THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

For you veteran pinzers, this is going to be one of those "Yea, duh, you idiot" posts, but for a neophyte like me it was a rather enlightening, albeit expensive, revelation.

So I've always known that the mud flaps have a hole in them so that you can hook them to the back bumper, but I never really figured out a good reason why I would ever need to do that. Well, out wheeling this weekend with some friends I found out. I tried to go down a steep ditch and up the other side. After finding out that it was too steep to drive up and slamming the spare into the backside of the ditch as I rolled back down, I figured I'd just back my way up and out the backside of the ditch. With both diffs locked she made it right out, no problem, except... As I looked back in the ditch, there were both of my mud flaps, ripped right off the back of the truck. The carnage didn't stop there (yes, you know what is coming). The metal brackets that hold the mud flaps and the tail lights were basically torn off the frame and all bent out of shape, in addition to one of the new TD lights being cracked. Being one who's never been accused of being the brightest bulb in the box when it comes to mechanical stuff, I just figured that I had pushed the bumper, mud flaps, tail lights, and everything back into the dirt of the bank and that the force of pushing back up the ditch through the dirt was the cause of all the damage. It wasn't until I was looking at it all last night again, that it finally hit me about the mud flaps and why you might want to hook them up to the bumper while wheeling. I had basically pinned my mud flaps between the bank of the ditch and the tires, providing great traction for the tires, but at the expense of the tail light brackets. Ouch!

Like I said, old, ho-hum news for the old guys on the forum, but I figured it was worth posting if it helps to save someone else from making the same dumb mistake I did. A painful revelation to have when associated with several $$ signs.

I can guarentee that you post will save someone alot of money. Probably me.

Bob

Pinz,

I learned a long time ago by pushing a branch through mine while backing up.

But now you can put those old mudflaps to use as "traction mats". (After you repair/replace the old stuff. )

I had known from reading the manuals that putting the flaps up was advised, however had not fully analyzed why. Thanks for the post.

Ed

Mine started to rip long ago so I took them off. Looks way cooler without them, assuming you have good tires.

My buddy has a 404, he said: "If it falls off it stays off" or "I didn't need it anyway". We kind of live by that motto.

Of course I tend to trailer my Pinz, if I drove it in the rain people behind me would curse me more than they already do.

I have never done that before will remember your message and experience and do so in the future! Thanks for the story.

Just so you don't feel like the only moron on the forum, you'll appreciate this. I called our advertiser looking for a mud flap and they referred me to SAV. I ordered one on line but forgot to specify which side I needed. Of course when I got it and installed it, it became obvious that the left and right were one in the same....

I noticed that when I ordered my new ones because I was wondering the exact same thing!

I was actually going to order new mounting brackets for the tail lights but instead I'm just going to take them down to the local body shop and have them pound them back into shape. It will cost a few bucks more than if I did it myself, but they have all the tools to do it better than I would with a lot fewer swear words!

Best way is too cut the rear mud flaps down just look at the diesel Pinz and you will see why.

I did mine a while ago still got mud flaps and no need to hook them up