New Husky Mud Flaps - Wait to Install?

So being OCD and being kind of pissed an off road vehicle comes with such long mud flaps, i bought a set of husky front flaps when my vehicle is only a couple months old.

I was going to replace them right away, but then i thought that i should just wait until they break off, therefor getting the extra protection until that point.

My "wheeling" involves snow covered dirt roads/fields with dips, etc, no heavy rock crawling.

For people that installed the husky or have similar length (about 3.5" shorter), do they provide that much less protection?

Should i wait, or install them now? Opinions welcome, thanks guys

 

Now

 

Take the OEM ones off now while they are still clean and put the Huskys on. Then take your OEM set, slap them up on eBay...clean OEM sets fetch about $70 generally and that will basically pay for your new Husky flaps.

 

Do it now while you can still get the rivets out and whatnot without much trouble.

 

Do it now. I have them on my front wheels and haven't scrapped anything since I put them on. Way better than the front OEM flaps! Letting the OEM flaps scrape and break off could damage your fender flares.

The plastic Toyota body clips can be bought on Amazon for a few bucks also, they are usually offered with the front husky flaps in the frequently bought together section. I only broke one or two getting mine off, and probably didn't need them but still nice to have a box of the plastic clips.

 

Yeah, already have the clips, bought just in case.

Have you noticed any rock dings with the shorter flaps?

 

Nope haven't noticed any major rock dings on the doors or anything, from using the husky flaps. I've had mine on for a year and a half now and drive down dirt roads every week.

 

On my 2006 Tacoma I waited until they broke (because I didn't know how good the Huskeys were)...about 5 years after I bought it.

On my 2014 I put the Huskeys on in one month and sold the front set on CL for $30. Much better flap.

 

After about a month of having the huskys on, i certain can hear a lot more rocks flying up into the doors. Havent seen any major damage, but i am worrying about the long term effects

 

Mud flaps aren't there for looks. They are their to protect the drivers behind you and your vehicle from damage.

 

Obviously, merley pointing out that the tacoma, marketed towards offroad, has mudflups 1mm off the ground, and if you shorten them one bit you start to get rocks flying