I purchased the Smittybilt SRC Side Armor rails for my '12 Unlimited. If you try to install them, they may need some modification to fit. Any search reveals lots of people who didn't have a direct fit. I couldn't find anyone that showed what needed to be modified though, so I took some pictures when I put mine on and wanted to share.

The first thing I would say is that yours might fit fine. There are posts from people who had no problem installing them. If that's the case, you're looking at 30-60 minutes to install and you're set. My friend has these on an '11 2 door and he had no issue. Obviously lots of people have issues though.

The problem seems to be that one or more of the mounting holes in the rails is off by a few cm's. I can't conceive of how this continues to happen in a product specially made for Jeeps, but if I was Mr. Smitty, I'd be embarassed.

What I recommend is removing the four (2 front and 2 rear) outer body mount nuts as the instructions specify. Then put the rail up and see which, if any, holes will need to be modified. Each rail is decently heavy at 60lbs or so. I had to no problem installing by myself with the help of a floor jack. I held the rail up and slid the front and back on to the body mounts. Then I used a floor jack to press the railing up in place while I bolted each of the nuts. Worked great.

If you need to modify one of your holes, here's two picture of what needs to be done:


Basically I just used a dremel with a "heavy duty" metal cutting wheel to enlarge the hole. Like I said, it is only a few cm's so not much is needed.

After enlarging the hole I threw some flat black rustoleum on the cut area and mounted the rails. I had no problems after enlarging the holes.

Anyway, I think they look great and will help the lady get in the Jeep.

Here's the final product:


Hope this helps someone!

PS - They come with a crappy yellow Smittybilt logo right in the middle of the rail. Luckily it's just held on with adhesive.

 

Just put the same on my 2 door, love how they look. Luckly I didn't have any problems mounting them but the glue that holds those badges on was a pain for me to get off

 

I put a set of these on my 4 door this past week. They were a major pain!!! The back mounted up perfect but had to modify both front mounts.Passenger side not to bad but the drivers side was another story. I had to enlarge the mounting holes and had to grind the cut out that goes around the body mount. x2 on the adhesive that holds the badges on. They look good on but I wish smittybilt would fix this issue.

 

I feel you, This is a great writeup and one I wish I had seen BEFORE I bought this product. Although I ended up doing exactly what you mentioned on the writeup, I was and still am very disappointed in the company as a whole. This is such a documented problem, yet when I called their technical support line they sounded like they had never heard of this issue before. Another complaint I had was that on the picture used in the advertisement in 4WD, these had 3 mounting points, which was a selling point for me since I did not want them to sag, when I questioned the rep he said that that was a picture of a prototype and that the final product had only 2 mounting points. The fact that they still have not taken care of this issue really reflects badly on their name and quality standards. I can't even imagine getting a more crucial piece of equipment like a winch or a bumper with the Smittybilt name on it, as of now and unless proven otherwise, that brand represents poor quality in my book.

 

I put these on and had to modify the front holes to get them to fit. Looks good after mounting but I would feel better if they came with three mounting spots not the two. The stickers should also be dropped from the product, looks cheap. Easy to remove though.

 

Add me to the list of people that had to grind some holes to get them to fit. I just installed them earlier today, and a project that should have taken 30-45 minutes tops, ended up taking way longer. Took longer because we broke the last 2 dremel bits we had, so had to file the holes by hand, and also because we kept testing the fit, to make sure we didn't take out any more metal that we needed to.

Had to take about 3-4mm out of the front most hole on the passenger side, and about 3mm out of the front most, and about 1-2mm out of the hole just behind it on the drivers side. What's frustrating is that I think this affects the distance the rails sit from the frame/body - so the gap when looking down is maybe a quarter inch different between the front and the back. I'm probably the only one who will notice it, but it's noticeable if you're looking for it (or have a touch of the OCD, like myself).

All in all though, they do look pretty good. I wouldn't have minded paying another 20-40 bucks or whatever it would have been for them to add the third mounting point though - that's just stupid on their part.

Oh, I also weighed them before installing (on a JKUR). Not exact to the ounce, but the Smittybilts are about 52 lbs each, and the stock rubi rails that had to come off (wish I could have left them on) weigh about 32 lbs. So even though the Smittybilts are pretty heavy, you're only adding about 40 lbs. net to the Jeep.

If you like the look and you're not a heavy duty wheeler, I'd say go for it.

 

Smittybilt says it's a jeep problem that every JKU is slightly different. I find that difficult to swallow but whatevs.... I've got a pair of these in my garage waiting for time to mount them. Anyone in SoCal who wants to help would be appreciated

 

A rattle can of flat black rustoleum helps prevent the rust from taking hold in the gouges ... Wire brush the area to get loose stuff off then spray a couple hits on, be sure to slide cardboard or something between the rails and your tub so you don't overspray the Jeep =)

 

I also had to widen the holes during my install of the smittybilt's on my JKUR. I wouldn't necessarily call it a smittybilt problem however. I could visibly see the bolt on the bottom of Jeep was askew. Not pointing straight down. So I checked it and was off about 20*. It was a PITA though. I guess if we wanted easy we would have bought a Prius and not Jeeps.

 

Had the exact same problem. Very frustrating modifying new parts. Even more frustrating when you grab your drill and it isn't charged up.