Kodiak Motorized Steps Install - The Electric Slide

1. There are three mounting brackets to preassemble before you put the step in place. We left these bolts loose for now.

2. A reference chart in the instructions will guide you to the step-mounting location. This is important because the best positioning for functionality is not in the center of the door. When you step up into the vehicle, your foot should be placed in the door opening closest to the floorboard where your feet rest. Our project measurement was 23-1/2 inches to the rear mounting hole. We placed a small mark here to mark the bolt hole location.

3. The second measurement is simply half an inch from the lower end of the cab kick panel. We cleaned a spot to get to the paint and made the finish mark. From center to center, the mounting bracket holes are 5-1/4 inches apart. We reproduced the dimension on the kick panel half of an inch from the bottom of the panel as we did the first hole. A quick check of the marks on our kick panel and we were ready to drill.

4. When you're trying to drill holes with a specific dimension, it's best to use a center punch to prevent the bit from walking around, which will leave your hole centers off. Center to center, our mounting holes came out perfectly.

5. We slid the Kodiaks into position only to find we had clearance issues with a structure rib stamped in the kick panel. A cutoff wheel was used to put a relief in the lower portion of the rib, which made it possible to manipulate the rib. Not removing the rib completely allows the steps to be installed without compromising the structural integrity of the kick panel in that area. Be careful if you chose to use this method, as you could cut right through the lower section of the kick panel.

6. A heavy hammer may seem like excessive force when it comes to simply pushing the rib flat, but the large hammer allowed us to do the job with fewer blows. A smaller hammer would require more smacks, which would fatigue the sheetmetal and increase the chances of pounding the paint off the panel.

7. Stainless Allen head bolts slip through the kick panel and hold the steps on our flat mounting area.

8. Make sure the step has a slight rise to it. Three degrees is perfect for the step, allowing the water to roll off it when not in use. It also compensates for the flex in the step. Remember that these are moving steps, making them less rigid. If you mount them flat, when you step on them, they will slightly bend down due to the four bearings that the step swivels on. So if you mount them flat and use them on a rainy day, you'll probably find your self face flat on the ground. L-brackets mount to the truck frame and hold the steps in position. With a second set of hands holding the steps in the proper place, mark the frame for the mounting holes.

9. A small drill is used to make quick work of the initial frame holes. They're also easier to control when it comes to holding center on your mark. In addition, a larger drill will easily follow the small hole center and cut faster after a small drill is first used. After the holes were drilled, we installed the brackets with the supplied bolts.

10a. With the L-brackets in position, we mounted up the steps. A quick test of the step made sure it didn't flex below level when we stood on it. The brackets have plenty of adjustment in them, but we were happy with them, so we tightened all the bolts and were ready to move to wiring the electric steps.

11. The steps have a three-pin sealed electrical connector to prevent corrosion. The three wires are red for positive, green for ground, and brown for a trigger.

12. Remove the sill plate and kick panel from the doorjamb so you can access the back of the door cavity and route the wires.

13. We've seen many KodiaK steps installed using the trigger wire spliced into the interior-light system. The problem with this is that even though the trigger wire is just an internal relay, it's not a normal low-voltage relay; it requires a true 12-volt signal. Wiring the steps without a stand-alone trigger will result in reduced life span and in some cases cause failure. Finding the proper location for the door pin switch can be tricky, but the techs at Billet Superstore install a boatload of Kodiak steps monthly and have the job down. Their position of choice for our Chevy HD is right in the middle of the hinge. To ensure the area is correct, we had them show us how to find the proper location. First check to see if there are at least 2-1/2 inches behind your desired mounting area to allow the switch to move back. A piece of gray caulking supplied with the steps is rolled into a cone shape and placed at the desired area. Closing and opening the door will crush the caulk, providing a measurable distance between the door and seal while the door is in the closed position. The range needed for the trigger to be good is 3/8 to 1 inch.

14. After locating the position of the pin switch, run a 11/32-inch drill bit through the mounting area for the switch.

15. The door seal has a cavity from the boxed cab. The bottom of the door seal plate has a plug in it just behind the front door pillar. We located it from underneath the truck and drilled a hole in the door seal just above the plug.

16. The plug was taken out and an X was cut into the plug to make room for the trigger wire to run through it. We put a rubber grommet in the drilled hole to protect the trigger wire.

17. The trigger wire was pulled through the door seal plug, rubber grommet, up and through the pin switch hole, and crimped to a female electrical connector. With a socket and ratchet, the self-tapping pin switch was screwed into position, after the electrical connector was attached to the switch.

18. Check the pin switch to make sure the switch won't interfere with anything. If not, your pin switch is mounted.

19. After mounting all the steps and triggers, we ran the positive and negative wires to the battery side of the truck. Using zip-ties and wire loom, the wires were run into the engine compartment.

20a. A true 12-volt source was run from the positive brake-out box from inside the engine compartment.

21. We affixed a fuse box to the back side of the plastic cover of the control box inside the engine bay. The heavy 10-gauge wire we ran from the brake-out box was coupled to a fuse block. Each of the four Kodiak positive wires was attached to the fuse block, providing protection to each of the four steps. All the grounds got eyelets crimped to their ends and were attached to the backside of the engine for a solid ground.

22. All the doors were left open and the fuses were put into the fuse box. There are adjusters on the Kodiac steps that allow you to adjust the close position. We pulled the adjusters to the lowest position to ensure each step didn't make contact with the body. After the desired closed height was achieved, the locking nut was tightened to hold the step bump in place.