Go Rhino RB20 Review: Buy the Standard Width, Protect the Finish

Buy the standard Go Rhino RB20 if you want a fixed running board that tucks in close to the body, gives kids and shorter riders a real step, and bolts on without drilling. It's a Raptor-style board in galvanized 16-gauge steel with a bullet-stamped tread, 7.5 in wide at the front and tapering to 6.5 in at the rear. On half-tons and midsize trucks it looks close to factory, and as a step it does its job well.

Two things decide whether you'll be happy with one. The first is width. The RB20 Slim narrows the tread to 5.5 in, which plenty of owners find roomy enough and some Tundra owners found too narrow. The second is the finish: 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 unless you treat it first. Go Rhino's warranty is better than most and owners say it pays out, but plan on an afternoon with a can of rust inhibitor before the boards go on. Go Rhino also sells the RB10 and RB30. This review covers the RB20 and RB20 Slim, and we label anything about the others.

The short version

What works:

• A wide, flat step on the standard board, mounted tight to the rocker panel.
• A bolt-on install with no drilling, with vehicle-specific brackets and hardware in every RB20 kit.
• A limited lifetime structural warranty plus 5 years on the finish, per RealTruck's RB20 pages.
• Some protection for the rockers and doors on a stock-height truck parked next to lower cars.

What to watch:

• A finish that can flake at the step point or crack at the edges, and brackets that rust in salt.
• The Slim's 5.5 in tread, which some Tundra owners found too narrow.
• Brackets that hang below the board and cost you clearance off pavement.
• Ordering: one kit per truck and cab, with bare boards and bracket-only sets listed alongside.
• No published weight rating, board weight or install time.

Which trucks and cabs it fits

Order by truck, generation and cab, and buy a listing that says it includes the brackets. Go Rhino sells the RB20 as a kit for each truck and cab, but Amazon also lists bare RB20 boards by length and bracket-only sets on their own, so a quick search can hand you half a kit. Every verified row in the fitment table under the score panel is a boards-and-brackets listing we confirmed on its own product page, with the finish and any cab restriction noted. Bed length doesn't matter for a running board. Cab does.

The cab is where orders go wrong. A Tundra CrewMax and a Double Cab take different kits, and one CrewMax owner ended up with Double Cab Slims that came up short and had to wait for the right pair. Check that the listing names your cab, then check the part number on the box against the listing before you open the hardware. On the 2022-2024 Tundra Double Cab listing in textured black, the title and part number are right but a feature line names the 2007-2021 CrewMax part, which is the kind of mix-up to catch before install day.

On the Ram 1500 DT, the Crew Cab and Quad Cab listings read 2019-2027 and exclude the Ram 1500 Classic. The T1XX Silverado and Sierra listings cover the Crew Cab and Double Cab for 2019-2027 and point to the listing description for exceptions, so run your truck through Amazon's fit tool. The F-150 listings read 2015-2024 in SuperCrew (standard and Slim) and SuperCab (Slim), which takes in the Gen13 and the 2021-2024 Gen14; we didn't find an RB20 listing that names a 2025 or newer F-150, and the 3rd gen Tundra listings also stop at 2024. For the Tacoma, the 2005-2023 Double Cab listings cover the 3rd gen (and the 2nd gen before it). The 4th gen has a Slim listing that names the 2024 Double Cab only, and the standard 4th gen listings we found don't say they include brackets, so that row is a search link.

The 2024 Ranger and the 2023 Colorado and Canyon started new generations, and the RB20 listings for them read 2019-2024 and 2015-2024, spanning the old bodies too. We've left those as search links: check fit for your truck. We found no RB20 for the Maverick.

The specs that matter

Both boards are galvanized 16-gauge steel, both mount to the rocker panel with vehicle-specific brackets and hardware included, both install without drilling, and both carry the same warranty: limited lifetime structural and 5 years on the finish. That's about all Go Rhino publishes. RealTruck's RB20 pages give no board weight, no install time and no weight rating. RealTruck lists a 600 lb per side rating for the RB30, which is a different board; don't read that number onto the RB20. Owners from 175 to 240 lb describe it as solid with little or no flex, which is owner experience, not a rating.

Read the warranty wording twice. The standard RB20 page's feature list says limited 5-year warranty, while its warranty tab and spec table, and the Slim page, say limited lifetime structural with 5 years on the finish. A finish claim can require proof of purchase and photos, and you pay the shipping. Register the boards, keep the receipt and photograph the finish the day they go on.

Both boards taper toward the rear. Owners who read Go Rhino's instructions say the wide end goes forward, with the logo at the rear. Some owners mount them reversed, wide end back, to give a child climbing into the rear seat more room. One Tacoma owner who tried the reversed setup as a bed step found it no help there and planned to turn the boards back around.

Step width, height and clearance

Pick the standard RB20 unless you have a reason not to. It mounts tight to the body, and the extra 2 in of tread at the front is the difference between standing on the board and perching on it; on a Ram with the door shut, a whole shoe fits flat on the standard board. The Slim keeps the profile cleaner and plenty of families use it every day without complaint. On the Tundra, though, the rocker panel curves under the board, and there the Slim can leave you a half-foot step. Owners who regretted it wished for the standard width or moved to the RB30.

Don't expect it to lower the climb much. The RB20 sits up near the sill, so it's a mid-step, not a drop step, and that's deliberate: it doesn't hang down where it gets in your way. If a rider needs the first step lower, Go Rhino sells drop steps that add on to the RB20, or look at a power board like the AMP Research PowerStep, which swings down to roughly halfway between the rocker panel and the ground.

As door-ding armor, the standard board helps on a stock-height truck parked next to lower cars, because it sticks out a little past the body. Add a lift or wheels with extra offset and it no longer reaches far enough, and the Slim does less to begin with. The boards also take the gravel the tires throw, which owners can hear hitting the steel instead of the paint.

The brackets are the weak spot off pavement. A 4th gen Tacoma set of Slims mounts on only three brackets, and the brackets sit below the board, so on rocks or a ditch edge they're what catches. One owner scraped a set once and mangled it. These are steps, not sliders, and we wouldn't use one as a jack point or lean on it on the trail.

The textured tread grips well in rain and mud with either finish. Packed snow turns to ice on any flat board, and one owner of the Slim found the coating on their set too smooth to trust in bad weather.

Coating, rust and living with it

The steel and welds hold up; the finish is the RB20's weak point. Owners describe the coating flaking, bubbling or rusting through, anywhere from two months to a few years in, on the powder coat and the bedliner coating alike. One set of powder-coated Slims flaked at the exact spot everyone steps within two months. In Canada, a powder-coated set lasted a winter and a half before the coating cracked at the front and rear edges and let the salt in. A set that flaked and rusted at the brackets after a few years got a new set after its owner emailed customer support. The bedliner coating isn't a sure fix: owners report it bubbling and peeling too, and it's harder to touch up than flat black powder coat, which you can repaint with a rust paint.

Treat the boards before they go on if you drive on salted roads. Northeast and Canadian owners coat the undersides, the C-channels and every bracket and bolt with Fluid Film, CRC or a cosmoline-type inhibitor and reapply it; others pay a Line-X shop to spray the boards and brackets before install. Owners disagree on how well Go Rhino coats the brackets and undersides: one recent set arrived with every piece in textured powder coat, while another buyer had seen chipped, rusting brackets even on bedliner-coated boards. Look yours over out of the box.

Steel is the tradeoff you accept at this price. Owners who want no rust at all hunt for aluminum factory boards, which cost more. We'd still buy the RB20 for a truck that lives with salt, treat it on day one and claim the finish warranty if it lets go.

One owner thinks the boards twist upward toward the rear; others found theirs flat on a concrete floor and put the look down to the taper. Lay a new set on a flat floor before install and call Go Rhino if a board isn't straight. Go Rhino's support gets good marks when something's wrong: a board that arrived with chunky overspray had a replacement on the way within 12 hours. Shipping is the sore spot, covered below.

How it compares

Choose the Slim over the standard board for looks or a cleaner profile, not to save money; it costs less on every same-finish pair we checked, but the gap is small next to the step you give up. On a Tundra, buy the standard width.

Go Rhino's other RB boards are separate products. RealTruck lists the RB10 at 6 in wide and the RB30 at 7 in, with a surface that runs most of the length and tapers at the ends, and the RB30 page carries a 600 lb per side rating that the RB20 pages don't. Owners choose among them mostly on looks, and one Tundra owner who found the RB20 Slim too narrow for the kids moved to the standard RB30.

Tyger Auto's 6.6 in Blade boards are the budget look-alike, and we haven't reviewed them. They're noticeably cheaper than the textured RB20 on the Ram and Silverado Crew Cab listings we compared. Tyger's listings claim a 500 lb weight capacity and a 20-minute install, and the warranty runs 3 years against manufacturing defects, against Go Rhino's lifetime structural cover. We found no Blade listing for the 3rd gen Tundra.

The AMP Research PowerStep solves a different problem: the climb. It drops roughly halfway between the rocker panel and the ground when a door opens and tucks back under the rocker when it shuts, but it costs much more and has to be wired to the truck. Both brands belong to RealTruck. Buy it when a rider can't manage a sill-height step, and the RB20 when everyone can.

Ordering and installing it

Order from a seller that ships boards and brackets together, and check both against your truck before you start. RealTruck, which owns Go Rhino, can ship the brackets separately from the boards, and one owner waited about 10 days for the second box; backorders on brackets and on whole sets have stretched to weeks. On Amazon, buy a listing that names your truck, your cab and the brackets.

The install is easy. The 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. Go Rhino's written instructions are thin, so watch RealTruck's install video for your truck first, and take the hardware order and torque from Go Rhino's instructions, not from us or a forum post.

If you plan to rust-proof, do it with the boards off the truck. The C-channels on the underside are hard to reach once they're mounted.

Who should buy the RB20

Buy the standard RB20 for a stock-height truck that carries kids, older riders or anyone who wants a flat, wide step with nothing to wire, and treat it for rust before it sees a salted road. Pick the Slim if you like the lower profile and nobody riding with you has big feet; on a Tundra, look hard at the standard width first. Skip both if a rider needs the first step lower than the sill, because that's a power board's job.

Whichever width you choose, confirm the listing names your truck, your cab and the brackets before you buy.