Flat Fender choice

Guascone

Guascone

Member
Hi, someone could help me to understand how the following fender are flexible?
Yesterday I broke one of the front stock fender and I have to decide how the replace it.
I’ll try to cut it in order to save some money but if it is not possible I have find a different solution.

I like the MCE fender but the Italian dealer get me a quotation extremely expansive… 1150$
The bushwacker are a little bit cheapper…990$
There are also the Xenon 867$ ore Rugged Ridge Hurrican 644

Looking at the price, I have to choose them right at the first time...:)
 
hinrichs

hinrichs

Caught the Bug
MCE are going to be the only "flexible" option like stock. I had bushwacker flats and was very happy with them but I would not call them flexible however. You have some bad fender laws over there right?
 
Guascone

Guascone

Member
hinrichs said:
MCE are going to be the only "flexible" option like stock. I had bushwacker flats and was very happy with them but I would not call them flexible however. You have some bad fender laws over there right?
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Yes, the law doesn't help me to choose them because the wheels should be completly covered by the fenders...so at least the fenders should have the same dimensions as the stock one
 
Ddays

Ddays

Hooked
I ran the Bushwackers for a while and they are pretty decent. They're sturdy and hold up well. No visible fading and they clean up nice. One thing to keep in mind is that you will need to trim the hell out of your inner fender liners.

Why not just buy one replacement fender and trim them if you are looking at the flat versions? I actually just converted from the Bushwackers - I remounted my stock fenders and trimmed them. Like the look a lot better. Are you dealing with fender coverage laws there?
 
Ddays

Ddays

Hooked
Judesign said:
I'm in the same boat. Not sure if it's better to have metal or plastic.
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Metal can bend the tub if you rub them on something. Plastic will move and take up that impact. The bushwackers are plastic but like Hinrichs said, they aren't what I would call flexible.
 
Guascone

Guascone

Member
Ddays said:
I ran the Bushwackers for a while and they are pretty decent. They're sturdy and hold up well. No visible fading and they clean up nice. One thing to keep in mind is that you will need to trim the hell out of your inner fender liners.

Why not just buy one replacement fender and trim them if you are looking at the flat versions? I actually just converted from the Bushwackers - I remounted my stock fenders and trimmed them. Like the look a lot better. Are you dealing with fender coverage laws there?
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You are right but the replacement is also expansive and the dealer sell the set (front and rear).
At the moment in fact I'm checking the cheaper solition :)
Do you call it" to be in business to..."?
 
C

CCJKUR

New member
The bushwackers do look good but by no means are flexible in terms of going back to original we have pushed them on trees and rocks and never go back to the same even tough ting them pretty softly on things just my experiences.
 
Ddays

Ddays

Hooked
Grubbicon said:
As true as this is. Lately I've seen a few guys break the clips on the flares and then do body damage. Maybe its just me but Id take metal.
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I could definitely see that happening on the fronts - the fenders themselves are pretty damn flimsy. Rears not so much, especially if you have any armor installed
 
Havoc40

Havoc40

New member
Ddays said:
I could definitely see that happening on the fronts - the fenders themselves are pretty damn flimsy. Rears not so much, especially if you have any armor installed
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I see it frequently around here when guys slide on mud and into a tree. The factory fenders give enough and the tree contacts the body. The people with tube fenders usually survive without damage if it's minimal impact.

Guess it comes down to where and how you wheel. Really, if the impact is hard enough, neither are going to save your body 100% of the time.
 
K

kbp810

Caught the Bug
I had genright aluminum flares on my previous jeep, and they had seen their share of abuse; including some reasonably hard hits. In the worst of which, made it almost to the top of small icy hill, only to come sliding right back down fast, rear passenger flare caught a tree hard and brought me to an abrupt stop. Thought for sure I'd ripped the flare off. But come to find out, it was still in tact, with only some very minor buckling of the sheet metal immediately surrounding the flare (barely noticeable). I also had corner armor (or fab), that may have helped minimize that damage as well. That was the only time I had any sort of flare related damage, aside from scraping paint off of them (left the flares raw, but bedlined the tube edges black).

On the new jeep, I went with bushwhackers; then had this happen on my second trip out. Got a little to cozy with a tree on a tight downhill section of trail. The flare pretty much tore right off the small screws that hold it to the mounting bracket. Was easily put back on later with a little relocating; and it is worth noting that there was no body damage to the jeep itself... in the area of the flare at least, lol; took some paint off the hinges and left some beauty marks in the door panel.

Was in that moment that I was second guessing going plastic; thinking in this scenario that if I had proper sliders on, and metal flares, that I may have just been able to pivot around the tree and left with just some minor slider/flare scuffs... then again, perhaps I only make it through that tight spot because the flare gave way? Not sure... so what's the point of my post then, well, I'm not sure of that either, LOL.

 
Guascone

Guascone

Member
Thanks for all your suggestion and your experience!
I'm waiting a quotation from MCE but in the same time I have found a dealer that sell the single flare...
I'll try to cut the broke one and if I will like the result I will procede in that way
:)
 
ST3LLA

ST3LLA

New member
I wish I had spent more on ps or metal cloak fenders or cut my stock fenders. Over the summer I didn't want to wait for another pay check so i bought the smittybilt flares and they are good but i would rather rip off the stock fender clips or have a thicker metal to take more abuse instead of my thin metal fenders.
 
LurancJK

LurancJK

New member
I have cut stock fenders and really like the look and am proud i cut them pretty even and finished looking. However, 2 weeks ago at morris mountain i leaned my jeep on a rocky wall givin it some skinny pedal and it ripped off and dented the body. They are good until i can afford some jcr front fenders and rear deletes. Still had a great time with grubbicon, gr8white, and hhunter050
ImageUploadedByWAYALIFE1458050611.633181.jpg ImageUploadedByWAYALIFE1458050641.642657.jpg ImageUploadedByWAYALIFE1458050845.859105.jpg
 
T

TomRalph

New member
Just put BushWackers on in July... because I wanted it to flex when getting hit and not damage the metal.

Now I am thinking I should have gone metal and had it painted/clear coated. I hate cleaning plastic, if you go BushWacker the AeroSpace 303 stuff is awesome for cleaning the parts up
 
iRonin

iRonin

Member
There's always the two schools of thought around "cheap, tear-able, replacable" stock/plastic and "expensive but sturdy" steel aftermarkets. To each their own, but one pseudo myths you'll hear about steel is that if you get a good enough impact it will crush in/leave body damage. Anything's possible with enough force, but the "good ones" out there like Poison Spyder come with additional sub-frame brackets that sit behind the sheet metal, in line with the flare, and butt up against the inner frame, which means load is transferred past the quarter panel sheet metal. I've used my rear steel crusher flares countless times as a tree/rock pivots for swinging around tight spaces and it's really saved my hard top and rear quarter panels from getting munched.
 
Ddays

Ddays

Hooked
iRonin said:
"good ones" out there like Poison Spyder come with additional sub-frame brackets that sit behind the sheet metal, in line with the flare, and butt up against the inner frame, which means load is transferred past the quarter panel sheet metal.
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Did not know that. Good to know.
 
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