No flaps, flare and paint chips

Thought I saw someone asking about this the other day by couldn't find it again.

Was waxing down the truck today and noticed the flares look sand blasted and a chip in the paint right next to them. No mud flaps with just under 1000 highway miles. Only thing I can think of is the front tires are kicking up enough salt and sand from the roads and blasting the rear bedsides. Don't really like the looks of flaps but guess I'll be ordering some this week to try and prevent this.

 

Just FYI. The OEM mud guards will NOT stop rocks/debri from hitting the front of the rear flares! I ended up purchasing a set of running boards to stop most of it. Now the standard mud guards still let a lot of the spray from the front tires build up on the top of the running boards. I pulled the OEMs off and put a set of the Plasticolor jobs on, the 11 x 19s. That curbs most of the spray, but the flaps aren't real good. They are light enough to flop at highway speeds and have already showed signs of warping just from a few trips to town. I live on a gravel road, so between rocks and mud, I can test about anything mud guard related. Right now, I'm giving some thought to ordering a flap off eBay for the 2010 to 2015 range to see if it can be adapted to fit. I know the holes won't match, but that's really not a problem if the flap can have holes drilled to match the 2016. Toyota really pulled a "no-no" when they took away the nice mud guards on previous models. The 2011 I owned never had a problem with this and I never had to put running boards on it to stop the spray of mud and gravel. While not a performance issue, it is a pain in the neck to try to find decent mud guards. Thought Weathertech would come out with something good, but they more or less copied Toyota.

 

Thats what I was wondering. The Toyota flaps are too hard of a plastic that they break if you hit something with them. The weathertechs look the same but more flexible. Id hate to see what they look like in a year if its only been a month and 1000 miles and they are already showing signs of wear. Ill keep an eye on it for now, I guess.

 

I'd recommend against buying the molded plastic OEM or WT style Mud Guards if you want to off road your truck. Live and learn. They will just end up getting pinched and ripped off, while potentially causing damage to the inside of your fender well when it strips out the screws. Plus they cost a grip. Bought some plasticolor floppy style flaps and they work great. I think I paid less than $50 for all 4

 

If I had the choice to pick again I would go with something other than OEM, but since I have OEM I'll be using them for now. So far they seem to keep the majority of stuff from being flung up the side of the truck. If I had my pick now though, I really like the Rokblokz, but they are a bit pricey http://rokblokz.com/toyota-tacoma-2016.html

 

I got Plasticolor for my 2nd gen..universal fit and they are flexible enough

 

Ill have to look at our loaners when they come back. We are just starting to see trucks coming in for 5k services so I dont see to many that have been driven.