1st Gen: Mud flap / splash guard mods for larger tires + lift

Creating a separate thread to make this easier to find later.

Lifted ~2" and went oversized on the tire to 275/70r17 (+1.6" diameter). Safer bet would've been 265/70r17 (+1.0" ) for skinny or 285/65r17 (+1.0") for wider, but I who knows if I'd have found those sizes.

Was told no-rub, but glossed over the part about "with mudflaps removed". I actually still rub a hair on the driver's side even with the flaps off, but that's another story that would involve me griping about the shop I used here in town for alignment.

Anyway, I like my mudflaps, they prevent this kind of dirt-flinging crap after every shower or water puddle ( I just washed truck 4 days ago, this was 5 miles and 10 minutes of drizzle). I a couple days getting my paint polished out, I don't want it to go to shit again.

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I'd bought new flaps last year or year before, then donated my old ones out to other forum members because they're $$$ and who the hell wants to pay $$$? Because they're $$$, I didn't want to try modifying them to work with oversized tires. @NUDRAT was nice enough to send me the old ones @FirstGenVol sent to him (thanks again, both of you!) so I felt a little less guilty about doing the experimentation I was going for. Got some quality folks on here!!

The three of us kicked around some ideas on how much to trim off in PMs. We landed on 'cut the least amount first, then carry on'. This is where I landed - I wanted to keep that highest bolt on the vertical hockey-stick because it acts almost like suspenders, holding the rear/inner side of the flap up:

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You can see pretty clearly there, FGV was also rubbing on these flaps with his 33" 285/70r17 KO2s. Anyway, I also wanted to keep that top lip above that bolt hole because it stops crap from falling behind the flap, and I suspect it may be important to help avoid the shaft of that fastener from rotting out - more than that, I think it would stop water from puddling in the flat spot with the two under-side fasteners to its left. I dunno what that parenthesis-looking raised thing on the INSIDE of the flap is - the thing that's roughly mid-cut-line - I couldn't really tell by feeling around. Anyway ... Engage box cutter with fresh blade .......

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Here's a look from above, after reinstall ....

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I was not happy with that gap I'm seeing on the left there, until I realized everything behind it is arched and open, so things should drain out. I'll be keeping an eye on it nonetheless, assuming I'm not rubbing after. Here's a closer look from another angle...

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And another shot from behind, here you can see that open triangle from 2 pics up:

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Here's a good shot from the passenger side under/behind, I cut it near-identically. Shadows are a little funny here but you can pretty dinstinctly see that extra dogleg vertical part here and the purpose it serves. If you remove that part, I suspect you'd have to cut the lower splash flap in half. Doing that would let my tires keep throwing garbage into my nerf steps, eventually rotting it out ... and I don't want that.

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Two more pics from either side of the middle bolt before I toss out my final thoughts before taking a test drive. One close-up of the cutaway area, where you can see I still have a little rub, and another from the other side, where you can see FGV was rubbing with his tires which are 1.3" larger than mine. Fitment is tolerable for me.

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At the end of the day, I'm sure there's a better way to manage this. Almost everyone I've seen that's lifted with larger tires on the 1st gens ends up pulling their front flaps. At first I just wanted to cover up that bobo-looking lip at the end of the fender flares for cosmetic reasons. Then I saw how much garbage I was slinging off the road onto my doors and said "hell naw!" before deciding to do something about it.

I'm sure this wouldn't help much for anyone running ~33s (285/70r17) but I personally think the truck looks and rides great with my near~32s, so I also personally don't see a need or reason to even have 33s. Especially after feeling the increase in ass-drag the truck showed with the wider wheels and meatier tires. But anyway ... if you're rubbing at the flaps, maybe this will help.

I suspect if I could just find a f'n shop in the Atlanta area who knew anything about aligning with SPC uppers, and was willing to bump up my caster above OEM levels, I could probably align out this rub totally, but ... Until I find said shop, this is what I've got at my disposal.

I'll post more updates later if I need to make adjustments. Biggest thing was getting these off my already-too-cluttered workbench.

 

Look for a garage that is more rural - they tend to work on more trucks.
Rural folks like their trucks, and many/most (around here anyway) are lifted/modified, so the rural shops tend to have more experience/understanding of how to make those modifications work well.
I also had a fair bit of rubbing with stock alignment settings.
I cranked the lower A-arms to move the tire forward (as per SPC recommendation), and then realigned at a shop that is the go-to place around here when you need to talk to a mechanic about non-OEM equipment and settings. I told the alignment tech about my driving style, and how I was wanting the truck to feel at the speeds I typically drive.
My caster is now 3-1/2-ish degrees positive and no rubbing. Added benefit is that the truck tracks much better now, as compared to when it had stock alignment settings.

 

Small modification to the trim job. When in reverse with steering wheel full-lock CCW, I was getting a little snapback on something right when I started to roll the steering wheel clockwise to get straight again. I believe it was this lip giving me grief, so I scalloped off the section here on both sides:

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Basic before/after example from the driver's side, shaved 1/16" or so off on driver side, about 1/8" on passenger; will clean up later w/Dremel if this resolved the popping:

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I just removed my fronts on my 285, 70r17

 

I did a similar, but less aggressive notch on mine after going up in diameter to 265/75/16. I’ll probably have to get crazy or ditch them altogether when I go to 285/75/16s next. Maybe get some generic flat ones to bolt on.

 

Same

 

Problem solved.

 

single use flaps. Biodegradable. Recyclable. Flammable.

 

The flaps came from FGV's truck, which was also running 285/70r17. I can tell you, based on the rub marks and where I cut out, this modification would likely work for you guys running 33s also.

 

I may look into this

 

I rubbed with my 255x85xr16. I think with proper alignment I coulda kept em.

 

I did something very similar to mine and have zero rub. I used heat gun to push back some of the areas that stick out. I also switched to flathead allen screws so that they are flush and don't stick out. I'm running 285/75/16.
Good thread @shifty`