Front mud flap when off roading?

I went on an offroad trail run with a local 4×4 club on Saturday. this is the first time I've taken my Tacoma on a trail since I bought it on new year's.

The first rocky section when I went over a good sized boulder I heard a scraping noise. I didn't thin it was a big enough rock to scrape my belly. I have articulated my suspension and had no such noise.
As the trail progresses there were many more rocks and the noise came again. Eventually I realized what the sound was my front flap scraping on the rocks after the tire passes them.
What do you think let it scrape or do something about it? When not off roading I prepre to have them. Should I tie them up to my slider or maybe remove them on trails? I don't care about the scrape but if I nee to back up a rock I bet I could RIP the flap off.
Any ideas would be helpful.

 

Cut them shorter

 

Took my mud flaps off halfway up a mountain and tossed them in the bed then in the trash when I got home two years ago. No problems since.

 

You can build a quick coupler for the flaps so you can remove them when you hit the trail. On the other hand i would do what joeyv141 said. Rear flaps are good so you dont be that asshole but front ones are for hipsters

 

There are rubber ones you can buy that serve the same function and don't make you cringe when you go off roading.

 

The Husky mud flaps are shorter, stiffer and a bit wider. Not only will you not be the asshole slinging rocks, but your doors will thank you. I have a 200 yd gravel driveway so about a week after buying off-road tires and not having mudflaps I bought the Huskys. I don't mind scratches in the paint, but chips are just another way to let the rust in. Rust bad lol.

 

I say take them off.
Or they could fall off like mine.
No idea where I lost one. It just disappeared.
I removed the other one.

 

Exactly. Don’t even need to take them off to trim them. A good pair of tin snips did the trick for me. Took less than 5 minutes to trim all four.

I couldn’t wait to trim off that cheesy looking ‘4x4’ on the rear flaps.

 

I know exactly what you’re saying, mine made the most terrible scraping sound just hopping a curb to get out of a concert venue parking lot faster. And I still examine the entire underside when I got home.

I know a lot of people take them off for off-roading (just for the trail or permanently). This thread is the first I’ve heard that the Husky flaps are shorter. I wonder by how much.

Anyway not so much trouble to, at worst, remove the front flaps before you hit the trail. If you go often that would become a pita though.

 

Yep they are way too long. They look like they hang down a bit more than the rear ones. I'm probably going to trim min

 

Mine broke off after 3 years. Never replaced them. That was 9 years ago and I've not missed them at all.

 

I trimmed mine shorter with a coping saw. Worked well.

 

keep em on. Protects your rocker / lower doors from all sorts of door dings. You can do what i did, drill a small hole bottom center, just big enough for some bailing or safety wire to go through, then pull em up and back and tie them bent up to a slider / frame.

 

I cut about 3 in off all four of mine after my first wheeling adventure. They almost broke the inside of my fender flares when scraping. My 1st gen Tacoma had rubber floppy flaps that would easily bend and worked great. Wish I still had those.

 

That's what I was thinking I like them there to keep crap off my truck. I don't want them to RIP the fender flares off.

 

Just trim them up about 3-4 inchs

 

Dumb. You could have sold them on TW for $100.

 

Yeap,factory parts are worth a premium .

 

I finally tore my passenger front mudflap off a few months ago backing over a ditch. Replaced them with Husky's. I should have done that when I first bought it, I haven't heard the Husky's scrape once.

 

If you leave them stock and offroad you will rip all 4 of them off eventually. I ripped one of my fronts off the first time I took it out so i took the other one off. I ripped a rear off a couple years later so I took those off too