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MUD FLAPS
- Thread starter Sri Kooturu
- Start date
Super_Popular
Well-Known Member
Super_Popular
Well-Known Member
Id rather have a reduced range than $2K in body damage from rocks again.
I live on a rocky road, and it is tough to resist driving too fast so that rocks are not thrown up onto the body. Some have had success with Xpel or similar coatings to prevent paint damage, but sounds like you have more than paint damage (although it doesn't take much damage to get $2000 worth these days).
I wonder if maybe you could Velcro the flaps on so that they could be removable for highway travel?
Super_Popular
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Super_Popular
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Super_Popular
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Super_Popular
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EV-lutioin
Active Member
Do you or anyone her have real experience or data (link to testing etc) on how much the Mud flaps on front wheels affect the range? Preferably I want to have this installed to protect against stone chips and extra dirt on the car. But I don’t want to sacrifice to much range on it.
I also would like to know where you can get expel ultimate or similar for less than $50 as Naomi was talking about.
These film/wraps seems like a reasonable easy job that I can manage myself.
Sorry, I'm not going to spend a lot of time doing your research for you. It is very well established among hypermilers that the mudflaps are detrimental. Doing a search on ecomodder.com turns up 486 hits for "mud flaps", so you might start there. I did look at one of those and they claimed about a 10% gain in fuel economy after removing mud flaps.
Not to say that they HAVE to create drag -- I'm sure an expert who understands the problem could design in something that could work. But I think just adding them on is not something I would do (and I live on a dirt road).
Searching for information on the drag effect of car mud flaps is complicated by all the information about truck mud flaps and all the research done to try to reduce drag for the big trucks.
T34ME
Active Member
There is a lot of experience on the Prius fora about "mud flaps" and other exterior modifications on range. Most of that experience is anecdotal with no scientific research so the results are suspect. These changes to the exterior range from negligible to significant (depending on your definition of those terms). So mud flaps will affect range but how much, "it depends." Usually people who put on mud flaps do it because they have installed larger wheels with different offsets that can affect range by as much as 10%......depending. Not all mud flaps are created equal and therefore will have a different impact on your vehicle in both range and amount of protection. You can always try them, there are a lot of "universal" fits for all vehicles (Ebay) but I wouldn't spend a lot of money on them because you may not like them and relegate them to the trash can. YMMV.
Super_Popular
Well-Known Member
Does anyone know where I can get splash guards for an X, besides the company in Norway?
Personally I do not care about range, I care about damage to my X.
Personally I do not care about range, I care about damage to my X.
What we need is retractable mudflaps. With a flip of a switch, you can engage them to offer protection on gravel roads. They should also automatically retract when above a certain speed (to reduce drag). Who's up for the challenge? 
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