Rock Chips with Trimmed/Missing Mudflaps

I was hoping to get some real world reviews from guys that have both trimmed and removed their mud flaps on their second gens, in terms of how badly the trucks get chipped up. I'm sick of removing the flaps every time I go offroad (even super mild trails they scrape) and want to just leave them off, but I don't want to have 1000 chips a few months later.

Sorry if this has been discussed before, I searched the forums and found much info on trimming flaps but not a whole lot on chipping paint.

Brian.

 

The more you trim, the more you risk paint damage.

If that's a big concern I'd probably instead buy some flexible mud flaps (the OEMs are pretty stiff). Rokblox is the favored brand, IIRC.

I trimmed my fronts to be essentially the same length as the rears and I don't have any rock chips, with 41k miles on the ODO. I think the stiffness of the flaps is your bigger issue, and you should be able to replace them and be happy and keep your paint happy also.

 

I own a window tint company (Fire Guys Tinting) in Illinois/ Wisconsin and we also install Paint Protection Film. This is a material similar to what you may have applied to your iPhone. It's great and I actually installed it on my rockers, allowing me to get rid of the mudflaps. Fortunately or unfortunately, it's clear so a lot of people don't know about it. I install it on the front clips of a lot of high end cars.

 

I trimmed mine about 3inches. Simple job, but I am debating on removing them all the way. I like how it looks without them but don't want to trash the paint either...decisions decisions