Opinions on fender flares, to keep them or not? (1 Viewer)

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Flares won't help much to keep your rig clean if you've removed the running boards and or mud flaps. 2 pics below of my 80 back in 2016. I was running 255/85/16 tires (33") with 2.5" lift, but had removed running boards for the sliders on my way back from Baja on the dirt, well this time mud road after rainstorm between Highway 2 and Highway 1. 25 mph was about max. These were taken just north of Coco's corner where pavement was regained. As you can see, mud on and under truck was plentiful. I had cleaned off tag and headlights to get through Federalies checkpoints. As far as preference for flares, I have none. Depends on use. They will disappear off your rig if running tight and tough enough trails. Keep 'um as long as you can, but no sense in replacing them just for looks, IMHO.
Coming home 1a.JPG

Coming home 2a.JPG
 
Yea good luck with that, the kut snake fit like s***.

I have heard both. Seems they work great for some folks but don't fit for others.

I did get the genuine kut snake flares, but won't know how they fit until I try. I bet they will fit better than my current flares though.
 
Such a personal choice and really depends on intended use. Because I have the LX with all the damn plastic cladding, I’ll keep them. I’ve only busted up the RR flare in all my years of wheeling some pretty tough trails. Now it will be more or less for overlanding/expedition use, so no issues really in keeping them.
 
My 80 has old TJM fibreglass flares from when it was a telco-owned vehicle in the early 90's. I'm now getting rid of them as they trap water/dirt and create a place for rust to develop. Especially above the rear wheels and with the front outer guards. My LHS front guard has a massive rust hole that I found recently concealed by the flare piece on it and just yesterday I finally got stuck into trying to deal with rust decay that the LH rear piece (over LR wheel) was hiding.

The flare pieces are riveted on - they don't use the factory flare mounts and my 80 is a DX so it didn't have factory flare mounts anyway.

Alternatives to hard flares exist such as 'flexy flares' (formed rubber strips with a wire to keep the shape on the outer edge). Lots of people here use really ugly 'Kut Snake' flares.

The fibreglass TJM ones are still made today 30 yrs after my 80 was built and they cost about A$1k for a full set.

But I'm going away from flares and have removed all sections except the big ones on the front outer guards as getting replacement outer guards (even ones with factory flare mount holes) is very difficult. Wreckers sell them almost immediately an 80 comes in for wrecking if the guards are any good.
 
Late to the party, but IMO, nothing looks better than a flare-less cruiser on steelies with 255/85 pizza cutters. If your future plans involve anything wider than a 285 tire, then flares are better. Tires sticking out past the body are bad for paint (throwing rocks) and makes you look like a bro-dozer with small penis syndrome (no offense to anyone here). One other consideration: flares can potentially hide rust, although this is more of an issue for LX450 tupperware.

Example of what I'm talking about below:

s-l1600.jpg
 
I have heard both. Seems they work great for some folks but don't fit for others.

I did get the genuine kut snake flares, but won't know how they fit until I try. I bet they will fit better than my current flares though.


I bought them specifically because they were supposedly a better fit than the significantly cheaper China ones....yea that definitely wasn't the case they had to be worked over pretty extensively to fit somewhat acceptably well enough. It's my fault though, before I bought them direct there was a guy selling a set on here and the reason was that he couldn't get them to fit. Guess I should have heeded that warning....

Good luck with them I hope you do better with them than I did.
 
Late to the party, but IMO, nothing looks better than a flare-less cruiser on steelies with 255/85 pizza cutters. If your future plans involve anything wider than a 285 tire, then flares are better. Tires sticking out past the body are bad for paint (throwing rocks) and makes you look like a bro-dozer with small penis syndrome (no offense to anyone here). One other consideration: flares can potentially hide rust, although this is more of an issue for LX450 tupperware.

Example of what I'm talking about below:

s-l1600.jpg
That a good looking 80.
It really comes down to what you want to do with said Rig.
 
Late to the party, but IMO, nothing looks better than a flare-less cruiser on steelies with 255/85 pizza cutters. If your future plans involve anything wider than a 285 tire, then flares are better. Tires sticking out past the body are bad for paint (throwing rocks) and makes you look like a bro-dozer with small penis syndrome (no offense to anyone here). One other consideration: flares can potentially hide rust, although this is more of an issue for LX450 tupperware.

Example of what I'm talking about below:

s-l1600.jpg
Looks like a clean 100.
 
Late to the party, but IMO, nothing looks better than a flare-less cruiser on steelies with 255/85 pizza cutters. If your future plans involve anything wider than a 285 tire, then flares are better. Tires sticking out past the body are bad for paint (throwing rocks) and makes you look like a bro-dozer with small penis syndrome (no offense to anyone here). One other consideration: flares can potentially hide rust, although this is more of an issue for LX450 tupperware.

Example of what I'm talking about below:

s-l1600.jpg
Agree on the 285s and flares. Just installed the 285 Toyo MTs on my LX, and tires look too skinny under the flared body.

B0D00268-ABD2-4D59-A3BD-98FEF2527942.jpeg
59E80E00-E6C9-4343-B50E-49A1D8632F44.jpeg
 

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