The Rubicon, Willy’s Edition and other model TJ’s are starting to come with factory rocker guards. While four wheelers every where are commending Jeep for offering models with some of the basics you need to wheel, the factory rockers are only sufficient for light-medium duty use. If you’re really going to take a TJ into tough stuff, you’re going to need a stronger rocker with better coverage under the body. You have lots of options out there that fit the bill to this point. However, if you want a rocker with a bar to keep the rocks at bay, and you want a factory powder coating, your options start narrowing quick.   Currie Enterprise’s Rock Ribz rocker guards are plenty capable of taking frequent and severe trips through rock gardens with ease. These rockers come with a bar to keep the rocks from chewing at your doors and act as a helpful step without affecting clearance. Currie’s Rock Ribz also come powder coated to help keep the rust at bay and keep the guard looking good for   years to come.

Consider this a fair warning, the install for these rockers is a little bit more involved than that of alternative aftermarket rocker’s I’ve tested on other TJs. However, all that extra work isn’t a waste of time, it does result in a highly durable rocker guard.

The Currie Rock Ribz, right out of the box. They’re 3/16 ” thick with a side bar and powder coat.

INSTALL:

The install begins with removal of the factory diamond plate rocker from our tester TJ. You simply unbolt the factory screws across the top and the screws on the underside. At that point, the rocker pretty much pulls right off. One Rubicon w/o rocker guard, this is begging for trouble, better get those Rock Ribz on quick!

Here is where the install gets involved. You need to drill out new holes, both in the side face of the body as well as the under side. These rockers have 7 holes on the side-face which need drilling, and 5 on the under-side. That’s 12 holes per jeep side. You’ll drill 24 holes to fully install these rockers. Use a jack and hold up the rocker in place while you mark where you need to drill.

On my TJ, 4 of the side-face holes were 1/4” and you’ll through-bolt those holes. My TJ model however requires you to drop in threaded nut inserts in 3 different places across the side-face, which will all require a 3/8” hole. You need to use these threaded nut inserts because you cannot physically reach the other back side of these bolts to put a nut on them. With the Currie rocker, unlike other models, you’ll also have to use these threaded nut inserts on all 5 of the underside holes you drill.   This resulted in 16 threaded nut inserts that needed to be installed for my application (8 per each side of the TJ). Other years and models will likely only vary by give or take 2 nut inserts. This, in the end, results in more bolts (which are evenly spaced) holding on the rocker. Other companies out there will simply avoid placing bolts in difficult places which you cannot through-bolt, and while this is an easier installation, it doesn’t result in as strong of a rocker.  

Here is how I installed one of these threaded nut inserts. Currie provides a tool. You hammer in the insert with a bolt already in it, then you torque it down and back out your bolt.   As you can see, Jeep uses these same inserts to hold up your factory rocker.

Now, with all your holes drilled, you can bolt up your rocker.

Bolting up the rocker, after all the holes are drilled and you’ve applied the nut inserts, is the easy part.

TRAIL TEST:

The Currie Enterprise Rock Ribz are clearly designed to be used on the rocks. So that’s where they were tested.  That bar really helped keep the rocks at a comfortable distance from valuable door paint. And, yes, the additional bar helps with getting in or out of the ride. Down side however to the bar is that until you’re used to it being there on the rig, you’ll be getting your pant leg muddy as you hop in or out of the Jeep for the first week. I like knowing that the full underside of the body is now protected from hard hits, although, for the wheeling I often do, I rarely ever hit there.

No loss of clearance, and plenty strong to boot!

OVERALL:

I’ve used other rockers before on previous TJ’s I’ve owned. While I’ve never had an aftermarket rocker fail or cave in, I find the longer I’ve been crawlin’, the harder the rocker hits are getting. I find peace of mind from knowing this is one of the strongest designs of rockers I can find. They are more difficult to install though. They seem plenty capable of taking the big hits and they continue to look great because of that powder coating. There are so many different companies making such similar designs, that I find comfort from Currie’s long reputation for only using the best and strongest materials, you should too.

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