Saw this in the new fall Quadratec lineup: http://www.quadratec.com/products/12117_7004_07.htm Interested to hear some reviews when people start purchasing. Looks promising but can see road salt having its way with the spring mechanism.

I like the look of the Smittybilt XRCs but the quality of ACE. These look like a happy medium...since I'm not looking to rock crawl anyway.

 

As a step it looks fine as long as it's greased. It doesn't look like it can take a solid hit nor pivot or push against anything. I'm looking at the hinges and how it's mounted.

 

those struts will also fail over time, just look at anything else that uses them (like the rear window glass on the hard tops) youll be getting new struts ever 3-6 years.