Gravel road damage!

I live on a dirt road. Most of the roads here are dirt and gravel. The quality of the paint on the rocker panels doesn’t matter, you kick up enough rocks, it’s going to pepper your paint like that.

I’ve just got into the habit of taking my trucks to the rhino liner dealer and having them do the rocker panels.

 

Husky mud flaps

 

Sport models come with painted flares from the factory.

 

Running boards are the best line of defence for this. I have rokblokz and running boards on my 23 tundra. The 3rd Gen tundras are having a similar, but not as bad, issue with rock chipping the paint.

even with my large mud flaps I constantly hear rocks tinging off the bottom of my running boards.

 

This thread is a really good anecdote for why a lot of us recommend not buying the first year of an all-new design.

Toyota engineers widen the track on the new Tacoma, but underestimate the damage that loose gravel and debris might create. Seems a little naive as an oversight when designing an off-roader, but let’s just give them a pass. As we can see, it’s the first-year owners who are tasked to report issues like this, or grill shutters, and, I guess in some rare cases, broken transmissions.

If you’re interested in buying a new Tacoma, collect data from the new owners here, and just hang out a little while. They’re not ready yet.

 

My 2019 Tacoma ate multiple recalls, and had a new recall at the time I traded it in. So hay guyz... 3rd gen Tacoma's still aren't ready

 

I still don't get what are they going to design wise for the topic in discussion.

 

The powertrain isn’t ready for highway’s with hills.

 

Why I was so ready to move on and don't miss it at all.

 

We would all appreciate it if you took two steps back and grabbed another picture of the side. It is good that you posted this, as others can take notice.

 

Good mudflaps and side steps, nerf bars or sliders are good preventative measures for the gravel damage issue.

 

My guess is a set of wider mudflaps, no?

 

Hey your mouth to god’s ear on that one. Three Gen3’s and zero hoods that lined up correctly…

Keep us posted on your 8speed. If it doesn’t throw codes by ‘26, might be time for a test drive.

 

Won't help. I tried that. I think it's the OEM tires.

 

my rokblokz are wider than anything Toyota offers and my running boards do more to protect from stone chips. I agree

 

This is such a stupid conversation, you have to be an idiot if you think you should not get stone chips when driving on gravel roads.There is no way to stop this even if you have mud flaps or running boards.

 

https://arksplashguards.com/product...-guards-mud-flap-micro?variant=43664040820901

Someone give these a shot?

 

Yes. I did. Not much help.

 

You would have to be an idiot to not be able to correctly postion wider and longer flaps to stop the paint damage from gravel roads. Pretty easy task if you have any common sense.

18 years ago, my Gen 2 Tacoma came stock from Toyota with adequate mud guards that stopped all paint damage from running gravels roads (unless you changed wheel offset or tire width) My 2000 Gen 1 standard cab also had very similar flaps stock right from Toyota that stopped all paint damage.

These are stock flaps on my 2006 which show the length and width necessary.