Mud flaps necessary to prevent rock chips?

In my experience you have to be most careful when backing up. Going forward isn't as often the problem. It's usually when you decide to back up over an obstacle, the mudguard or flap will end up getting pinched between your tire and the (rock, log, side of deep pothole, etc) and will pinch/tear under the rotation and torque from your tire which will make short work of little metal parts and plastic components. My concern with the stiffer molded plastic is that it also becomes a liability going forward as it could snag on something and will not bend as easily as a rubberized type flap would.

 

Right on Smitty... totally agree..!!

 

Wow, awesome response. Thanks - super helpful words of wisdom!

 

Another issue with the flaps is going forward off of vertical ledges. For example, when I would drive off of a curb with the stock mud flaps, I would hear them scrape/bang. I quickly trimmed them after that.

 

Avoiding rocks is necessary in preventing rock chips.

 

For sure.

 

For any future (or present) readers of this thread, RokBlokz makes flexible mudflaps for our trucks. They're also lower profile, so rubbing shouldn't be an issue.

http://rokblokz.com/toyota.html

 

Dang, kinda wish I had gotten those.

 

Look into Plasticolor. Better than RokBlokz for Stock Tires IMO.... lots of folk running them here. Easy install, no drilling on truck use existing hardware. RokBlokz are stupid expensive compared to plasticolor anyway and they stick out which may look ok with wider bigger tires but the plasticolor look better on a stock truck IMO. Plus they're maybe $20 to $30 a pair.
@TBV check here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...mounting-holes-on-truck.412660/#post-11673862