Fender flares are round extensions or accessories that fit over the wheels of a car directly and are outlined to match the vehicle’s body lines.
The work of fender flares is to provide extra coverage around the wheel. They excellently hide body damage and rust in the area around the wheel. Moreover, they shield the wheel from external damage due to mud, sand, and scratches.
In addition, with the right Ford F150 fender flares, your off-road adventures will become much more exciting. Your car’s stance will become wider and it’ll have an aggressive touch. Moreover, the law requires the use of F150 fender flares, but the rules and regulations might vary from state to state.
F150 fender flares come in different colors, styles, and textures to complement your car’s appearance. As such, finding the best F150 fender flares requires lots of research and reading lots of product reviews. Here’s how to go about finding the right F150 fender flares.
Our Bottom Line Upfront: F150 fender flares are Ford F150’s round extensions of its fenders that offer extra protection to the area. If you want the same yet upgraded look, you should buy OEM-style F150 fender flares.
If your vehicle has larger tires, you should choose extended-style fender flares. However, if you’re looking for the best protection along with an outstanding stance, you should consider investing in pocket design F150 flares.
Do I Need F150 Fender Flares?
Fender flares are useful accessories. In addition to preventing your wheels and tires from throwing road litter up and about, they protect your car’s body paint and disguise rust or damage around its wheels. Moreover, fender flares work as an extension once you decide to buy a lift kit or larger tires.
Do Fender Flares Encourage Rust Buildup?
Yes, fender flares can increase the buildup of rust and corrosion around the flares. Water, road debris, and road salt often get stuck between the fender flares and the fender, causing the formation of rust and corrosion.
To prevent this, it’s best to take the fender flares off when cleaning your car or buy fender flares that come with weatherstrip seals.
Kinds of Fender Flares
In general, there are six variants of fender flares on the market. Here’s a quick rundown of each type:
Bolted
Bolted fender flares have a mechanical appearance that can improve your truck’s off-road look.
OEM
OEM fender flares are more minimalistic and smaller than other styles. They’re designed to go with your truck’s stock flares, and you can repaint them to match your vehicle’s paint job.
Extended
Extended fender flares are similar to OEM fender flares, but they’re built to be taller and wider for the greatest tire coverage.
Street
Street fender flares are minimalist accessories that don’t stand out as much as extended and bolted fender flares. But they look better than OEM fender flares.
Cut-out
Cut-out flares boast a tough, ragged look due to the division between the truck’s sidewall and the bolts.
Pocket fender flares feature pockets that make your truck’s bolts seem like they’re dug into the flares.
Factors to Consider When Buying the Best F150 Fender Flares
Considering the surfeit of fender flare options available on the market, selecting the right one for your truck can be quite tricky. For this reason, here are vital factors to take into account before choosing the right set of F150 fender flares.
Fitment Matters
Fitment is the most important factor you need to consider when buying fender flares. To make sure that the F150 fender flares you buy are the right size and fit for your truck, check your vehicle’s model, construction, and year.
Application
In general, fender flares work the same way, but they’re designed differently. If you often drive your pickup off the road, you should consider buying extended fender flares as they’re designed wider and taller than other varieties for additional tire coverage.
However, if you’re looking to upgrade the aesthetics of your truck, street, pocket, or OE styles are excellent types of fender flares to consider.
Consider the Quality
Fender flares often bear the brunt of harsh weather and road debris. For this reason, it’s best to select a brand that provides an excellent range of flares that are designed to resist cracking and warping and withstand severe weather conditions.
Check the Design
The design of fender flares is another crucial consideration when shopping for flares for your F150 pickup. There are several fender flare designs on the market, including OEM, street, cut-out, and many others.
Pocket design fender flares actually feature an attractive set of pins and are attached with sheet screws and tough glue tape. On the other hand, cut-out fender flares are attached to the F150 with cutting sheet screws.
Also, street fender flares have a small curvy design that resembles that of pocket flares without bolt attachment. Moreover, OEM fender flames are narrower but cover the wheels.
Material Matters
Most fender flare brands are made of metal, polypropylene plastic, strong ABS, rubber, and several other materials.
While polypropylene plastic and ABS fender flares are valuable and long-lasting, metal fender flares are the more durable option. However, metal flares are costlier than other options.
Moreover, rubber fender flares come with a curvy design that offers good protection and attachment to your F150 truck. Although they have a shorter lifespan, they’re a much cheaper option.
Consider Ease of Installation
If you’re a DIY person, you should go for easy-to-install fender flares. Otherwise, you’ll need the services of an expert.
Fender Flares vs Mud Flaps
Some people prefer fender flares to mud flaps or vice versa. However, fender flares are the better option for various reasons.
Most 2006-2019 F150 fender flares provide better protection against dirt, mud, and rock attacks due to their exceptional design and construction. Fender flares, unlike mud flaps, are exceptionally durable and last much longer. In addition, they’re unaffected by uneven roads, even though they’re more expensive than other options.
On the other hand, mud flaps protect your truck’s front and rear wheels from rocks and road debris. But they’re actually designed to send debris the wrong way on occasion. Unlike F150 fender flares, mud flaps aren’t designed to throw road debris and rocks at an angle.
Cost
F150 fender flares cost anywhere from about $10-$850 depending on various factors, including the brand, material, finish, attachment style, and application.
Our Top Picks
Here’s an overview of five of the best F150 fender flares on the market today. When making the selections, we took into account the fender flares’ design, material, ease of installation, customization options, and cost. Check them out to pick the right fit for your truck.
Monkey Autosports F150 OEM Style Fender Flares
If you’re looking for decorative OEM parts and quality in fender flares, you should check these fender flares from Monkey Autosports.
For starters, these flares are very easy to set up. They come with an instruction manual, making the installation process incredibly easy. Furthermore, the set of four comes with all the necessary hardware and tools.
The fitting is perfect as well. It does an amazing job of adapting to your vehicle’s shape, so it looks the part. Moreover, the flares are designed to tightly stick to the fender.
Also, this lightweight set of fender flares has been put together using ABS-compatible composite material. Not only is this high-quality material hardwearing and durable, but it’s also impact resistant. Moreover, it’s absolutely UV rays-resistant, ensuring that there won’t be any concern about the device cracking or chalking over time.
Sporting a black textured satin finish, the Monkey Autosports F150 OEM Style Fender Flares can be set up as they are or customized to complement your vehicle’s color. Either way, they’ll certainly add class and style to your vehicle.
Lastly, in terms of performance, the flares also excel. They shield both sides of your vehicle from debris, mud, and other unwanted stuff. While they may seem a bit pricey for some people, their design makes them a worthwhile purchase.
Pros
- Â Â Â Â Offers great fitting
- Â Â Â Â Very stylish
- Â Â Â Â Incredibly easy to set up
- Â Â Â Â Resistant to wear and tear as well as UV rays
- Â Â Â Â Protects the sides of your vehicle from getting dirty
Cons
- Â Â Â Â A bit pricey
Tyger Auto TG-FF8F4018 LT Fender Flares
Tyger Auto is a well-known and highly dependable brand that makes high-quality parts for various vehicles, particularly trucks. The Tyger Auto TG-FF8F4018 LT Fender Flares is the ideal example of high-quality fender flares.
First off, this set of fender flares has been designed with an original injection molding technique, which enhances its performance when it comes to avoiding a collision.
Secondly, the fender flares have been created with anti-aging polypropylene material. By using this material, Tyger Auto has produced a fender flares set that’s much more durable as well as flexible. Furthermore, it’s 100% UV rays-resistant.
The Tyger Auto TG-FF8F4018 LT Fender Flares set features an incredibly sleek design. In addition, it boasts a super premium-looking polished matte finishing. If black isn’t your favorite color, you can change it to suit your vehicle.
Although the set comes with all the necessary hardware as well as an installation manual, setting it up won’t be as easy as the Monkey Autosports F150 OEM Style Fender Flares. This set of fender flares needs at least two hours to install.
Lastly, the Tyger Auto TG-FF8F4018 LT Fender Flares set is the perfect option for anyone looking for top-notch performance. Its reasonable pricing and aesthetic design make it incredibly appealing.
Pros
- Â Â Â Â Affordable
- Â Â Â Â Features a compact, aesthetic design
- Â Â Â Â Delivers great protection to both sides of your truck
- Â Â Â Â Built with anti-aging polypropylene
- Â Â Â Â Features original injection molding technique
Cons
- Â Â Â Â Lengthy installation process
Tyger Auto TG-FF8F4168 Fender Flares
The Tyger Auto TG-FF8F4168 is another amazing fender flares set from Tyger Auto. The set is quite similar to the Tyger Auto TG-FF8F4018, but it comes with some extra awesome features, including being super scratch-resistant.
Like the previous model, the Tyger Auto TG-FF8F4168 set of fender flares is made with injection molding technique. In addition, it boasts the anti-aging polypropylene material as well. Therefore, you already know it has a pretty amazing design and structure.
Furthermore, this set of fender flares is built to resist scratches, cracks, warps, and many other issues. It’s also proven to resist wear and tear better than other models.
Unlike the Tyger Auto TG-FF8F4018, the setup process is much easier and smoother with the Tyger Auto TG-FF8F4168. While the previous model needs at least two hours to install, it’ll take under an hour to set up this model. And you need not worry about drilling holes into your truck or getting extra tools to do the job.
In terms of providing your truck with protection from dirt and mud on its sides, it offers an excellent service. The fender flare’s shape is designed to deliver increased mudsling coverage.
This elegant fender flares set is among the best ones to customize. You can easily paint over any color you want without any problem.
Pros
- Â Â Â Â Attractive design
- Â Â Â Â Easy to install
- Â Â Â Â Highly customizable
- Â Â Â Â Built with injection molding technique
- Â Â Â Â Built with anti-aging polypropylene
- Â Â Â Â Resistant to UV rays, scratches, and wear and tear
Cons
- Â Â Â Â No major cons to report
G-PLUS Fender Flares Set
The G-PLUS Fender Flares set comes with a pocket rivet design and is ideal for off-road Styleside Ford F150 2009-2014 models. With its performance and aesthetics, you’re sure to love this fender flares set. And it also comes with three-bed length sizes: 97.4 inches, 78.8 inches, and 67 inches.
Obviously, like all Ford pickup fender flares, it’s available in a bunch of 4—two for the back and two for the front. While the G-PLUS Fender Flares set provides off-road Styleside Ford F150 2009-2014 models with exceptional fitting, it doesn’t suit any platinum or raptor models.
This fender flares set boasts a wonderful pocket rivet style as well as a black matte finish, letting you paint on its smooth surface. The set has a top-quality injection molding technique with faultless edge retention polish, giving your Ford F150 truck a silky look.
You can set up the G-PLUS Fender Flares on your own with ease. The pack comes with most of the hardware. All you need to get is some extra OS self-tapping screws. But you have to make a small drill on the side of each wheel to fasten the flares. To understand the process better, consult the user manual.
Pros
- Â Â Â Â Prevents mud and dust from getting into the frame
- Â Â Â Â Customizable to your preferred color
- Â Â Â Â Gives great coverage
- Â Â Â Â Three different bed sizes to choose from
Cons
- Â Â Â Â Also requires some self-tapping screws
- Â Â Â Â Requires some drilling on the side of each wheel
RDJ Trucks Fender Flares
Designed with OEM-certified ABS material, the RDJ Trucks Bolt-On Pro-Offroad Design Fender Flares are quite strong and crafted to serve your Ford F150 for many years to come.
Like top-of-the-range fender flares, this fender flares set has a high-quality design and sports-style technology. While offering added coverage from scratches, debris, and dust, in addition to tire protection, it also offers an intense tailor-made design.
Featuring a bolt-on design, the RDJ Trucks Bolt-On Pro-Offroad Design Fender Flares will fit Ford F150 2009-2014 trucks perfectly. This fender flares set comes with four separate pieces that will fit your truck from the front to the back and on the passenger and driver’s side.
Also, each pocket comes with stainless steel bolts set up, giving your Ford F150 pickup truck a definitive and unique look. These bolts are merely decorative, though, and thus aren’t at all dug into the body of the truck. So, you needn’t worry about your vehicle being permanently damaged.
Pros
- Â Offers a perfect fit
- Excellent value for money
- Can also help hide fender damage
- Can give your truck a custom-made design since it looks amazing
Cons
- Back flares might require some tweaking when installing
- Assembling the pocket bolt and rubber trim take time
FAQs on How to Find the Best F150 Fender Flares
Question: How Do I Select Fender Flares?
Answer: When choosing fender flares, make sure to:
• Choose your preferred style
• Determine your fender flare coverage
• Compare different brands
• Make your final decision
Question: Are Fender Flares a Terrible Idea for Your Pickup?
Answer: Generally speaking, fender flares are a great accessory for any pickup truck. They’ll make your truck appear more aggressive and protect it and other vehicles from debris, rocks, and mud on the road. The best part about them is that there are lots of options on the market that will perfectly fit any truck.
Question: What Does OEM Stand for When it Comes to Fender Flares?
Answer: OEM-style fender flares are built to maintain the contours of the original manufacturer’s design as well as to provide extra protection to the wheels and both sides of your pickup against road debris that’s thrown up when you drive.
Question: What are Ford F150 Fender Flares?
Answer: Wheel flares or F150 fender flares are powerful accessories that protect your Ford F150 truck from potential damage caused by road debris, rocks, or mud while you’re driving off the road.
Question: Which Are the Best Fender Flares?
Answer: The best fender flares on the market today are:
• Stampede Trail Riders Extended Style Fender Flares
• Stampede Ruff Riderz Rivet Style Fender Flares
• Stampede Original Riderz OEM Style Fender Flares
• Lund EX Extra-wide Fender Flares
• Bushwacker OEM-Style Fender Flares
• Bushwacker Pocket Design Fender Flares
• EGR Bolt-on Style Fender Flares
• Lund RX Rivet Style Fender Flares
• Lund SX Street Style Fender Flares
• Husky Liners Back Wheel Fender Flares
Summing Up How to Find the Best F150 Fender Flares
The Ford F150 pickup is probably the best truck for on-ramp and off-road adventures, and it’s unsurprisingly one of the most in-demand trucks on the market.
With so many Ford F150 trucks on the road, owners of this particular model are always looking to make their vehicles stand out. While some of them go for lift kits and larger tires, others go for a small but meaningful update in the form of fender flares.
But F150 fender flares are more than just an aesthetic upgrade. They prevent debris from being thrown into the air while you drive and also protect your truck’s paintwork. They’re usually built to withstand cracking or cracking, but they can wear away over time or suffer damage during collisions.
- Jeep Cherokee Bad Ground Symptoms - May 5, 2023
- Common 5.7 Hemi Problems and Their Solutions - August 18, 2022
- Jeep Grand Cherokee Years to Avoid - July 24, 2022