Let's get straight to the point. These are seemingly very well made and solid. I say seemingly as they have not been “battle tested” by me. They fit right over the stock rails that came with my 2019 Rubicon JL and no, you do not need to remove those stock rails.
If you do not have an impact driver, expect to spend a great deal of exertion extracting the factory bolts with a hand wrench. They are very long and they are difficult to ratchet all the way out. Once they are out about 1/4 of the way, it feels like the nut(?) they are fastened to is loose and wobbles around inside the frame of the Jeep. I have no idea what was going on in there, but I was quite worried I would never be able to reinsert the bolts without having to tear deeply into the mechanism to hold whatever the bolts screw into. I still have no idea what was going on in there, but the bolts went back in easily and securely.
This installation will be done far easier if you have someone to help you, and/or a lift for the Jeep, as they are heavy and awkward to hold in position by yourself. Especially if you are 73-years old. That being said, neither of my sons could be bothered to help me so I effectively did the install by myself, on the floor of my garage. I used a couple of 5-gallon Homer buckets to rest one end of the rail on while I worked on the opposite end. In spite of my deep concern about why the bolts hung on so tightly during extraction for the entire length of the bolts (they are about 4” long), and whatever they screw into being so loose, the install went smoothly.
BEWARE! I say “smoothly” with some tongue-in-cheek. Absolutely no where in the printed instructions OR the install video does it happen to mention there is a driver’s-side rail and a passenger’s-side rail. And, they are NOT interchangeable. I was almost finished with the driver’s side install (with the passenger side slider) when I discovered the rail would not fit and had to begin all over. I double checked the instructions and the video. This is not mentioned. The video does casually mention, in passing, that there are angular cuts on the forward side of the rail they are installing, but that is it. Extremely easy to miss what they are saying, or pick up on that fact. BARRICADE! ARE YOU LISTENING?? Either emphatically mention this in the instructions and/or put a sticker on each rail indicating what side they are for. Save your customers some aggravation.
Aesthetics ~ If you are worried primarily about how macho your Jeep will look, then this is not the best look when installed with the stock Rubi Rails. The finish on the stock rails and your new sliders are quite different and pretty noticeable. Also, the stock rails fill in enough space on the sliders that they diminish quite a bit their effectiveness as a step. On the other hand if you are primarily interested in armor for your Jeep, these will do the trick. I am happy with what I have and would recommend these to anyone interested. If looks is your only concern and you have a Rubicon, you may wish to consider removing those stock sliders.
