Hey all, I have never owned a truck that was within a bumper to bumper warranty. I just sold my first born to become the owner of a 2017 F350 KR dually with 17k miles on it still under its 3/36. Gorgeous truck. This weekend I am out on a pasture road doing F350 things with it and get mud up inside the wheel wells. The liners pack up with mud and fall off of their plastic buttons and the flaps themselves break off the inside tab of the fender extension. So after some wrenching and cutting I get them out of the wheel well and toss them in the bed mud and all and go straight or almost straight to the dealership for what I would expect STELLAR service. It takes three days for them to tell me it is a $400 bill to repair the flaps. My reply...nope I will call Ford. This to me should be considered a quality defect if mud flaps can't handle mud. Ford's response. Whatever the dealership diagnoses as a warranty issue we fix if the dealership doesn't diagnose it as warrantable it isn't.

Do I have too lofty of expectations?

 

I don’t think so, their installation is faulty, it was dealer installed and should be covered. Is this the dealer where you bought it and can you show they were dealer installed? I am on my third set of front mudflats for the same reason, dealer installed new, brackets kept cracking.

 

Well, I can't speak to the kind of mudflaps and fender liners you have, and I guess a dually will throw up twice as much "stuff".
I have the expensive Gatorback mud flaps.

Despite having them, a drive on a gravel road resulted in lots of little dings to the front of my Airstream trailer. Luckily the dings are on the stainless steel "rock guards" there to protect the more delicate aluminum behind them.

I'd rather not have the dings at all though.

 

Ironically, the manufacturers (Ford, GM, FCA) now refer to them as "splash guards" because in general, they're not robust enough to handle mud. They easily handle water spray, and snow/slush kickup which falls off. The molded plastic type may be referred to as stone guards as they're stiff enough to deflect small rocks from hitting the rocker panels immediately behind the wheelwells.

That said, you didn't mention which dealer installed these accessories, if they were in fact different. Only the original selling dealer can get them in on the 3/36 if they were installed at delivery to the first customer. Otherwise, they are limited to the regular Ford parts/accessories warranty. It's also likely you didn't crawl in the rear wheelwells with someone from the dealership you bought from and inspect the wheelwell liners and flaps prior to taking delivery (and who would think to do that anyway?) - that's likely why the dealer turned down warranty coverage. With no way to determine condition at the time *you* took delivery, there's no way for them to tell if/when any abuse to the flaps had occurred. Warranty coverage on such a component is generally limited to materials defects, not functional loss.

It's not that your expectations were too high, but it's an accessory where burden of proof for a factory workmanship defect is extremely high.

 

If mud is your thing, go with gatorbacks but don’t have them hang down too low. If they hang low and you go in reverse, they can fold up into the wheel well. They won’t break but it gets annoying. I’ve had numerous types of mud flaps for the work I do and none have compared to the gatorbacks.

 

Sorry man, you don’t have a claim. Your situation would fall under an abuse situation. If you bumped into a power pole and caused a dent in your bumper, would that be warranty since your bumper is called a BUMPER? Lol. Same thing goes with the mud flaps. Just because they are called mud flaps or the better term splash guard, does not mean they have to perform in mud. Believe me, mud flaps have haunted my dreams. I tore off a set bi weekly on my last couple of truck even while using some serious mounting hardware. The gatorbacks have held up amazingly. Right tool for the right job. Those splash guards belong on a Prius, not a work truck. Lol

 

Thanks guys, I am going with the Gatorbacks. The candid statements definitely brought me off the ceiling. "bumper called a BUMPER" is pretty spot on. and splash guard. I will post the fix here when I get the truck back. I have an idea.

 

if you have a 2" or 2.5" hitch this could work. they don't make one for 3"

 

I have a set of Rock Tamers for the 2.5" shank. They are hanging on the garage wall after trying them for several months. They don't work well, at least on DRW, for a couple reasons:
1. in order to cover the width of the tires, the flaps and bars they hang from have to extend out wider than the rear bumper. This creates a trip hazard and looks goofy.
2. they interfere with the back up sensors.
3. If you aren't actively towing, this assembly is really big, bulky, and heavy. There is no easy way to install/remove it. It also doesn't fit in the bed of the truck, especially if you have a fifth wheel hitch, so you can't easily "stow" it.

I guess that's a few reasons.

 

I made some (temporary) mudflaps from scrap lying around the yard, while waiting for a new combo body to get built on this 19 550.

These mudflaps work.

 

I use these and I'm real happy with them. You can put them on or take them off in seconds.