Tom S.
05-03-2006, 03:08 PM
For those of you who may be interested........
I pull a 5th wheel trailer and learned long ago on my old regular trailer that rear mudflaps are a necessity. They not only help keep the trailer clean, they keep it from getting stoned to death.
Because I was looking for something long and narrow to match the tires on my truck (3500 single wheel), I decided to make my own. Plus I'm cheap - but that's another story.
I found some 24" x 24" mudflaps on ebay. Plain black, no frills, and very affordable - $9 plus a few bucks shipping. As it turned out, I actually only needed one, because I split one in half and used half on each side. Cutting rubber is easy - if you use a jigsaw with a knife blade. I used a piece of steel clamped to the rubber as a saw guide and cut the flap exactly in half.
For mounting, I got some 1 inch square steel tubing. I cut one piece 6" long and another 15.5". Butting the long piece against the short one, I welded them together, making a large "L". There are 4 holes in the frame behind the rear tires - I used the 2 holes located towards the top of the frame. Although the holes are about 1/2" in diameter, I used 3/8" stainless bolts, washers and nuts. This gave me a little play to adjust for level, etc.
The short end of the "L" was mounted against the frame. The long side comes out behind the rear tire about a 1/4" in front of wheel house/fender flare. I mounted the flaps on the side of the "L" between the tire and the bracket. Thus, nothing touches the body, nor the tire. I would guess with buying the steel, flaps and mounting hardware, I probably have $35 invested, but the flaps are exactly what I was looking for!
I pull a 5th wheel trailer and learned long ago on my old regular trailer that rear mudflaps are a necessity. They not only help keep the trailer clean, they keep it from getting stoned to death.
Because I was looking for something long and narrow to match the tires on my truck (3500 single wheel), I decided to make my own. Plus I'm cheap - but that's another story.
I found some 24" x 24" mudflaps on ebay. Plain black, no frills, and very affordable - $9 plus a few bucks shipping. As it turned out, I actually only needed one, because I split one in half and used half on each side. Cutting rubber is easy - if you use a jigsaw with a knife blade. I used a piece of steel clamped to the rubber as a saw guide and cut the flap exactly in half.
For mounting, I got some 1 inch square steel tubing. I cut one piece 6" long and another 15.5". Butting the long piece against the short one, I welded them together, making a large "L". There are 4 holes in the frame behind the rear tires - I used the 2 holes located towards the top of the frame. Although the holes are about 1/2" in diameter, I used 3/8" stainless bolts, washers and nuts. This gave me a little play to adjust for level, etc.
The short end of the "L" was mounted against the frame. The long side comes out behind the rear tire about a 1/4" in front of wheel house/fender flare. I mounted the flaps on the side of the "L" between the tire and the bracket. Thus, nothing touches the body, nor the tire. I would guess with buying the steel, flaps and mounting hardware, I probably have $35 invested, but the flaps are exactly what I was looking for!