LATERAL PROTECTIVE DEVICES
Truck Side Guard Installation
A side guard is the only one of the four devices that changes the shape of the vehicle, and it is the one most often quoted wrong. What it costs to fit depends almost entirely on what is already hanging off your frame rail.
Fitment is decided at the frame rail
The guard mounts to the frame rail between the rear of the front wheel and the front of the rear wheel group. That span is rarely empty. Fuel tanks, battery boxes, DEF tanks, exhaust risers, toolboxes, air reservoirs and hydraulic tanks all live in it, and every one of them changes the bracket run.
We measure the open span on your vehicle rather than working from the model year. Two tractors of the same make and year, one with a single 100-gallon tank and one with duals, need different bracket spacing and sometimes a different panel length. This is why a quote given over the phone from a VIN alone is a guess.
Trailers are usually the simpler case: a long uninterrupted rail, standard mounting, and a predictable panel run. Day cabs and vocational chassis are the harder case, and dump bodies and roll-offs are harder still because the body subframe often occupies the mounting height the guard wants.
What the install includes
Priced per side. A vehicle needing both sides is two of these, and most do.
Each side covers the guard panel itself, the mounting brackets, grade-rated fasteners, fitment and cutting to your rail, corrosion protection at every drilled penetration, and the installation record. Ground clearance and the gap to the wheels are set on the vehicle, not assumed from a chart.
Time on the lift
Budget most of a working day per vehicle for a two-side fit, longer if the rail is congested enough to need bracket fabrication. The truck is not drivable during the fit — this is not a job that can be done around a delivery window, and trying to split it across two short visits usually costs more time than doing it once.
If the vehicle is coming in for other work anyway, book them together. The lift time overlaps.
Common questions
Do I need side guards on both sides?
The requirement is about closing the space between the wheels on the vehicle, so in practice yes — a guard on one side only leaves the other side open. We price per side so a vehicle that genuinely only needs one is not charged for two.
Will a side guard fit under a dump body or roll-off?
Usually, but it is the fitment most likely to need fabricated brackets, because the body subframe often sits where the guard's mounting height wants to be. Send us photos of the rail from the side before booking and we will tell you what it needs.
Does the guard have to come off for service?
No. We set the bracket run so that fuel fills, battery boxes and air tanks stay reachable. If something on your rail can only be serviced by pulling a panel, we will say so at fitment rather than after.