5" lift with 37" tires which makes it very difficult for short people to get in and out. My wife is really pleased with them and has made is very easy for her to get in and out of the Jeep.

Very easy to install, except the wires to connect to the door sensors were not long enough to run them to all 4 doors, I could only get the front two doors wired up.
After about a month of normal use, both LEDs started flickering and visibly looked burned inside the lenses, so I had to remove them.
The steps worked great for a good while, but after a few months of normal driving conditions and being in an insulated garage during the sub-zero temps this winter, the driver side step (which gets the most frequent use) is noticeably struggling.
Probably going to replace these with another brand of powered steps.

Want to love these. I am loving them less and less.

Pros:
1. My son's (10 and 13) and I installed these in a long evening in my garage with some basic tools, barked knuckles and only one fat lip from a wrench slipping off and catching my 10 year old in the face (not a knock on the product... a lesson learned for a boy on how to hold a wrench)
2. Had a blast doing the install as the boys learned a ton and all the parts needed were ready an mostly working (see cons).
3. Powered coated aluminum parts are pretty solid
4. Steps are crazy solid. I feel they would support a very heavy person stepping on them.
5. Wife and mother-in-law can now climb into a mostly stock Rubicon without a step stool.
6. I will see how well they hold up when we take this off road in a few weeks at "jeepin with Judd" here in Florida.
7. Kudo's to whomever I spoke with at Quadratec that offered to replace the whole set for the damaged boxes (see cons) but I offered to see if they worked first before returning them. They were not functionally damaged, just cosmetic, so we kept them.

Cons:
1. The shipping box on these were destroyed. I have never seen any box so torn up by fed ex (and I ship and receive a ton). I took tons of photos, called quadratec, they offered to send a whole new set but I told them while the boxes were destroyed, all the parts were there and only a bit of the powder coating was damaged on one rail. 30 seconds with black touch up paint and you couldn't see the damage at all.
2. All the "little" parts were in a box that was also destroyed but they were so heavily wrapped in plastic / bubble wrap they were not damaged either.
3. If it isn't aluminum it is going to rust and already has with less than 6 months on the truck. I have not off roaded or even been through a bunch of deep puddles with this so it is just standard rain fall / car wash moisture but every bracket that is made of steel, even though painted, is rusting. Every piece. The rust is starting at the welds, like most does, and just spreading.
4. Install on a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4xE was tough as hell, the wires are just barely long enough. This is because the 4xE has an enormous battery and charge components in the way. Fishing the cables through was incredibly hard, required a fish tape and small hands (my boys). Slightly longer cables or some "extensions" may be all it takes to address some of these issues.
5.Lights didn't work immediately (see story below).
6. Once the lights did start working, they didn't last long. Both have now completely cheezed out. I believe moisture got into both, one is completely rusted inside. I am trying marine grade LED's to see if they last longer.
7. Wife took the jeep out earlier this week and said that twice the passenger side steps just didn't go down. We have driven it a dozen or more times since then with zero issues so it may have been a fluke. Keeping an eye on it.

Overall, I love these things, but the light situation is really odd. I received these back in July, but because of work was not able to install them until August. Right off the bat the lights didn't work at all. I checked, re-checked all the connections. Nothing. We paid for the extra light cost but they just didn't work. Sadly, I got called away for work again and didn't have time to troubleshoot more. The one time I did use a multimeter, the voltage would be all over the board when opening the doors and the lights were supposed to come on. Like a ping pong ball the voltage just jumped all over. I called quadratec, they got me a number to Aries, I spoke with a really helpful guy that said it was an odd issue too he was not familiar with. I told him I was going out of town again for work, but when I got back I would hit him up for some more troubleshooting. Almost a month went by with the lights not working. The steps worked fine every time. I was out one night and met up a fellow jeeper and he was asking me about the rails because his wife had issues getting into his jeep with a lift. He said he "wanted to buy the ones with the lights." I told him mine did have lights but they were not working. While chatting, we opened and closed the doors a half a dozen times and then all of a sudden the lights came on. We still do not know why but something turned them on and I was completely in love with the whole set up. I showed these things off to everyone I knew because the lights add such an accent to an already awesome add-on. That excitement lasted about 3 months. First the drivers side, and eventually the passenger side lights started blinking. For the last couple of weeks we look like a strobe light on crack every time you open the door because the flashing isn't consistent ... it flashes at whatever speed it wants for as long as the door is open. We don't suffer from vertigo but even I get bothered by the flashing light if we have the doors open for a long period of time like unloading Christmas presents. I got sick of it and just unplugged the things for a few days. This week I found some "splash proof" marine LED lights that are blue and look amazing (not very bright but an awesome blue that matches the Rubicon 4xE blue. I do believe the failure is in the lights themselves, not the control box or wiring. Both LED's had corrosion inside and one is completely rusted inside.

I really do love these things. The light situation sucks because it added a bit to the price. The rust is just awful and only going to get worse. I have already considered (but wanted to avoid this) getting the brackets remade of aluminum or stainless. The cost is going to be awful, but it grinds my gears how quickly these rusted.

I ordered from the first batch shipped (for my '18 JL Rubicon), so maybe the issues have been addressed since.

First, the machining is off on some of the bolt holes - have a step bit or reamer handy to help align things. Second, the end caps are cheap plastic that first will become white from the sun, and eventually fall off because of the poor assembly design.

Customer service does not respond to emails - so good luck there.

They are sturdy, and work fairly well. My advice with this review is to not expect a simple installation, and don't expect customer service if things get weird.