Alright, I recently posted that I was going to order DuraFlap mudflaps for my truck... https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...light=duraflap

Well, now I have them installed so I thought I'd post some comments about the process.

I want to start off by saying that the product is great. I had some issues with the company, but I want to be clear that the actual product is very solid.

Here is what I recieved


And I was shocked to see the instructions for the front mudflaps...

I ordered "Drilless" mudflaps that were rather expensive and then the instructions require me to drill holes? Quite interesting. Where is the truth in advertising? (although to be fair, Nina from DuraFlaps had emailed me the instructions before I ordered but I didn't read through them)
They also used an interesting numbering system for their steps. Glad to see they put in some effort on the instructions for these expensive mudflaps (sarcasm)

The rear mudflaps did not have any instructions in the package... so I assumed they must be the same as the fronts (I had forgotten that I had an email with the instructions). More about this later.

(to be continued in next reply.... I don't want to over-run the post length limit)

 

(continued...)

So on Saturday I went out to the garage to install them. I figured it would be a good time to rotate & clean my tires. So I jack up the rear driverside wheel and take it off. But now I cannot figure out how to install the mudflap (remember they didn't send instructions). After about 10 minutes I remember that I had an email with the instructions so I grabbed my laptop. Upon opening the instructions I realized that I was missing the Z-brackets. So much for installing the rears.

I called DuraFlap, no one answered but Dennis called back about 10 minutes later. I explained the issue and he said he would call me Monday morning to arrange the shipment of a full set of hardware for the rear mudflaps.

So much for installing the rears... I decided to install the fronts at least, and finish rotating the tires.

Here is the front wheel before I installed the mudflap


I hit a few more issues as I installed the front mudflaps... there is supposed to be a u-bracket that I snap over the plastic OEM fender flare. But the bracket that was included was more of a V-bracket than a U-bracket... it looked like it would barely fit over a piece of paper, let alone a 1/8" thick piece of plastic. I tried to force it over but it broke!

But aha - Dennis was going to ship me a full set of hardware for the rears so I decided to take the U-Brackets from the rear and use them to install the front mudflaps. Issue resolved!

So now I have the top screw in the mudflap. And I go to hook the bottom clamp-style bracket to the wheel-well. But they do not line up... as this picture shows...


This is rather annoying, but not a huge deal, I just grabbed a marker and made a line to show the edge of the fender liner.

Note: The letters at the top were written by DuraFlap... so I know the sent me the right model (or at least they wrote the correct model name on it)

Then I drilled a hole right under the line, at the bend and put the mudflap back on. Now it lined up with the edge of the fender liner so I could tighten up the bracket.

Here I checked the alignment before tightening things up


(to be continued in next reply.... I don't want to over-run the post length limit)

 

Some body got fired for that mess up on the instructions hahahaha

 

(continued...)

So now I have the front mudflap tightened up for the top screw and bottom bracket, but it needs to more screws. But before I can put them in I need to drill holes through the plastic OEM fender flare. As I mentioned above, this is interesting since these are "Drilless Mudflaps"


So now the front ones are installed... here are two pictures of them installed...


I installed the other side front mudflap and finished rotating my tires... that was it for the day since I was missing some of the rear hardware.

So Monday morning rolls around and I am waiting for a call from Dennis at DuraFlap... he wanted to confirm my address before shipping the rear hardware set. No call came so finally in the afternoon I sent them an email. They responded that they were sending the hardware out "Priority".

Well, not sure what their definition of "Priority" is, but I finally received the package on Friday. I opened it up and what did I find? Nothing but the Z-brackets... even though I had been told I would receive a full set of rear mudflap hardware.

This is sort of a big deal since I had to use some of the original rear hardware to replace the wrong front hardware I had been sent.

But I decided that I didn't want to wait another week for them to ship out a 3rd set of hardware, so I a just got my nuts/washers instead of using a U-bracket on the rear fender. Again, like with drilling holes on the front to fix mis-alligned holes from DuraFlap, this is not a huge problem but it is really annoying when you are spending this amount of money on a set of mudflaps.

(to be continued...)

 

(continued...)


Anyway, here is a picture from before the rear install:

(yes, I know its really dirty... its spring so theres been a lot of rain)

Now that I had the z-bracket, the install went fairly smoothly on the rear mudflaps. Although without the u-brackets, I had to contort myself to hold the nut from spinning while threading the bolts in for the top hole.

Here is the finished install. One thing that I really like about these DuraFlap mudflaps is that they extend all the way up to the wheel well... this keeps any dirt and rocks from being thrown up into the interior of the body and the inside of the bumper (trust me, there was a lot of dirt and sand up there when I was installing these... or at least before I started... most of it fell on me during the install)




Those white spots are just the light shining through above the bumper... not a mark on the mudflap.

 

ha... I doubt it...
but the mis-numbered instructions were the least of my worries.

The screwups with DuraFlap shipping the hardware were really annoying though... as you can see from their website (http://www.duraflap.com/ford-f150-b.html) the mudflaps are not cheap. I'd expect better service for that price. And I'd expect the holes to line up when I go to install them.

But overall I'm satisfied with the final product. I've been driving around all week with them and its so nice to have clean step bars and no dirt on the side of my truck. Like I think I said before... I drive up an alley to get to my garage so it was pretty much impossible to keep it clean. I also spent a bunch of time this past weekend cleaning the tip on my Corsa muffler... now that it is protected it should stay a lot cleaner.
(here is a pic from the night I installed the Corsa)

Its amazing how dirty the tip got after a couple months of driving without mudflaps. Unfortunately I polished out the CORSA name on the tip... but now its shiny again!

Interestingly (IMO) I stumbled across this posting by Zam:Karmen
https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...light=duraflap
It looks like DuraFlap has a lot of trouble figuring out how to get the right hardware and the instructions into the packages. They really need to work on that if they want to sell a premium product.

I will recommend DuraFlap Mudflaps to anyone that is looking to protect their truck. But if you order it you may want to ask them to double-check the hardware before shipping it out. And if you are buying the front mudflaps, you might as well save 10 bucks and order the ones without the holes since you'll probably have to drill your own holes anyway.

 

Hate to say it, but those things are hideous.

-Curtis-

 

Good job on the install - but as stated above, they definately aren't my choice of mudflaps.

 

Mudflaps are for 18 wheelers and duallys, NOT for light duty F150's.

 

Awesome write up with pictures! I need some new mudflaps as the extreme cold over the winter and gravel roads have turned my molded ones into swiss cheese. These are a little pricey for what I was looking for, but still maybe an option.

 

Thats funny... I don't seem to recall asking for your opinion...

I just wanted to share some information for those that might be interested, like Shauno.

... and I'd rather have mudflaps on my clean truck than have a dirty truck with rust starting to form at the bottom of all my body panels...

 

Nice mod.

 

Those mudflaps look good & I know what you mean about getting the truck dirty. To get to my work i go down a 1/8 mile gravel lane and every time it rains I have to dodge those all the rain puddles in the gravel lane. Just out of curious to know what you paid for both sets?

 

nice writeup.

 

Posting on a PUBLIC INTERNET FORUM you do not need to ask for opinions. Your going to get them, like it or not. Don't like getting opinions? DON'T POST!

Wash your truck and you do not have to worry about rust.

-Curtis-