Mud Guards & Flaps Mud Guards and Flaps: The Facts
Mud Guards and Flaps: The Facts
Whether you’re looking to keep your vehicle’s showroom shine in top-notch condition or you need some extra coverage for those monster meats you installed, mud guards and mud flaps are a must. After all, those mud-spray patterns drying up on the side of your ride aren’t doing anybody any favors, and extra big truck tires, though they look great, can quickly get you pulled over by a fix-it-ticket-slinging Johnny Law. So cover your paint job and your assets with a set of mud flaps or mud guards. But, what’s the difference?
Let’s start with mud flaps. These are the thick rubber flexible flaps that you most often see dangling from the chassis of big rigs and 18-wheelers. The fact that they are flexible is what differentiates flaps from guards, and this quality may or may not make them right for your vehicle. For instance, an off-road vehicle could find itself axle deep in a mud pit, in which the flexibility keeps them from breaking off from your wheel well. As well, when you’re negotiating rocky trails, the flaps give when flinging debris flies into them. But at high speeds, the mud flaps tend to sail out and away from your vehicle, where they may not be as useful.
Now mud guards are on the opposite end of the rigidity spectrum. Usually molded from hard plastic and designed to look more like a component of the vehicle, mud guards are rigid. In an extreme off-road situation, this may not be a quality you’re looking for. But for passenger cars and vehicles that only negotiate wet weather at worst, these keep your paint from catching the spray. Plus, being molded gives them a much more custom appearance than having some floppy flap hanging down from your car.
There are several brands of mud flaps and mud guards on the market, but the best in the biz come from Husky Liners, Dee Zee, WeatherTech and CRE. Most require some amount of drilling to install properly, but some, like the WeatherTech brand, bolt right into existing holes on your vehicle. So the next time you find the mud and crud flinging and flying, make your way to the unflappable protection of mud guards and mud flaps.