I'm looking at some westin platinum step bars for my ext. cab truck. Anyone had any experiance with westin. I'm worried about pitting and rusting.Any kind of feedback would be appreciated.

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1998 F150 XLT Ext. cab short box
5.4 liter, 3.55 gears, K N Air Filter
Silver, Matching Silver Bug Deflector,
Tinted Windows, Tonneau Cover
Alpine CD Player, Soundstream 6.5" Seperates, JL Audio Stealth Box
With 2 8W1's, Powered By a Soundsteam Reference 405

 

I have no personal experience with Westin, but the local 4x4 shop will not even sell them because 1/2 of their customers were coming back with complaints. Apparently, they are difficult to install and actually attach to the rocker panels. The shop sells lots of Smitty-Bilts and no complaints. They attach to the frame with no drilling.

 

Thanks Fordlover. that is something I did not know. I will definately check out Smitty-Bilt and see what they have to offer.

 

I have a set of black Westins on my 2WD 98 xcab. I've never had a problem with them, no rust. I watched the guy put them on and he did it by himself with little problem.

The Smitty-bilts are good too.

Good luck.

 

I put a set of black smitty-bilt nerf bars on my truck. They are a son of a gun to do yourself and getting a standard drill in between your frame and body is impossible unless you drill sideways.
You may want to have your local 4x4 shop do it for a small price. Once they were on though I was not thrilled at the look so I returned them and found some factory nerf bars to put on. Sorry if this is a negative opinion on smitty-bilt.
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97 F150,4x4,SC,XLT,4.6,AT,K&N,Moonvisor,Cass w/chngr, Capts chairs w/pwr drvr seat. Black w/silver.

 

I have the Westins on my Extended cab and love them. So far, up in the Canadian Tundra (Ottawa), They have survived very well. No sign of rust or any ware at all !
As far as the installation goes, the fella who installed mine said they were a bit of a pain to install but once installed, i will not have any problems. They are very sturdy and wont fill up with ice and snow like the molded steps! One small point...When my truck was a week old, and I was still doating over it daily, i had the great idea of putting a cleaner on the plastic step piece on the guards. They looked great. Decided I should take a spin and show off my baby and almost did a Chin Stand when my foot slipped off the step because the cleaner made them slippery !
Oh well...i survived but won't do that again...like the time I armour-all'd my motorcycle seat....You live and learn !

Good Luck !

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BigJohn

99 F-150 XLT Sport Extended Cab 4X4 In a Wonderful Red - Grey Interior
4.6 liter Triton V8

K&N Air Filter
Black Ironhorse Full Brush Guard
Black Extang Platinum Tonno Cover
Black Weston Step Bars
Ford moulded mud guards
Pendaliner Full Box Liner
Ventshades
The Envied stares of all my neighbors !

 

I have the black powder coated Smitty Bilts and had the same experience as Highground with the install. Just went a head and paid the 4X4 shop $35 to do it. I understand it was only a problem with the factory holes not being in the same place as later build F-150's so I do not think your 98 will have the same problems as we did. They are supposed to bolt to existing holes completely but mine had to be drilled because those holes were further back than the design of the bars. My only regret is I did not wait on the textured black ones. Instead I put the powder coated black on and it shows scratches. But they rub out easily and this one can be painted so no biggie. I really like them. Very strong and stable. I went with these because they were considerably cheaper than the Westins around here. $179 vs. $250 at my local dealers

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97 F-150 SC Lariat, Styleside, White over Gold, 4.6L (Windsor), Automatic, 3.55 rear end, electronic 4X4, w/ every option of Lariat and ORP packages except the 17" wheels (I even got the OR decals now!) MOD's so far: K&N air box mod, Gibson Super Truck, clear Bugflector II, Leer TSC 600 hard cover, Bridgestone Dueler OWL ATP 265/75 R-16's, TrailMaster Invader N7 shocks, Smittybilt step bars, Ford moulded mud guards, "White-white" head lamps, Cloud Rider Design's SS Grill and bumper opening, Bosch Platinum + 4's, Hayden 30K+ Tranny Cooler,Class III Reece load distributing hitch system, full wiring including trailer battery charging system, Escort Sensor II Brake controller, Superchip

 

I have the Westin bars in black. They still look great (when they are clean) after 6 months. I installed mine myself. They do attach to the rockers with some plates that fit through some existing oval cutouts. As posted by someone else on here a while back, the first side took about 30 minutes, and the second side took 10. I was very happy with the ease of installation.

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Matthew Meiser
meiser@tdi.net
http://www.tdi.net/meiser

 

Well, I was wrong about the Smittybilts. The local shop said they attach to the frame, but I got mine in today (2000 S/C), and they attach with brackets to the body!

Does anybody know FOR SURE if the Westins attach to the frame??

 

Does anyone know which side step tubes fit close to the body? I don't want a set that has a large gap between the body and the tube. The ones I've seen like that seem like a broken leg in the waiting!

 

I do have a set of the Black Westins on my truck and they were really easy to install (even after a few beers). The majority of the step mounts on the rocker panel and a support brace that attaches to the frame for support. They were the easiest set of nerf bars that I have installed. I did put a set of Smittybilts on my Ranger and it took me almost 8 hours to put on (due to all the drilling on the frame).

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Todd in Alaska

'99 F150 4x4 Lariat, SuperCab, (Amazon Green/Harvest Gold), Off-Road Pkg, 5.4L V-8, 3.73LS, Towing Pkg, and every other option possible... K&N filter, SuperChip (Love it!!), Ventvisor Vents, Bugflector II, Extang Platinum Soft Tonneau, and Westin Nerf Bars

Future Mods: Dual exhaust system, Smittybilt Outland Grill Guard, Lund Moonvisor, Edelbrock IAS shocks, and Spray-in Bedliner

 

CHILIP:....I read your post about wanting textured bars...well you might want to take a look at herculiner i used it on my truck bed it worked great, they sell it in qt's you could do your bars your self for about $30.00 . just an idea also westin has the best warranty on their finish 5 yrs i beleive (chrome) they also have a new s.s bar with that is same price saw it in summit racing.

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*2000 blk xlt f150
*5.4 4x4 3.55 ls
*sc orp pkg
*tow pkg, 17 inch wheels
*herculiner,remote start
*flowmaster, air box mod
*bfg ko's A.R.E. cap
*sony 10 disc cd player
*k&n air filter
*superchip

****mods to come*********
harley davison hitch reciver plug.
removing stock cab steps& installing westins.

 

I must be the odd ball. I got RAM Side-trax in black for my 99 F250LD from Desertrat. They were as simple as anything to install. Front of the bars bolted to the existing frame holes and the back attached to the front spring mounting bolt. The hardest part was rounding up the tools to put them on. (got kids and tools seem to wander off)

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1999 F-250LD SC 4X4 Oxford white
3.73 LS Towing package
Off road package no Decals
clear corners, Roll-n-Lock cover
Tinted windows
RAM Black Side-Trax Nerf Bars
K&N FIPK (on the way)
Magnaflow exhaust

 

Thanks steve g, I had thought of that. I like the stuff. But I have a Father in law that owns a body shop so I will have him paint them when needed.

 

I got Westin Chrome bars about 3mths ago and they were a breeze to put on. Took me 45 minutes to do both sides. They use brackets to attach to body rocker panels using pre- existing holes then have a support to frame. No drilling! Drilling thru frame is not fun...I did it for the body lift....

They also have a four year warranty I think. I got mine at wrenchhead.com as they were mispriced for my truck I paid $225 w/ free shipping. Don't know if this error is still out there on their site. You can check threads for this because this is where I found this deal.

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1997 Arctic White F-150 XLT Flareside SC, K&N, Magnaflow muffler, Air Box mods, Bugflector II, Soft Tonneau Cover, Chrome Westin Bars, 3" Performance Accessories Body Lift, tinted windows

Flares Rule!!!!!