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Despite the fact that others have posted negative information about Aries products, I was hard headed. I parted with some of my favorite dead Presidents in search of a balance between my wonderful G. Tech brush guard and my naked unprotected tail lights. All that I could find that suited my taste were the Aries tail light guards. Knowing all of the bad press that Aries has gotten around here I didn't expect much but I plunked down my money and waited for my delivery. Like I said, I didn't expect much but I got even less.
The guards arrived well packaged. I thought to myself, maybe Aries wasn't as bad as I had seen and heard in the past. I was wrong.
I pulled off the wrapping and held one up to the truck. Something immediately didn't look right. It appeared that there was a missing mounting tab. I found these tabs when I unwrapped the next guard. I couldn't figure out how the missing tabs mounted to the vehicle and to the guards so I looked for the instructions. Guess what, none were included in the box. I then went to the Aries website in search of said instructions. None exist that I could find. I then saw a picture of an installed set on another vehicle and reverse engineered the picture.
OK. No where in the non existant instructions nor does the seller tell you that there is DRILLING ON YOUR RL REQUIRED but there is. I bit the bullet and drilled the necessary holes and went to install the guard. As I picked up the guard, I noticed it was now scuffed. WTF?? I had only laid it on the bed of my RL. The website I bought the guards from said that they were chip resistant and powder coated. NOT!! I think that I could have used watercolors on the guards for a more durable finish. I figured since I had already drilled the holes for the brackets that I would just refinish the guards and be done. I installed the first guard and guess what? It was crooked. Long story short, I had to remove that guard about 10 times and bend the tabs that go over the tail light mounting screws to properly align the guard. In the first 9 attempts, the guard hit the tail gate composite panel and since laying the guard on the bed scuffed it, you can only guess what the composite panel rubbing did to it. Yes folks, it sanded the guard down to BARE METAL in only 9 tailgate open/close cycles.
Long story short, it took me 3 1/2 hours to properly align and mount 2 tail light guards. This compares to my 2 hour install of my grille guard. I consider myself to be an above average garage mechanic having done a stint at a dealership in the shop for a couple of years.
I finally got the tail light guards aligned so that they are straight and don't rub the tailgate in either opening direction so it can be done. On one hand, the tail light guards are very sturdy but getting them mounted properly is a big hassle.
The moral of this narrative is that you should listen to others when it comes to recommendations of quality in products. I thought I would rate these tail light guards on a scale of 1 to 10 in several areas. 1 is the worst and 10 being the best/easiest.
Build quality of Product minus paint 8
Quality of finish 1
Fit of product on vehicle 0
Instructions What are instructions??
Mounting Ease -2
Accuracy of welding LOL
I know about the warranty and that I could return them but I figured that at best, I would get the very next jacked up unit that came off the assembly line so I kept them. I had them and figured that if worse came to worse, I could fire up my torch, cut off the factory mounting tabs and reweld them in the correct fashion. It didn't come to this but I was very very close.
I got them on and like how they look but I absolutely DO NOT recommend this product to anyone unless you have an engineering degree and a lot of patience, an extra can of black Krylon and a fair amount of strength. This has to be perhaps one of the absolutely worst products products that I have ever purchased as it pertains to fit and finish and installation. By all accounts, this product should have taken me no longer than a half an hour from start to finish if I had been drunk. 3 1/2 hours is unacceptable. I took some pics. Enjoy. Do me a favor and say something nice about how they look or something. It took me a long time to get these on.
PS. The included screws for the mounting tabs were not even black like the rest of the guards. You can see this in the pictures. Sorry that that the pictures are so dark. Mr. Sunshine went to bed long before I got done with the install.
Here is a picture of the bracket that I had to drill a hole for. I made sure that I applied paint and silicone sealant to prevent rust.
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The guards arrived well packaged. I thought to myself, maybe Aries wasn't as bad as I had seen and heard in the past. I was wrong.
I pulled off the wrapping and held one up to the truck. Something immediately didn't look right. It appeared that there was a missing mounting tab. I found these tabs when I unwrapped the next guard. I couldn't figure out how the missing tabs mounted to the vehicle and to the guards so I looked for the instructions. Guess what, none were included in the box. I then went to the Aries website in search of said instructions. None exist that I could find. I then saw a picture of an installed set on another vehicle and reverse engineered the picture.
OK. No where in the non existant instructions nor does the seller tell you that there is DRILLING ON YOUR RL REQUIRED but there is. I bit the bullet and drilled the necessary holes and went to install the guard. As I picked up the guard, I noticed it was now scuffed. WTF?? I had only laid it on the bed of my RL. The website I bought the guards from said that they were chip resistant and powder coated. NOT!! I think that I could have used watercolors on the guards for a more durable finish. I figured since I had already drilled the holes for the brackets that I would just refinish the guards and be done. I installed the first guard and guess what? It was crooked. Long story short, I had to remove that guard about 10 times and bend the tabs that go over the tail light mounting screws to properly align the guard. In the first 9 attempts, the guard hit the tail gate composite panel and since laying the guard on the bed scuffed it, you can only guess what the composite panel rubbing did to it. Yes folks, it sanded the guard down to BARE METAL in only 9 tailgate open/close cycles.
Long story short, it took me 3 1/2 hours to properly align and mount 2 tail light guards. This compares to my 2 hour install of my grille guard. I consider myself to be an above average garage mechanic having done a stint at a dealership in the shop for a couple of years.
I finally got the tail light guards aligned so that they are straight and don't rub the tailgate in either opening direction so it can be done. On one hand, the tail light guards are very sturdy but getting them mounted properly is a big hassle.
The moral of this narrative is that you should listen to others when it comes to recommendations of quality in products. I thought I would rate these tail light guards on a scale of 1 to 10 in several areas. 1 is the worst and 10 being the best/easiest.
Build quality of Product minus paint 8
Quality of finish 1
Fit of product on vehicle 0
Instructions What are instructions??
Mounting Ease -2
Accuracy of welding LOL
I know about the warranty and that I could return them but I figured that at best, I would get the very next jacked up unit that came off the assembly line so I kept them. I had them and figured that if worse came to worse, I could fire up my torch, cut off the factory mounting tabs and reweld them in the correct fashion. It didn't come to this but I was very very close.
I got them on and like how they look but I absolutely DO NOT recommend this product to anyone unless you have an engineering degree and a lot of patience, an extra can of black Krylon and a fair amount of strength. This has to be perhaps one of the absolutely worst products products that I have ever purchased as it pertains to fit and finish and installation. By all accounts, this product should have taken me no longer than a half an hour from start to finish if I had been drunk. 3 1/2 hours is unacceptable. I took some pics. Enjoy. Do me a favor and say something nice about how they look or something. It took me a long time to get these on.
PS. The included screws for the mounting tabs were not even black like the rest of the guards. You can see this in the pictures. Sorry that that the pictures are so dark. Mr. Sunshine went to bed long before I got done with the install.
Here is a picture of the bracket that I had to drill a hole for. I made sure that I applied paint and silicone sealant to prevent rust.
Another great write up chris
