FlyingMoose

Does anyone have side steps recommendations? Bonus points if they are legit sliders. This car doesn’t have quite the aftermarket off-road parts selection of other vehicles.

I found (supposedly) OEM ones at 4x the cost of some aftermarket ones. I have no way of knowing if any of the aftermarket steps are quality or if they even work. (The geometry on my OEM Lexus steps is terrible.)

Galion

Cayenne OE are useless and a waste of money, they just give you a dirty line on your trousers as you climb out

tmckenna

What he said. I was interested in sliders or steps, or running boards, whatever you want to call them but the cayenne I bought has the sport design package and cant except anything like that. Cant say I'm really upset, the OEM ones are basically just thin aluminum side skirts, and I havent seen any running boards or steps that would be robust enough to be considered sliders.

tmckenna

Pretty much all the steps of seen are similar to these


A lot of plastic, with the actual step being aluminum. Theyll probably function fine as steps, but not so much as sliders. cant imagine that aluminum would hold up well against large rocks.

There are some brands that look much better than others, obviously a bit more money, but not $1500 like the OEM, give me a little bit and I'll look around.

dhc905

I tried a few of the non-OE side steps from Ebay and will say it's just not worth it. The set I bought I think were around $350 or $400 (i.e. not the super cheap ones) and fitment just didn't work. Spent too much time trying to figure it out (thank god for work from home otherwise I wouldn't have gotten around to it in time to return them).

If the OE are useless, I've just come to the conclusion that we're probably SOL on the running boards as the current options aren't great.

tmckenna

There are some out there that look more standalone than the ones that just seem to be built into the factory side skirts. Figured theyd be a bit more robust than the crappy knock off OEM ones. Sounds like theyre not, depending on which ones you bought. As usual you get what you pay for, just sometimes you can find a middle ground. Where its good quality stuff for less than OEM price.

dhc905

Preach!

FlyingMoose

Well that’s annoying. I wonder if a local 4x4 fabricator would build some up for me? Right now my main concern is my almost 6 year old daughter has a hard time getting out of the back seat and thinks sliding off the door sill is the best way. Sliding right over the weather seal which won’t survive that abuse much longer.
I also occasionally end up on some high clearance roads so if I have steps I’d want them to either offer some underbody protection or at least not get ripped off at first contact.

dhc905

I think OEM running boards might be your best bet then. I ended up going with the OEM alum side skirts (part of the offroad package or whatever), but they don't help in getting things loaded on the roof rack or the kids getting in and out...