Mud Flaps

The other day, when driving downtown, I passed through a construction area that was unpaved, and then a section with fresh asphalt. The noise in the wheelwells indicated the tires were picking up a lot of stones, etc.. I then noticed that the cars that had been following me were now a lot farther behind than before. It occurred to me that perhaps the Land Rover was throwing stones and sticky asphalt particles on those following, due to the large tire treads plus the rear wheels being so exposed and close to the rear of the vehicle. Had there been pedestrians or bicyclists, they might have been effected, too. And so, I decided to install rear mudflaps on the Land Rover.

3 Bros. sent a set, from Bearmach. They also had them from Land Rover, but it was indicated that the Bearmach ones looked slightly more rugged and were stiffer, born out by their weighing more (2.28 Kg vs 2.04 Kg), plus the Bearmach ones were held together with bolts while the LR ones used plastic rivnuts. Both used coated brackets that were virtually identical.


Below, the basic Bearmach mud flap. Four 1/4" holes must be drilled into the chassis for each flap, and you must supply your own bolts for attachment to the chassis.

The bracket was held on by just a bolt, small washer and nut (bottom), and so it seemed advisable to add larger galvanized washers and lock washers (top).

Good clearance of the exhaust pipe.

The flaps installed, before adjustment. They needed adjusting because it turns out the diagonal undersurfaces of the chassis rear cross member are not "flat", they have a slight twist (you can just see this where the flap brackets are visible), and so the flaps did not hang straight down. Not helped by bolt holes in the rubber being slightly off.

Your basic Land Rover with mud flaps. Changes the "look" to some degree. Fully removeable if necessary. If off-roading, I would take them off, as they are quite long and I can see them being pulled off if reversing out of a steep-sided rut or something similar, if pinched between ground and tire.