Protection from gravel with wide tires?

Well I finally got my big ass tires that I have wanted for a long time and I'm thrilled with the look and ride. Anyways, I did quite a bit of driving on dirt/gravel roads the past couple days and now I'm really concerned that these tires are going to thrash my paint. Rocks were flying everywhere...

I looked around here and didn't seem to find much. Looks like some people are using the bushwackers. Those are kind of spendy (I'd want to get them painted) and they don't seem to be much of an improvement over the stock flares. Maybe I'm way off on that, but it seems from what I've seen that the tires would still stick out past them. I've talked with a couple people on here about that, but if anybody has any thoughts on the BWs I'd appreciate them.

Another possibility...? I really want sliders, and I'm wondering if this would be a good way to justify dropping the coin on some soon. Would sliders help protect against this? I have nerf bars on now, so I'm wondering if sliders would be an improvement over those.

I was thinking about vinyl or plasti derp too...

I'm mostly concerned about winter driving when gravel is all over the road, but I hit gravel roads on a semi regular basis as well. Anybody find a good way to deal with this? Please don't tell me to downsize my tires, my dad already told me this...don't need to hear it again. If this has already been covered on this site, please assist with a link. Thanks!

 

Rhino liner or Line-X that part of the truck. This guy Line-X his whole truck https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/line-x-whole-truck.316490/

 

Subbed, Other than fender flares the only options are ugly IMO (big mud flaps or making your paint look worse than being scratched...)

 

Yeahhh I don't think I want to do that to my truck lol. I'd like to steer clear of painting things because I like the clean silver look. If I can't come up with anything else I might try plasti dipping lower panels on the doors and whatnot.

Agreed

 

This is about all I know of:
http://www.bushwacker.com/fender-flares

 

I have bushwackers on my truck and I've also plasti dipped the bottom and am still getting rock chips

 

So did the bushwackers a make any difference at all???

 

OP Not sure if this is heavy-duty enough for your application. But I used 3M paint defender on the rear quarter panels, bumper, and sides to protect against gravel/rocks. Same as you, I didn't want to use aftermarket parts or rhino line and wanted to retain the stock appearance of the paint. I go to the desert frequently and found the roads and rocks were hell on the paint. More so after I installed BFG AT tires. So far it's been working great. Can't even tell it's on there (see pics below). Even when you get right up close, it's near impossible to see it. 3M says it's good for about a year or more, so if you're not into re-applying then maybe it's not for you. But it costs about $25 a can and only took me an hour to apply it (masking and application) plus drying time. So I don't mind reapplying it down the road.

http://3mauto.com/products/paint-defender

 

That's really cool! Where did you apply it? Is it on the whole panels or what? Lol I can't see it! So it's like clear plasti dip but maybe slightly more durable. All you had to do was just clean the surface, tape it off, then spray it...wham bam?

 

It's applied across the lower sides of the truck (below the Tacoma badge) straight to the rear quarter panels and bumper. The product is self leveling and dries to a perfectly clear gloss. You even wash and wax it the same as the rest of your paint. And like plastidip, you can just peal it off when you want. Had some buddies check it out after I applied it and they had to bend down and run their hands all over the truck to figure out where it starts and ends. Will see how it holds up over the course of the year. But like I said, for $25 and an hour to apply I'm not too worried about it.

 

Hell yeah man! Just what I needed, thanks!

 

Subbed