'09 Mud Flaps are not as fragile as I thought...

I have an '09 DC SB TRD Offroad, and kept my factory mud flaps on due to the fact that I live in the CO mountains (gravel, sanded roads, and snow/slush/melt)...

I went out on a trail today to look at a campsite and check out a new-to-me area called China Wall in Tarryall, CO... It is Forest Road 212 and has a bunch of rocks and rock ledges/shelves where my mud flaps would drag and flex backwords... My buddy actually witnessed my mud flap fold almost all the way to the rocker panel and then return to original position...

I was under the impression that these mud flaps would break the first time they contacted anything...

Did they change the material that the flaps are made from to make them more flexible?

 

I watched one litteraly pop in multiple pieces.

 

Probably just still factory fresh and not yet dried out yet.

 

Must be... I can bend them up to the rockers w/o them breaking... I only have 2700 miles on my truck, though... Maybe they dry out and become brittle from the sun...

I'm thinking of trimming them and adding some flexible rubber... There is no way I can take them off... Too many gravel roads on a daily basis and alot of snow melt/slush in the winter months...

 

Logic would suggest that the colder it is out, the more brittle they would become.

 

I would say go outside and look at them again. Not from the outside looking in, but from the wheel well.