My boat came with the step but not the pole, winch step and little middle step. So i finally decided to order wat i needed. Well it came in! All the bolts, skid tread and main components.
It came with 1/2 inch bolts 6 inches long and 3 1/2 inch 1/4 inch bolts for the middle step
After looking things over installation was obivous. After removing the winch I lined the pole up where it needed to be. Using a 1/2 inch center punch i punched my first 2 holes. After drilling 1/8 pilot i discovered that the 4 inch tube was actually one inside another(making it close to 3/8+ thick). Being a machinst i knew it would be adquate to just drill and tap instead of drilling all the way through to the opposite side of the tube. I drilled to the correct size for a 1/2-13 tap. I repeated the process for the center step except for 3/8 bolts.
Imo my opinion the installation looks alot cleaner using threaded holes. Not having bolt heads and nut on each side.
Under all flat mounting surfaces i did add euroflex to help vibration and surface to surface strength(anyone that has used euroflex will understand) I also blue loctite on all bolts except the winch iself which came with lock nuts.
Unless one is comfotable with a drill and tap i would not attempt it and use the provided hardware the way it was intended from the factory.
