Best Running Boards: Go Rhino RB20, Unless You Need a Power Step

Start with whoever has the hardest time getting in. If everyone who rides in the truck can step up to the door sill, a fixed board is the cheaper, simpler and sturdier answer. If a short rider, an older parent or a tall driver with bad knees struggles at that height, no fixed board fixes it, because fixed boards sit just under the sill. That's the only job a power board does better.

We've reviewed three of the four boards in our picks: the Go Rhino RB20, the Rough Country Power Running Boards and the AMP Research PowerStep. Tyger's Blade, the cheaper look-alike of the RB20, is in the picks too. We haven't reviewed it, so treat it as a budget option with a few owner reports behind it.

Pick by who climbs in

• Everyone can manage a step at the sill: the Go Rhino RB20. A wide, flat step mounted tight to the body, with nothing to wire and a limited lifetime structural warranty. Buy the standard width, not the 5.5 in Slim, unless you want the lower profile and nobody riding with you has big feet.
• Same need, smallest budget: the Tyger Auto 6.6 in Blade. It copies the RB20 look for noticeably less on the four same-truck listings we compared, but its warranty is 3 years against manufacturing defects instead of lifetime structural, and we found no listing for the 3rd gen Tundra.
• A rider needs a lower first step: the Rough Country Power Running Boards. Two motors per side, a 660 lb per side rating and magnetic door triggers that stay out of the truck's electronics, for noticeably less than AMP on every truck we checked.
• A lower step, and you want the longest record: the AMP Research PowerStep. AMP has the longer record, with owner reports running to a decade on older trucks. You pay more for one motor per side and an OBD trigger that can be fussy on some newer trucks.
• A power board that hides away, not a lower step: we've also reviewed the Go Rhino E1, which RealTruck now sells as the VoltStep. Owners call it sturdy, but they measure its drop at only a couple of inches below the sill, so we'd take the Rough Country or the AMP for anyone who needs a lower first step.
• Reaching into the bed, not the cab: that's a bed step's job, not a running board's. We've reviewed the AMP Research BedStep for it.

Fixed or power: how the four compare

Specs come from RealTruck's RB20 and AMP pages, Rough Country's product pages and the Tyger listing. Read the load ratings as each maker states them. Rough Country's 660 lb is per side, and on a crew cab one board serves both doors on that side, so it's the total for everyone standing on that board at once. AMP's 300 lb is per door, and neither maker says how its number is measured, so don't treat the gap as a test result. Go Rhino publishes no rating for the RB20 at all. RealTruck lists 600 lb per side for the RB30, which is a different board; don't read that number onto the RB20.

The warranty fine print matters more on a power board, where a motor can fail. Rough Country's warranty excludes the cost of removal and installation. AMP's ends if the steps move to another truck or the truck changes hands, and never covers labor. On the RB20, a finish claim can require proof of purchase and photos, and you pay the shipping.

Step height: where your foot lands

Height is the one thing a power board buys you, and the gap is real. A fixed board like the RB20 is a mid-step that sits up near the sill, which is deliberate: it doesn't hang down where it gets in your way. It helps a short rider some. A tall driver gets little from it and ends up standing tall on the board, then folding down into the seat. Go Rhino sells drop steps that add on to the RB20 for a rider who needs the first step lower.

Power boards drop down and out when a door opens. Rough Country publishes its drop for each truck:

The door-entry number is the one your knees feel, and it's about a foot on all three. AMP publishes no drop figure for the PowerStep; owners who measured their own trucks put the step roughly halfway between the rocker panel and the ground, several inches lower than fixed boards. Some tall drivers prefer a higher step they can stand on and then sit down from, and for them a fixed board is the better fit. For anyone who can't get a foot up to the sill, it isn't close.

Running boards vs nerf bars

The way we use the words, a running board is a flat tread that runs the length of the cab, and a nerf bar is a tube, usually round or oval, with step pads at the doors. Both are fixed steps, so the choice is how much tread you want under your foot and the look you like. We'd take a board for kids, older riders and anyone in work boots, because there's more to stand on. Amazon blurs the names anyway: Tyger's Blade listing calls the same product running boards and side step nerf bars in one title.

Neither one is a slider or a power step. If someone can't get a foot up to a fixed step, a tube won't fix that any better than a board. We haven't reviewed a nerf bar, so none of our picks are tube steps.

Winter, salt and the finish

Fixed boards and power boards fail differently in snow country. A fixed steel board doesn't freeze or stall, but its coating is the weak point: on the RB20, both the textured powder coat and the bedliner coating can flake, and on salted roads the steel underneath rusts at the edges and brackets within a couple of winters. Treat the boards before they go on. Coat the undersides, the C-channels and every bracket and bolt with Fluid Film, CRC or a cosmoline-type inhibitor and reapply it, or have a liner shop spray the boards and brackets first. Do it with the boards off the truck; the C-channels are hard to reach once they're mounted.

Power boards add motors and linkages to the list. The Rough Country winter reports are good, through salted winters, including on a truck that lives outside. AMP's snow-country record is thin, and nobody in it describes a step frozen in place; the documented nuisance is grit from sanded roads lodging in the linkage. On the Rough Country, we'd flip the interior switch off and leave the boards tucked in through heavy snow, slush or mud, because a board packed with ice is asking a motor to do something it wasn't built for. AMP's override switch is an optional extra, and its manual positions time out back to automatic, so add it if you want that control. Rinse the arms after salted roads. On the AMP, follow AMP's care instructions, published with the PowerStep XL: pressure wash the linkages at all four hinge points without spraying the motors directly, and don't lubricate with grease, oil, WD-40 or penetrants.

If you live with salt and nobody needs the lower step, we'd buy the fixed board and treat it. If somebody does need it, we'd still buy the power board and rinse it through the winter.

Installing them: bolts, magnets or wires

• Go Rhino RB20: brackets bolt to the factory mounting points under the rocker panel (on the DT Ram, the same studs the factory boards use), and the boards bolt to the brackets, with no drilling. Owners report 30 minutes to an hour. Order from a seller that ships boards and brackets together; RealTruck can ship the brackets separately.
• Tyger Blade: the listing claims a 20-minute install. We haven't reviewed it, so we can't add more than that.
• Rough Country: Rough Country estimates 3-5 hours. You bolt four actuators to factory mounting points, hang the boards, run the harness to the battery and route trigger wires to a magnet sensor in every door jamb. The boards mount without drilling, but the harness has to get into the cab: the GM sheet has you drill through a floor grommet, the Ram sheet through a rubber cab drain plug, and the Ford sheet has you cut a slit in a rubber floor plug. Seal the plug afterward as the sheet directs. Rough Country's GM and Ford pages also warn that aftermarket traction bars can contact the motor arm.
• AMP PowerStep: AMP recommends a professional install and doesn't publish an install time. Newer kits read the door signals through an OBD II module, some still need two door-signal wires tapped behind the dash, and AMP says some applications need drilling; the 3rd gen Tundra kit's rear brace is one.

Rough Country's estimate alone is three to ten times what RB20 owners report, before anything goes wrong. Wiring and torque come from each maker's instruction sheet for your truck, not from us or a forum post. If you hire the job out, ask the shop how many sets it has put on your exact truck, and open every door to check its board deploys before you pay.

Clearance off pavement

Running boards are steps, not sliders, and none of the boards on this list is built to take a hit. On the RB20, the brackets sit below the board, so on rocks or a ditch edge they're what catches, and we wouldn't use one as a jack point. Rough Country's boards are light aluminum and won't survive a rock either; retracted, they hang a little below the rocker. The AMP tucks up under the rocker when it's closed, which helps, but its linkage is no more a slider than anyone else's.

If you drive trails where the rocker panels are at risk, frame-mounted rock sliders are the product you want, and a step comes second. On a truck that sees gravel roads and the odd washed-out two-track, any of these is fine; just know what's hanging lowest.

Best running boards by truck

Here's which of our four picks has a listing we confirmed for each truck we cover, from the three reviews' fitment tables. Each pick's own fitment table carries the part numbers and restrictions row by row. "Search link" means the pick has a check-fit search row for that truck, not a confirmed listing.

Several of those year ranges reach back a generation. The Tacoma rows for the RB20, Tyger and Rough Country start in 2005, and the Rough Country Colorado and Canyon listing starts in 2015, so each covers the older truck too. Buy the listing, not the generation name.

Silverado and Sierra 1500: every pick has a confirmed T1XX listing, so buy on need. The RB20 covers both the Crew Cab and Double Cab, Tyger only the Crew Cab. Rough Country's page says its power boards don't fit the 2019 Classic trucks on the old body. On the Silverado and Sierra 1500 Crew Cab the Rough Country board drops only 3.2 in below the rocker, but 11.1 in below the door opening, which is the number that matters.

Ram 1500: the RB20 bolts to the same studs the DT's factory boards use, and it's the only pick here whose listing names the Quad Cab. Rough Country and Tyger list the Crew Cab only, and the AMP listings name no cab at all. The AMP listing for 2019-2024 doesn't say DT or Classic, so Classic owners should confirm with AMP, and the 2025-2026 listing is gas only. AMP's trigger trouble after install shows up on 2025 Ram 1500s, so if you go AMP on a new Ram, pick an installer who has done that truck.

Tundra: buy the standard RB20, not the Slim; the Tundra's rocker curves under the board and the Slim can leave you half a step. Both the RB20 and standard AMP listings stop at 2024, so on a 2025-on CrewMax, Rough Country is the only one of our picks we can confirm. Hybrid owners should ask Rough Country how it wants the harness run before cutting anything, and Double Cab owners should talk to AMP before ordering a PowerStep, because a frame stub has blocked the driver-side bracket on one truck. Some 3rd gen Tundra PowerSteps have also retracted off level or too far from the body; check that on install day.

What we'd buy

For most trucks, the standard Go Rhino RB20 in the listing for your truck and cab, treated with rust inhibitor before it ever sees a salted road. If money is the deciding factor and a 3-year warranty is fine, the Tyger Blade gives the same look.

For a truck that carries someone who can't get a foot up to the sill, power boards, and here we'd split by priority: the Rough Country Power Running Boards for two motors per side and a trigger that can't fight the truck's electronics at the lower price, or the AMP Research PowerStep if a decade-long owner record is worth the extra money to you. Either way, budget the install, and plan how you'll keep a power board tucked away when the snow gets deep.