Those of you who travel travel roads...

What's the best protection from rock chips. 10 mph, mud flaps, sliders, or forget about it?

Tried oem mudflaps. Broke one on a snow bank. Tried rekgen (long story), pushed my front fender flares out, but they look awesome. Also felt like front flaps just knocked rock down and it knocked back up to chip all the paint below the sill.

Tried going no protection.
Only positive I have is no flaps = sexy blazing blue pearl. the tires look huge.

Lots of salt, snow, sand, rock, and gravel roads here. Need something for small rock protection, but don't want to sacrifice ground clearance.

Suggestions please! I don't rock crawl, or hit the mud. Mostly gravel, some sand, small rocks (sometimes at high speed) , salt in winter, deep snow.

 

Care to elaborate on the rekgens, please? I just ordered a pair so now you have me all curious.

 

running boards & mud flaps of your choice

 

I have accepted the fact that rock chips and pin stripes come with playing the game. Driving slow, mud flaps and rocker protection will reduce the damage.

 

When tightening mine the front ones flexed my fender out. The tape adhesive could be seen. Put regular hardware back on and nice and flush. Didn't happen till I washed a few times. May be due to me following a suggestion here and putting the front long bolt on the rear and the shorter one on the front. It only separated on the lower part of the front flaps. Also had oem which sucked up the lower front, but rubbed on a few curbs (yeah I said it), and broke on a hard pack snow crawl. Snow here gets deep, freezes, gets more snow, ice over, gets piled with debris, etc. Rek gens flex would have been welcome.....just not the best fit for me. Not sure what to do, need a custom, 3d fit, flexible mat. There is also a gap and the dirt runs right down the back, fine now. But when it snows, freezes, etc it will pack the salt and snow. I liked how they flexed and the snow could be kicked off without jarring the flap, but never got that far. They may be good for you, maybe I'm too picky.

 

Rekgens are a perfect fit. No offense, but if they flexed your fender flares it was 100% installer error. I would order another set and just install them properly or have someone who has installed a set do it for you.

 

I drive on eight miles of gravel road daily. Have had oem mudflaps and oem step tubes on six stock Tacomas including my 2018 Sport. Very few chips...as a matter of fact almost no chips. All of the Tacomas except the 2018 had about 100,000 miles on them. Did the same with three Ram Hemi's with the same results. All of the trucks had stock rims and all terrain tires.

 

Rokblokz and Toyota cast aluminum running boards. Catches pretty much everything

 

Thanks for the info. When you say stock running boards which one do you mean? Predator?

I have to admit the stock flaps are a nice fit, just wish they flexed a bit.

 

I've been driving roughly 1000 miles/year on gravel forest service type roads since the 1970's. The only truck/suv I've ever owned with mud flaps is my 2007 Tacoma. They broke off in 2010 and I trashed them. I have never had any paint damage on this truck or any other. If your tires fit inside the wheel wells flaps don't matter. If your tire/wheel combo extends the tires past the fenders you need fender extensions, not mud flaps.

 

https://parts.toyota.com/p/Toyota__Tacoma/Cast-Aluminum-Running-Boards/69526146/PT76735160.html

 

Grew up on dirt/gravel roads. Had mudflaps on one of my cars, but none of the others. I noticed the occasional rock chip but they were always pretty minor. No one cared about them because of all the rust that was on the cars anyway...

 

Rekgens for me too. Great fit. Hoping to get some sliders soon for extra protection

 

May have to try these. Looks like it would not effect height.

 

Rekgens and sliders here.

Keeping the speed down helps alot, reduces the trajectory and velocity of the rocks thrown by the front tires.