What's the deal with the 4x4 rear mud flaps?

Something has been bugging me for a while now. I've had an '87 Toyota Pickup (4wd), an '04 Tacoma (4wd), a '74 Toyota Landcruiser FJ40 (4wd of course), a '94 Toyota Landcruiser FZJ 80 (4wd of course), an '07 Toyota FJ Cruiser (4wd) and now a '15 Tacoma (4x4?). I cannot stand the term "4x4", this is not a piece of dimensional lumber, it is a truck...a four wheel drive (4wd) truck. Now I've got a truck with 4x4 on the mud flaps. Anybody else feel this way? I'm trying to find a Pre Runner to switch or buy rear mud flaps from.

 

I'm sorry but this is ridiculous.

 

Belongs in third gen.

 

Acetone will get that paint right off. Might be left with and outline of the 4x4. But the white will be gone.

Acetone aka: wife's nail polish remover

 

why b/c of how ridiculous it is? He said 2015.

 

can't say it bother me in the slightest bit. I replaced mine, but not because they said 4x4.

 

2015 is a 2nd Gen.

 

^^^

 

Acetone, it is. Thanks.

 

Just take them off altogether. Thats what i did. (PS-mine never said anything)

 

mud flaps are pretty useless imo, just make it more difficult to clear tires, as well as hurt the appearance of the truck

 

I dig my 4x4 flaps. Love it when I'm behind a bro-dozer 6 inch lifted PreRunner, and then get in front of them to show off my 4 wheel drive!

 

I plan to simply trim the rears above the 4x4 and also the fronts because they look massive.
I'm on the same page with you, I don't like the redundancy of the rear saying "4x4" twice.

 

4x4 because its not a full time 4wd truck

4wd, 4x4, AWD <--- is not the same; they all work differently lol if you want to get complex with it.

 

My old 1991 had the '4WD' mud flaps. I agree about that being the 'classic' Toyota nomenclature.



I didn't really care that much about it saying '4X4'. Kind of generic, like something you'd tack on from the J.C. Whitney catalog. But what I really disliked was the rigid plastic. That makes no sense to me. So I just made slightly oversized new ones from 1/4" rubber trailer mud flaps. They are heavy enough to knock down rocks and keep some of the spray down but not scrape over every speed bump. They are just plain, smooth black.

 

Maybe trade with @jmfond?:

 

Trim them just above the 4x4. I think it looks a little cooler with them shaved down since they're 9 feet long to begin with.

 

Just a FWIW, having been familiar with Johnny Law in Moab. Some cops are intimately familiar with the vehicular codes and are happy to find the smallest infraction. More so if your license plates are out of state. In Utah the law reads specifically that your rear tires must be covered for the full width of the tread and the top 50% of the tire. IOW the mud flaps need to technically reach the axle. Whether you ever get noticed or not is the risk. Anyway, that's part of the reason I choose to run them and kept the length on mine, just making them more flexible.

 

In MN my flaps have to be no more than 9" from ground level. I'll have to measure and see where I'm at, pretty close I believe. I want to have them there because they're useful, just didn't like the way they looked. The front flaps were worse, they almost scraped on the pavement.