For months now we've been having nothing but rain so needless to say any gravel or dirt roads are nothing but mud and pot holes including my 1200 foot driveway. I didn't realize how bad things were until I opened my door the other day and saw the mess inside.
Would mud flaps stop this sort of mess from occurring? If so what brand would be recommended to work the best?
I had to take mine off, because they wouldn't fit with the fender flares. So i have the same problem you do. Just driving around town, dirt from the road just goes right onto my rocker panels and steps.
Mud flaps will help, but you're still going to get some dirt.
Why not gravel your 1200 foot driveway? Gravel is cheap. 3/4 minus is only like 20-30 bucks a yard.
Actually my driveway is gravel. Costs $330 for a 22 ton truck to spread a 2" thick load down the full length. I've done that several times over the years. The problem is last year we had 68 inches of rain which was about 25 inches above normal. So far this year it hasn't stopped raining. Even when I try and grade my driveway it only lasts for about a week or two before it's a total mess again. Until it dries out to where I can grade it smooth there's no reason to even consider a load of gravel. It's going to take some real serious road work to get it back to what it was previously :frown2:
That's what prompted me to see if mud flaps would keep most or all of that crap out of between the door and the rocker.
Im about to order some since i'll be barrowing a camp trailer and don't want to cause any unnecessary road damage etc. couple folks been running them for YEARS and they hold up great plus no dill reduces rust if you have salt/de icing fluid in winter times.
Best you'll find for the 99-03s. they make them for many more as well though.
Im about to order some since i'll be barrowing a camp trailer and don't want to cause any unnecessary road damage etc. couple folks been running them for YEARS and they hold up great plus no dill reduces rust if you have salt/de icing fluid in winter times.
Yeah they salt the roads here in central Kentucky :frown2:
I had been zeroing in on Husky flaps because they seemed a little longer than others that I found although I had't seen the Dura Flap link before. The Dura Flaps are definitely pricey compared to the competition. My F250 has 285 tires so finding mud flaps that are wide enough is also important.
I put these Weathertech flaps on my F250, they seem to keep the bright white truck a lot cleaner overall, and look OEM. they also keep my trailer a lot cleaner.
I put these Weathertech flaps on my F250, they seem to keep the bright white truck a lot cleaner overall, and look OEM. they also keep my trailer a lot cleaner.
If it were me, i'd go with 14" unless you run skinny tires. IMO, just a bit wider than the tires covers AND looks better than just barely fitting the tires.
I have the Husky 12" flaps on my '05 but plan on getting wider ones soon for the reason stated above.
You've both made good points. Actually my driveway isn't 100% straight as I do have a couple of minor "kinks" which just happen to coincide with the worst pot holes/mud puddles. Considering how much damage the water and mud cause once they get inside the door jam area it's probably foolish to not get the wider flaps.
This is a good discussion and I appreciate the comments.
For off roading, I don't feel my front mud flaps help. I feel they may slow it down getting dirty, but a 1200' muddy driveway plus muddy county roads driven at least twice a day, I think if anything like my front mudflaps, would be the difference between a whole lot of mud and a whole - whole lot of mud to clean up after.
I got the standard length for the front and extended length for the rears. It might be a mistake but I couldn't justify the added cost for the stainless weights. It'll be interesting to see if that was a mistake :surprise:
@bkahler - sorry i didn't get back to you on the Duraflaps. My wife went into the hospital for gallbladder surgery. Came on quickly.
I'm sure you'll like them. Now that I've had the weights, I should have given some more thought to it. Although they look good, sometimes I think they flash light back @ other drivers.
@bkahlerNow that I've had the weights, I should have given some more thought to it. Although they look good, sometimes I think they flash light back @ other drivers.
Mud flaps are installed. Overall it was a relatively easy job with one exception. The product description says no drilling, well that's not necessarily true. Apparently on some trucks the 3rd hole isn't always present which turned out to be the situation with my truck. Not a big deal although I did call Duraflap just to see what they had to say. The girls said that apparently depending on the day of the week at Ford some trucks had the hole and others didn't! Fortunately the hole was easy to add, just had to turn the wheels to get the drill motor to fit between the mud flap and the tire. One other difference in their instructions has to do with the plastic pins that hold the wheel well liners. My truck doesn't use plastic pins, it used screws. Having screws instead of the pins actually made the job easier.
It took me longer to gather the tools and the drill together than it took to actually install the front flaps. Maybe 15 minutes each and that's mainly because I had to turn the wheels to drill and then straighten them to install the flaps.
The rears were somewhat more complicated. I started on the passenger side and immediately noticed there was likely going to be an interference between the flap and my tail pipe. My truck has a 5" exhaust system that takes up a fair amount of space so I was a little concerned at first. The attachment process is a little odd and it took me a few minutes to actually figure out just what their written description and supplied pictures were trying to show. Once I got that through my thick skull I got the passenger side mounted. Probably 20 minutes total. The flap just barely touches the tail pipe. I went for an hour drive and then checked the flap and no marks on it so I'm assuming things will be fine the way they are.
The hardest part was removing the original bolts holding the fender supports in place. The drivers side took about the same amount of time, mainly because the stainless screw didn't want to engage with the captive nut they supplied. For some reason I had to tap the nut to clean up the threads. Once that was done the rest was easy. One odd thing about the rear flaps is the aren't really parallel to the back of the tire. They sort of angle outwards. After looking closer the angle comes from the fender itself and the flap just follows that curve. I'm sure I'll get used to the look
I'm not convinced I have the flaps aligned perfectly but I would just need to loosen the bolts to correct any misalignment. The one thing I might change is the size of stainless washers provided to hold the rubber flaps in place. The slots in the rubber are fairly large and the washers don't really cover the entire slot. I can see where they could pull through if the flaps are jared hard enough.
Overall I would say I'm satisfied with them and time will tell as to how well they hold up.
Yeah, I think I would still get the extended rear flaps. It's probably been 35 years or more since I had all terrain tires on a vehicle and considering I tow a trailer from time to time with everything from sports cars to tractors loaded it's surprising how many rocks those tires pick up and then kick out once I'm up to speed. It's not just my trailer loads I'm worried about it's also the drivers behind me. Nothing like little missiles coming your way to make you flip off the guy in front of you!
Next time the driveway gets muddy I'll try and remember to get pics of how they protect (or don't) the rockers and steps.
Thank you BKhaler for such a great write up of information on our DuraFlap mud flaps. Of course we are joking a bit when we say that hole is missing on trucks made the wrong day of the week, but it is interesting that all our in shop installs have had that factory hole, and occasionally we have someone call in that does not have that hole.
We do not want the mud flap touching the exhaust. We can send you a stand off bracket that you drill into the exhaust, but you may not want to drill. Give us a call if you do want it.
One of the reasons we do use the smaller washers is so if something happens and your mud flap is pulled on (pinching it between your tire and a tall curb) it is the mud flap that gives, not the fender.
Thank you BKhaler for such a great write up of information on our DuraFlap mud flaps. Of course we are joking a bit when we say that hole is missing on trucks made the wrong day of the week, but it is interesting that all our in shop installs have had that factory hole, and occasionally we have someone call in that does not have that hole.
We do not want the mud flap touching the exhaust. We can send you a stand off bracket that you drill into the exhaust, but you may not want to drill. Give us a call if you do want it.
Do you get many trucks that have screws instead of the plastic push pins? No need for a stand off bracket, as of yet there are no marks on the mud flap or muffler.
One of the reasons we do use the smaller washers is so if something happens and your mud flap is pulled on (pinching it between your tire and a tall curb) it is the mud flap that gives, not the fender.
The front flaps are about 8" off the ground and the rears are about 7", maybe a touch less. As far as I know my truck is stock with a 2" factory lift installed. It's a 2000 4x4 F250 SD.
One of the reasons I mentioned previously about wanting mud flaps was to keep the mud and crap from getting up in between the door and the body. Since the flaps have been installed it hasn't rained nearly as much as it had been the last few years but as yet there has been no mud or water getting up in that area anymore. Needless to say that is something that makes me real happy.
I'd have to say the mud flaps have definitely been worth the cost and yes I would buy them again.
I know it's not my thread, but i'm bringing this back to the top.
Installed my flaps today. Got the 14" extra long on all 4 corners and I REALLY like how they make the truck look! Not to mention, the extra coverage area. The fronts went on well, but I have a quick question for @DuraFlap or anyone else who has installed these: On the rears where you put the support bracket on the strut bolt - the instructions tell you to put it in the very last hole for our pickups. When I did that, it "pushed the inside of the flap forward and made the fit look weird by ****ing (it won't let me say that word - think male chicken ) the mudflap to the outside rather than sitting parallel against the back of the tire. I actually ended up re-doing the bracket and used the middle hole for the install. They sit way more "flat" now and not pointed inside or outside. Also, I had to bend the bracket a bit with my channel locks to get it to sit flat. I installed both ways on both sides and needed to be bent no matter what hole I used.
Anyone else run into these issues or did I do something wrong on installation? Either way, I can't see how anything I did could hurt anything, plus I love the look now and i'll get pictures after I wash it LOL
What you did was right. Looks like you probably received instructions from back when we had shorter brackets. We lengthened them when we redesigned for the 2017. I will have to review our current install directions to make sure they are up to date.
Thank you for letting us know.
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