I've never been a fan of mud. I'm not a fan of driving in it, camping in it, or hiking in it. And, I'm definitely not a fan of getting it all over - and in - the Tacoma on a trip.
Not my idea of a good time.
As such, I've always tried to keep my tires pulled in, under the fender flares. This worked reasonably well with the stock wheels and tires, but when I bought some 16" SCS Stealth6 to fit the larger calipers that come with the Tundra brake upgrade, I ended up pushing the wheels and tires an additional inch out of the wheel wells. It looked amazing, but after a few wet trips - especially an epic adventure that we referred to as F.U. Rain - it was obvious that this wheel choice was a disaster.
I removed more than 50 gallons of mud after a single trip.
After that trip, I started looking for a solution in the form of fender flares. Surely, I thought, there must be a ton of options for such a popular truck. To my surprise, the pickings were slim, with only a few options available, and none of them were in my price range:
- Toyota had two versions of fender flares for 1st gen Tacomas:
- '98-'00 Fender Flares - made of fiberglass, they were included with the Off-road Package and protrude about 1.0" from the fenders. Attachment is via bolts inside the wheel well. Cost new is prohibitive at more than $1,200 for a set of four:
- Front (R: 75871-35900 | L: 75872-35900)
- Rear (R: 75873-35900 | L: 75874-35900)
- '01-04 Fender Flares - made of ABS plastic, they were included with the Off-road Package and protrude about 2.5" from the fenders. Attachment is via bolts inside the wheel well and plastic clips through the metal fenders. Cost new is prohibitive at more than $1,500 for a set of four:
- Front (R: 75871-04010 | L: 75872-04010)
- Rear (R: 75873-04010 | L: 75874-04010)
- '98-'00 Fender Flares - made of fiberglass, they were included with the Off-road Package and protrude about 1.0" from the fenders. Attachment is via bolts inside the wheel well. Cost new is prohibitive at more than $1,200 for a set of four:
- Bushwacker Extend A Fender Flares - made of ABS plastic, these are similar to the Toyota '01-04 Fender Flares, but only extend 1.5" from the fenders. And, now owned by RealTruck, they are cheaper than Toyota, but still expensive at $500/set.
- Several options - constantly changing, I'm sure - on eBay. These generally seem to be similar to the '98-'00 Toyota Fender Flares but are cheaper, though still in the $250 range.
The price of flares changed my focus. Rather than trying to capture the mud from the SCS Stealth6 wheels, I decided to ditch the wheels for something that wouldn't throw as much mud. I found the perfect candidate in a similar-era Toyota wheel - the 3rd gen 4Runner 16x7 5-star wheel. One of the best-looking Toyota wheels out there, they were big enough to fit the Tundra calipers, and yet had 4.5" backspacing that was similar to the stock wheels that I'd had on the Tacoma.
I installed them and was extremely happy. Painting them - a ton of work - made me love them even more.
These wheels have been great for the last 7 years. I've still gotten a bit of mud on the Tacoma, but it's been entirely manageable.
Still, I've always watched as the newer Tacomas that I travel with seem to get less mud on their bedsides than I do, and I've kept my eye out for something to come along.
Then, six months ago, I got whiff of a set of used '01-'04 fender flares. I've seen these go up for sale before, but generally I'm either too slow to jump on the listing, or the price - around $600 - is still higher than I wanted to pay. This time though, the entire set was $200 + shipping, and I jumped on it as soon as I noticed it.
A week later, they showed up, and with the Tacoma tucked away in Las Vegas, I promptly shoveled them into the back of the basement.
Looks like fender flares.
Fast forward to today. It was finally time to install the new flares. Since I was transitioning from the smaller fiberglass fender flares to the larger ABS variant, it was a simple process:
- Unbolt the existing fiberglass fender flares.
- Remove the plastic clips on the larger ABS fender flares.
- Bolt on the new-to-me larger ABS fender flares.
The stock '98-'00 fender flares.
Six (6), 10mm bolts were all that hold the flares in position. It's dirty under there.
Left (driver) rear flare comparison. Definitely a difference.
Fits just fine and doesn't seem to need the plastic clips at all.
A note about Toyota OEM Fender Flares
The '98-'00 Fiberglass Fender Flares attach to the fenders with a series of 10mm bolts on the underside of the fender.
Being larger, the '01-'04 ABS Fender Flares use the same underside attachment bolts plus a series of plastic clips higher up on the outside face of the fender. These flares can be installed without using the plastic clips - on a 1st gen Tacoma that doesn't have the fender holes to accept the clips - and usually work just fine in that situation.
However, some people want to remove the larger '01-'04 flares and replace them with the smaller '98-'00 variant. This will not work, since the fender holes to accept the clips will not be covered by the fiberglass flares.
New '01-'04 flares installed.
And here's a comparison of the '98-00 and '01-04 flares, just to get a "comparable view."
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