I just thought Id post up my progress of making quick release mud flaps for my Jeep Cherokee in the General Mods section for those who might want to try something similar for any other vehicle. Its nice to be able to keep stuff off the side of the vehicle and out of the inside (when windows are down in on a wet road for instance), or off your dogs face when hanging out the window. Then when needed, for more intense off road driving, being able to take them off fairly quickly. I used stuff I had laying around, and the mud flaps themselves are a pair of 24" x 18" tractor trailer flaps that I will cut in half, giving me four. I got them for $30 shipped from an online truck supply. This is from my Jeep write-up:
March 22, 2009
Ok, got some work done on the rear brackets for the mudflaps. Pics:
Bottom piece with 2 holes in it is one of the arms that will hold the flap. These two holes will mount to an L-bracket with detent pins, eventually. For right now, since I dont want to drop $25 on pins, Im going to more permanently mount them with some nuts and bolts. Still removable, just with a 7/16" wrench.
The arms are 1/2" C-channel aluminum. So to reinforce the mounting points, I used some 1/4" thick x 3/4" wide aluminum flat stock and made two 3" pieces, and hammered them into the C-channel, then drilled the mounting holes. This should help with some extra support. The aluminum arms are 16" long each for the rear.
This is just a view of the 1/4" x 3/4" flat stock in the C-channel.
Ok, this was the toughest part for the rear. The drob bracket was a piece of 1 1/4" x 1/4" flat stock that was 6" long to start with. The hard part was just figuring the angle and amount of drop, etc, to keep it far enough from the leaf spring, but low enough to allow for the downward angle of the arm holding the mud flap. I used L-brackets that were 2"x2" with holes that were 1 1/8" apart on each arm. Im using 1/4" diameter bolts with lock nuts holding the L-brackets to the drop brackets, self tapping screws for the drop brackets to the frames, and eventually 1/4" detent pins for the quick releases. From the front of the rear shackle box to the trailing edge of the L-bracket is 6 1/4".
View of the clearance b/w the arm and the leaf spring, which is like 2 1/4" at the lowest point or so, which near the rear of the leaf spring is plenty.
Heres sort of what it will look like when installed. Thats an 11"x17" piece of copy paper hanging from the bracket. The flaps will be 12"x18".
As of now, the parts are disassembled and primed ready for black paint. The drop brackets have been trimmed of excess aluminum for esthetics. The downward angle of the rear arms was provided by a hammer, after the drop brackets were attached to the "frame". The front hangers will be much simpler, as they will be L-brackets simply mounted to the "frame" and the arms extending outward...no drop brackets needed. Hope this helps anyone interested.
*sorry for the quality of pictures...Im using a cell phone to take the pics when I can.
March 22, 2009
Ok, got some work done on the rear brackets for the mudflaps. Pics:
Bottom piece with 2 holes in it is one of the arms that will hold the flap. These two holes will mount to an L-bracket with detent pins, eventually. For right now, since I dont want to drop $25 on pins, Im going to more permanently mount them with some nuts and bolts. Still removable, just with a 7/16" wrench.
The arms are 1/2" C-channel aluminum. So to reinforce the mounting points, I used some 1/4" thick x 3/4" wide aluminum flat stock and made two 3" pieces, and hammered them into the C-channel, then drilled the mounting holes. This should help with some extra support. The aluminum arms are 16" long each for the rear.
This is just a view of the 1/4" x 3/4" flat stock in the C-channel.
Ok, this was the toughest part for the rear. The drob bracket was a piece of 1 1/4" x 1/4" flat stock that was 6" long to start with. The hard part was just figuring the angle and amount of drop, etc, to keep it far enough from the leaf spring, but low enough to allow for the downward angle of the arm holding the mud flap. I used L-brackets that were 2"x2" with holes that were 1 1/8" apart on each arm. Im using 1/4" diameter bolts with lock nuts holding the L-brackets to the drop brackets, self tapping screws for the drop brackets to the frames, and eventually 1/4" detent pins for the quick releases. From the front of the rear shackle box to the trailing edge of the L-bracket is 6 1/4".
View of the clearance b/w the arm and the leaf spring, which is like 2 1/4" at the lowest point or so, which near the rear of the leaf spring is plenty.
Heres sort of what it will look like when installed. Thats an 11"x17" piece of copy paper hanging from the bracket. The flaps will be 12"x18".
As of now, the parts are disassembled and primed ready for black paint. The drop brackets have been trimmed of excess aluminum for esthetics. The downward angle of the rear arms was provided by a hammer, after the drop brackets were attached to the "frame". The front hangers will be much simpler, as they will be L-brackets simply mounted to the "frame" and the arms extending outward...no drop brackets needed. Hope this helps anyone interested.
*sorry for the quality of pictures...Im using a cell phone to take the pics when I can.
