Running Man

 

One consideration I hadn't considered in trading vehicles was the step height to enter the vehicle. I'm six feet two inches tall with longer legs than average so for me, it wasn't a problem in the slightest. However for my vertically challenged wife and mother-in-law, the latter closing in on 80 years old at a fast clip, it was a harder affair. I looked at the options of carrying around a step stool and acting like a butler every time they wanted to enter or exit the vehicle or running boards and decided on the latter.

I priced out the bumpers and they weren't bad however to have a professional installed them would cost me around $700. After watching a video, I decided I could probably to the installation myself and save that $700 for something else. 

The running boards came as a kit which essentially was the running boards themselves, bolts to mount them and a set of installation directions. The directions were pretty short and after previously watching a video of someone else installing them by themselves, I really didn't need to read them and just tossed them aside. I got a socket that fit the bolts, a torque wrench to get them tight enough and a box cutter which I used to open up the box they came in and also to cut the fiberboard like liner underneath my vehicle that covered up the mounting holes. Within maybe an hour, I had the running boards installed and torqued tight.

Although I probably could have gone with other brands/styles, I chose these because I liked how they tucked up underneath the doors and really weren't very obtrusive. They do lower the ground clearance by a couple inches but in reality, if I were driving over things tall enough to hit the bottom of the running boards, those same objects are tall enough to tear into my muffler and other protective pans on the bottom of the vehicle. 

However, when the door is open, they provide a large landing spot for the feet of my wife and mother-in-law and reduced their stepping height by a good 7 or 8 inches. My wife was pleased and though as of writing this, my mother-in-law hasn't seen or used them, I'm sure she will compliment me about them in words I don't understand.