Iam lookin for a project. I want to make some foot steps for my '79 F150 custom 4x4, its got a 4 inch suspension lift and sits on 35's. I can get in it fine, but my girlfriend and my mother have trouble. I want to weld up something outta steel and then paint them, or coat them so they dont rust...any ideas?

maybe something like these?

 

I had a friend that had the same problem. He had a K5 on 44's and his wife was 5' flat! So he took some chain latter and mounted som D-rings uner the truck. The D-rings were to clip the latter up out of the way. There is an idea to try rather than solid steps that will catch on everything.

 

I've been meaning to build a set for my crewcab, even though it's not *that* high off the ground (stock height, 2wd). What I intended to do was weld three pieces of mitered 3" black pipe to form a long "C". Two shorter pieces that get welded to squares of 3/8" plate to be bolted to the frame, and a long piece between those two where passengers will step on. Nice and simple, and very cheap.

I chose black pipe as the material because it's available in any home center, and has a thick wall (1/4" - 3/8" for 3" OD pipe) so it's strong enough to stand on even with the long span of a crewcab.

Of course like most of my "neat" ideas, I buy the materials, stack them in the back of one garage bay, and "get to it" eventually. Six years later I still haven't sad to say, but hopefully you can picture my idea.

I even have four, 1.5' strips of 1/4" thick, 3" wide steel diamond plate which I was going to cut and "french" into the black pipe where passengers would actually step getting in and out of the crewcab.

A friend of mine liked this idea so much that he actually built it for his extended cab Dodge, fabricating "hinges" in the short sections in the middle. He used one air cylinder per side to "fold" the steps down and underneath itself so they can tuck in closer to the frame when unnecessary. Since his truck has air bags in all four corners of his suspension in place of springs, he obviously has a large on-truck air supply to drive this stuff. I'm not sure of the size of the air cylinders, but they're large enough that two guys my size (6', 175lbs) can jump on the black pipe step without it moving at all.