Best Truck Running Boards: 5 Side Steps Compared for 2026

The Tyger Rider wins Best Overall for a simple reason: it delivers the build quality and warranty coverage of bars costing twice as much while staying within reach of the budget picks.

The bar itself is heavy-gauge carbon steel with a textured black powder coat, and each door position gets a raised non-slip step pad. That combination has earned it one of the strongest owner records in the category, a 4.8 star average across more than 2,100 ratings, with long-term reviews consistently praising how solid the brackets feel underfoot. Tyger also backs it with a no-hassle lifetime warranty, which neither COMNOVA nor most other value brands match.

This is a research-based recommendation rather than a hands-on test, so we lean on that owner record heavily, and it is unusually consistent for the price class.

The honest trade-off is step geometry. At 3.5 in wide, the Rider is a hoop-style step, not a platform. It gives you a confident toe-hold at each door, but kids and older passengers often prefer the full flat surface of the COMNOVA board or the Go Rhino RB20. The other caution is corrosion: powder-coated steel holds up well until a rock chip exposes bare metal, so snow-belt owners should touch up chips before winter.

Buy the Rider if you want the best mix of strength, warranty and price for a daily-driven crew cab. Choose the COMNOVA if a wide flat step matters more than the warranty, the Go Rhino RB20 if the truck works outdoors year round, or the AMP Research PowerStep if you want steps that disappear when the doors close.

The COMNOVA 6 in board is the value play in this guide, and the numbers behind it are hard to argue with: around 4,600 Amazon ratings averaging 4.7 stars, more than any other pick here, at the lowest price of the five.

What you get for that money is a genuinely wide step. The 6 in aluminum platform with a full-length rubber tread is the most forgiving surface in this list for kids, dogs and anyone who plants a whole boot rather than a toe. Aluminum also shrugs off surface rust better than the painted steel bars at this end of the market, which is part of why the owner record has held up over several years of reviews.

We have not installed these ourselves; this pick is built from fit data and aggregated owner feedback, and that feedback does flag two real limitations. First, there is no clearly stated manufacturer warranty, so if a bracket or the finish fails outside the return window you are on your own, unlike the lifetime coverage Tyger offers. Second, the board and brackets flex more under a heavy step than the stiffer Go Rhino RB20, which owners over roughly 250 pounds occasionally mention.

Buy the COMNOVA if the truck is a family daily and you want maximum step for minimum money. Step up to the Tyger Rider for the warranty and stiffer bar, or the Go Rhino RB20 if the truck earns its living outdoors. Skip it entirely if you want steps out of the airflow when not in use; that is AMP PowerStep territory.

The AMP Research PowerStep is the product every other power step gets compared to, and it earns the Best Premium spot because it solves the two problems fixed boards cannot: ground clearance and looks.

When the doors are closed, the steps fold flush against the rocker panel, so you lose nothing off-road and the truck keeps its clean factory line. Open a door and a 6.25 in aluminum step drops into position with an LED light showing the way. The Plug-N-Play version connects to the factory harness without cutting a single wire, and AMP backs the system with a 5-year / 60,000-mile warranty, the strongest formal coverage of any pick in this guide.

This is a research-based pick, and the aggregated owner record is strong but not spotless. The moving parts are the honest risk: motors, linkages and sensors live in road spray and winter salt, and while most owners report years of trouble-free cycling, the failure stories that do exist involve repair bills no fixed bar will ever generate. Installation is also a real project, with wiring and bracket work that pushes many buyers to pay a shop.

Buy the PowerStep if the truck is a keeper, you value the flush look, or someone in the household genuinely struggles with a tall cab. If you want the same money to buy zero future maintenance, the Westin R5 or Go Rhino RB20 deliver premium fixed hardware, and the Tyger Rider covers most needs for a fraction of the price.

The Go Rhino RB20 exists for one kind of buyer: the owner whose truck works for a living. Its edge over everything else in this guide is what happens before the paint goes on. Go Rhino hot-dips the steel in molten zinc, then powder coats over it, so a rock chip that would start rust on the Tyger Rider or a bare steel bar just exposes zinc instead of raw metal.

The deck design suits work use too. Instead of step pads at each door, the RB20 is a continuous 4.75 in flat platform with raised tread running the full cab length. You can plant a boot anywhere along the truck, which matters when you are reaching into the bed or loading a rack rather than just climbing in.

This is a research-based pick built from spec comparison and aggregated owner feedback, which runs solidly positive on build quality; the recurring gripes are weight during installation and price, not durability.

The honest limitations: you pay roughly triple the COMNOVA price for the same basic function, and the 4.75 in deck is narrower than that budget board’s 6 in platform. For a truck that commutes and does school runs, that math favors the cheaper picks.

Buy the RB20 if the truck sees salt, mud and daily work boots and you want to install boards once. Choose the Tyger Rider or COMNOVA if it is a family daily, or the AMP Research PowerStep if you want the steps gone entirely when the doors are shut.

The Westin R5 is the pick for owners who think most running boards look like an afterthought. Its 5 in oval profile mounts tight against the rocker panel and follows the body line, so from ten feet away it reads as a factory feature rather than a bolt-on accessory.

Function does not take a back seat to form. The molded step pad runs the full length of the bar, so like the Go Rhino RB20 you can step anywhere along the cab, and the pre-assembled no-drill mount kit makes this the easiest fixed-board installation in the guide. Westin is also one of the oldest names in truck steps, and it shows in the support: a limited lifetime warranty on the bar with 3-year finish coverage, plus replacement pads sold separately when the tread eventually wears.

We have not installed this bar ourselves; the recommendation rests on Westin’s fit data and a 4.4 star average across more than 300 owner ratings, solid for the price class.

The trade-off is the same thing that makes it pretty. Because the R5 hugs the body, it sits higher than dropped boards, so it shortens the climb less than the COMNOVA or an AMP PowerStep in its deployed position. It is also priced against the Go Rhino RB20 without the galvanized core.

Buy the R5 if looks and a clean profile matter and your passengers are able-bodied. Pick the RB20 for harsher duty, or the Tyger Rider if you would rather bank the difference.