Widest JK fenders?

[DesertJK]

Hello all,

I have been having some issues with my JKUR's fenders. When we have slushy snow, the ice builds up in the fenders and the front ones take turn pulling off of the body. The other issue is that they offer no body protection from flying gravel, mud, and various road dirt. It seems to dirty itself with the smallest bit of mud. I literally can drive through one small puddle on a dirt road and the entire side is totally muddy.
I won't ask this on the a Jeep forum, because I will get called a p$%sy for not liking dirt on my Jeep. I don't mind getting the Jeep dirty, I do it all the time. I just don't like when it gets huge amounts of mud and dirt on the doors and especially the door handles between home, work, and the grocery store. I feel like I need gloves and a rain suit to climb in and out to keep my clothes clean.
My door hinges are also missing half the paint after 85K miles. I am also convinced that the last crack my windshield developed was from gravel thrown by my own tires.

All the metal tube fenders I have seen are narrow. Even the ones that claim to be wife, look narrow.
I am running 33x11.5 mud terrains, so not too wide. I would really like to find some metal flat fenders that are wider than stock, have room to make a quick release muds flap mount for the messy season, and wont fall of when lightly hit, or weighted down from mud, ice and snow.

Any ideas?

D.

 

[brianjwilson]

Check out Teraflex aliminum rock sliders. They run from fender to fender and stick out nearly as far as stock fenders do. They should be a huge help in keeping the sides clean. My factory painted fenders and door hinges are in terrible shape with 7k miles and 35" KM2s. Eventually I'll be running the teraflex sliders but have other priorities at this point.

I think even wider "flat" fenders be worse for tire coverage than the stock fenders. If you're running wheels with little backspacing consider something like the AEV pintlers that tuck in the fenders a little better.

 

[brianjwilson]

Couldnt hurt anyway!

 

[JIMBO]

:sombrero: I've got Bushwackers and you'll need "mud Flaps", either the removable type (off-road), or "Flow interrupters" like the ones I've got-

Nothing gets on the jeep doors/sides, just the rear fender and the "interrupters" aren't in the terrain flow !

I think the fenders (Pocket) are 13" wide-

You don't need "mud Flaps" that hang down, you don't care about mud thats thrown down--

It's the mud thats thrown "UP"--right ?

Works kewl
:costumed-smiley-007:wings: JIMBO

 

[DesertJK]

Thanks guys, that gives me some ideas to work with.
I have been wanting to add to my factory rock sliders to give more body protection both from mud, snow, and trail hazards.

I like the idea of the defectors too. How strong are the bush wackers? Do they mount better than the stock fenders?

 

[JIMBO]

:sombrero: They are extremely strong and are mounted like armored car security doors--

Thanks guys, that gives me some ideas to work with.
I have been wanting to add to my factory rock sliders to give more body protection both from mud, snow, and trail hazards.

I like the idea of the defectors too. How strong are the bush wackers? Do they mount better than the stock fenders?

The trouble with that is, your "danger zone" gets as wide as the flares, because on ONE occasion last year, while I was wheeling in short wheelbase terrority, a pine tree viscously jumped out in front of my "LEFT" front fender and caused a (crumplezone) dent in the jeeps fender--

The Bushwacker flare, could care less, all it did was transmit the energy to the jeep body-

So, rather than a stock JK/JKU fender, shattering---they just "push back"

Mine are over 3 years old and show no sign of age/cracking/discoloring--

:costumed-smiley-007:wings: JIMBO

 

[DesertJK]

Jimbo, That is one of my concerns. I always seem to be trying to squeeze through narrow spaces in the woods.
One idea I have had is to get stock width tube fenders, and then make a rubber flare for them that attaches with heavy 1/4 turn fastners. Actually they don't even really need to be that hard to get on and off since I can't go anywhere but established forest roads around here until most of the snow is gone anyways since it is all to deep, and the edges of the trails have 500 foot ledges.

 

[JIMBO]

:sombrero: Heh Heh, yeah that could be a rightfrontfender saver, but

Jimbo, That is one of my concerns. I always seem to be trying to squeeze through narrow spaces in the woods.
One idea I have had is to get stock width tube fenders, and then make a rubber flare for them that attaches with heavy 1/4 turn fastners. Actually they don't even really need to be that hard to get on and off since I can't go anywhere but established forest roads around here until most of the snow is gone anyways since it is all to deep, and the edges of the trails have 500 foot ledges.

I'm afraid it's a false sense of security, you tend to mis-judge your clearance even more using that "false" fender edge-

I use a bright "curb feeler" on that fender, only when I'm approaching a "questionable" area-

Now I don't do very much NEW exploring anymore, so I'm pretty familiar with the Sierras/sections we camp/fish/wheelin and installation of the "feeler" is a 5 minute job and I doit before the area-

Retarded-yup/redundant-yup/wasteoftime-NOPE, it has saved the same fender twice last year-

Anyway, driving the JK/JKU/w non-visable passenger side front fender edge can be frustrating, or it used to be-

Good luck, at this time of posting I can't get any photobucket response, so no pics-



:costumed-smiley-007:wings: JIMBO

 

[frenchlayer]

I just got a set of trailmods flares, you can run the wide version for daily driving, and then the trail flares for trail riding. I have not installed these yet, they just came in today

 

[DesertJK]

:sombrero: Heh Heh, yeah that could be a rightfrontfender saver, but




I'm afraid it's a false sense of security, you tend to mis-judge your clearance even more using that "false" fender edge-

I use a bright "curb feeler" on that fender, only when I'm approaching a "questionable" area-

Now I don't do very much NEW exploring anymore, so I'm pretty familiar with the Sierras/sections we camp/fish/wheelin and installation of the "feeler" is a 5 minute job and I doit before the area-

Retarded-yup/redundant-yup/wasteoftime-NOPE, it has saved the same fender twice last year-

Anyway, driving the JK/JKU/w non-visable passenger side front fender edge can be frustrating, or it used to be-

Good luck, at this time of posting I can't get any photobucket response, so no pics-



:costumed-smiley-007:wings: JIMBO

I sometimes use my Jeep for my part time job with the fire department. When I do night time fire patrols during lightening storms, I sometimes end up driving into and area, and then running like hell away from it. Sometimes I don't even know what knocked the fender loose since I am often distracted by the radio, the burning embers falling on me, and the 300 foot cliff I can't see because it's dark out. I guess breaking a fender is the price I pay for using my own rig instead of one of the F650's we have as brush trucks.

I also like how the tube fenders look.

So, if I understand correctly, If I bang a tube fender, the force will be transmitted into the body and cause hard to fix damage? I don't want to do that.

As far as my wheel spacing, I forget how much back spacing I have on the American Racing Mohave wheels, but they are considerably wider than the stock wheels. I use my stock wheels in the winter with studs (have them on now) and they rub the RK control arms a little at full lock with slightly smaller than stock Rubicon tires (same size as stock sahara tires) But I have no rubbing with my summer wheels with 33" x 11.5 MTR's

The more I look at various metal fenders, the more I am thinking that they will work with a bolt on rubber flare/mud deflector added to them for winter use. My other option is to use the Jeep less in the winter and buy a Dodge 2500 with a Cummins (used 2005 or 2006) and not have to deal with the other Jeep winter issues I have. I plan on buying a truck anyways because of my main job which sometimes requires me to haul a few hundred pounds of tools, or tow a helicopter on a trailer.

D.