I searched on here (briefly, but did search) and didn't find much about one condition I've come to be a familiar with on the 2001-2006 Tahoe/Suburban Z71 trucks... loose running boards.
The Z71 trim includes a factory "nerf-bar" style running board. These running boards are very securely held to the body and should NOT flex or move when stepped on. If they do, you have either a loose 13MM bolt connecting the back of the running board bracket to the body, loose 13MM nuts holding the running board to the brackets, or... more commonly, broken off 1/4" rivets connecting the top of the bracket to the outer rocker.
To fix: Unbolt the running boards from the brackets... (10) - 13MM nuts. Then unclip all fasteners from the bottom of the Z71 cladding. Slide the cladding up to remove and you'll see the cladding bracket and the tops of the running board brackets.
In this picture below, the two left brackets are missing the rivets, the bracket to the right has rivets I replaced. 1/4" aluminum rivets can be had at Harbor Freight pretty affordably. Additionally, the cladding mount bracket is also riveted to the rocker with 1/4" rivets. So if you have a sagging cladding piece... could be broken off rivets.
Rivet them back up, re-install the cladding and running boards and you'll find they are incredibly solid. I put a pipe wrench on the back of the bracket to bent them up close to their original home position. Maybe this will help someone as I didn't know these were fastened like this until I looked.
The Z71 trim includes a factory "nerf-bar" style running board. These running boards are very securely held to the body and should NOT flex or move when stepped on. If they do, you have either a loose 13MM bolt connecting the back of the running board bracket to the body, loose 13MM nuts holding the running board to the brackets, or... more commonly, broken off 1/4" rivets connecting the top of the bracket to the outer rocker.
To fix: Unbolt the running boards from the brackets... (10) - 13MM nuts. Then unclip all fasteners from the bottom of the Z71 cladding. Slide the cladding up to remove and you'll see the cladding bracket and the tops of the running board brackets.
In this picture below, the two left brackets are missing the rivets, the bracket to the right has rivets I replaced. 1/4" aluminum rivets can be had at Harbor Freight pretty affordably. Additionally, the cladding mount bracket is also riveted to the rocker with 1/4" rivets. So if you have a sagging cladding piece... could be broken off rivets.
Rivet them back up, re-install the cladding and running boards and you'll find they are incredibly solid. I put a pipe wrench on the back of the bracket to bent them up close to their original home position. Maybe this will help someone as I didn't know these were fastened like this until I looked.
