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Mud flaps - are they really needed


gazelle

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As far as I can work out the point of mud flaps on the back are

1 - to keep the back of the truck a bit cleaner and dryer

2 - to help the visibilty for the car behind.

However they reduce access for cleaning/maintenance etc.

Having lost another one to the inevitable defender split, apart from the above and for visual symmetry , is there any reason why I should replace it?

What are the consequences of not doing so for mainly road use.

Your thoughts and opinions please.

Martin

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What are the consequences of not doing so for mainly road use.

Upsetting drivers?

Have you seen the spray that can be given off without them in heavy rain, on er, lets say, the motorway? Think what a HGV can do in heavy rain, that's what yours will do in light rain. :ph34r:

I must confess that my 88 lacks them at the moment. I want some though.

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If you ever tow trailers out of muddy fields they stop the mud being thrown all over the trailer, and load (cars, hay, shiny horsebox etc).

At the end of the day, like so many things, it boils down to what you use your Landrover for.

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No they are not needed unless you come accross a certain copper in this area.....

Mine come free. Easily made once you have the templates....Neither do they split like the Land Rover ones.

Go and aquire a couple of empty 25 litre oil drums. Make them from that. Easily cut with tin snips. You could have a choice of colours as well.

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Really depends on what you use it for. I never fitted any on the D3 as they get damaged off road, especially the front ones which sit lower. This is no problem for me for as you say spraying a bit of cr*p out the back gets tailgaters off your ass.(If you cant see past because of the spray on the motorway then slow down or back off as your missing the point) The down side is we live in a rural location and within 30 seconds of any rain the car looks like it has never been washed from new. If you live in a city you will not really believe just how dirty it gets and how quick. Im sure mud flaps would help this and am now considering fitting some to the rear only as a half way fix. So it is really up to you and how/where you use your car.

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Being a biker i think all vehicals on the road should have them and there should be a law made to make people have them fitted as it can be imposible to see sometimes when you are behind a motor that hasnt got them fitted .

(i would also like to say that i dont tailgate when im on the bike )

cheers Iain

Quote I'd like to get some quick release ones for mine. The stone size a bfg mud can pick up worries me slightly

after being hit by a few stones i can say it gives you a fright and can also hurt

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I am fed-up with replacing mine as well. I am interested in quick release mudflaps but can't find anything with Google. Are these a home-made job?

Mike, I seem to remember one of yours not taking to well to Derbyshire :P

I've been looking at the Sparco mudflaps used by the boy racers rally guys but they are even more expensive to loose.

Personally I like having them on. It makes no odds to keeping the rear of the vehicle clean (not on a D2 anyway) but as said, protects other road users and the trailer.

I'm even fitting some to my trailer :ph34r: mostly to keep things like latches, light clusters etc cleaner.

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Yes Martin I did rip one off. That was refitted as soon as I got home. You must remember that the back flaps on mine are two inches further forward then Land Rover intended and the fronts about the same, easier to catch on the wheel when reversing. The biggest problem I have is breaking the holding chains.

Of course if I'd remembered and lifted the mud flaps, as I should have done, then it wouldn't have got caught and pulled off.

Anyways they only cost me an hours time if I do wreck them.

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Thanks Steve, will do something similar I think :) I was thinking about a bar on the truck, with a tube on the mudflap, that you could slide on and off (retain with an R-clip). Wouldn't work on the Disco because of the limited space in the arch, but would be good on the rear of a Defender.

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Thank you all for your input.

Short of creating more spray and therefore causing some potential problems for cars/bikes behind, and the back end getting dirtier and wetter when it rains - it would seem for UK based mainly on-road use, that leaving them off would not cause any great issues.

I will therefore put off replacement for a while 'till it warms up and dries off a bit.

I had not thought of re-using the old flap on the existing bracket - that stops the Rivnut problems I have been having in taking the broken ones off with the rivnut just turning inside the x-member.

I've made/modified my own using some big R clips.

Steve200tdi how are the connectors that the Rclips go through held to the x-member?

Cheers

Martin

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Steve200tdi how are the connectors that the Rclips go through held to the x-member?

Cheers

Martin

I have made my own winch bumper and added two 20mm round posts for the R clips to clip through. You could drill out the existing insets for the bolts that hold the mudflaps on and add some M10 ar M12 Threaded inserts (the ones that crimp on) and add some short threaded posts for your R-clips.

Hope this helps.

Steve

post-7712-126675199996_thumb.jpg

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Round here it pays to have them as otherwise you break people's windows with stones off the roads, and if you tow a trailer you break your own back windows rather often.

And 'round here you're also likely to get a broken nose the next time you stop and the fella behind you catches up after having his vehicle showered with gravel.

We'd consider it extraordinarly bad manners to travel the back roads without them, much like going around without your own snatch strap and expecting someone to use theirs to pull you out.

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