last summer, driving home from work one day, I got pulled over by the State Police......let's see, what was I doing wrong.......talking on the cell-phone (maybe, but not illegal here....yet), doing 45mph in a 55mph zone behind a blue-hair....sooooo, definitely not for speeding.

I pulled over and got the obligatory "do you know why i pulled you over.....?????", and really i did not. He said "your tires are too wide, they extend past the body more than an inch and a half"....apparently the threshold allowable amount in Pennsylvania. I congratulated him on being the 1st person to pull me over in 18 years of me driving it this way (wearing 31x10.5x15's).....apparently it's not so much the tires as it is the offset of my wheels that make them protrude.

Long story short....he let me off with warning.....although I know most of the State Troopers in my area because I work in the local Emergency Room for the last 16 years, I did not know this guy.

He and I bs'd on the side of the road for several minutes, and I name dropped the dozen or so guys I did know, while also showing him my work badge so he knew I was a good-guy too.

I met him a few weeks later, at my work and he said (after apparently seeing my truck outside with it's STOCK itsy bitsy tires on) that "i only gave you a warning, I didn't cite you", I told him I wasn't a jerk and I wasn't going to ignore the warning.

So, anyway, my motor died soon after that.....so while i was fixing that, i was scheming up a way to get myself some additional coverage without spending over $200 on fender flares.

so........searched.....came up with not so much info.....heard of using garden edging and then read alot of negativity about that....thought that because of how rigid that stuff is, probably would look like hell.

so...........one day was at a local Tractor Supply store and saw CONVEYOR BELT for sale..........hmmmmmmmmmm.........4inch wide at $2.79 / foot......hmmmmm I thought.

so the other day, I bought me 16 feet of it......the store people were all excited too "that's the most we ever sold", telling me they usuall only sell a foot at a time for patching conveyor belts..........and using my magic marker, my drill and a 10mm socket, i went to work on it.


came out.....OK.....should have spent a little more time on it, but because i was having an anxiety attack wanting to finally drive my truck with it's good tires on, i kinda rushed.

enough yapping....on with the pics

stupid stock tires (original 18 year old tires.....hahahahaha)



put my good ones back on, so i had to make the fender flares



yup, they stick out



stick out quite a bit .....too much for Pennsylvania standards



CONVEYOR BELT



didn't want it to look real stupid, so i limited myself to one inch of coverage......enough to keep me legal though.



finished 1st one....





so....now i'm legal again










only thing i would have done differently, is drill the holes as i go along.....to allow for the material to conform to the curve rather than the way i initially did it drilling before i put them on, forcing it.....caused some gapping.

all in all...a very easy project, $48 spent to do it, probably will take about 20 minutes per wheel. but saving a citation is worth it.

thanks for reading

 

Hell yeah! Youz redneck an' youz ain't ev'n'n Arkansaw!........

I think I'm actually going to try something like this this summer.........only with strips of metal and, then, build up with some fiberglass. My fenders are rust....

 

yeeeehaaaaawwww

was a quick and easy fix......not real bad looking either....kinda un-noticeable if you aren't looking for them.

 

I was a'wunderin' if anyone else was on this morning. It's kinda slow right now.

Yeah, it doesn't look bad at all. My eye for detail might trim those corners so they'd round off towards the body, but that's me. If I can complicate something, I just might.....

 

not finished with them ...got them ''good enough" but have to make them look less "home-made"

 

Ah....I see.

 

I like it rather smooth. Thanks for the post.

 

Nice man!! You should see mine...they're in the garage some where...

 

ahahaha! Might have to look up the post date, I think 4 months have come and gone.

I like em Jerry, simple and low profile.

 

 

I still can't get past the 18 year old tires.... you don't ever hit even 55mph in those do you?

Suggested maximum out here is 6 years, we don't have your kind of moisture in the air-they literally just curl up and die here...I had tires on the MR2 from 1995 and I tossed those bad boys quick like. Big old sidewall cracks and spider webbing.

Innovative flares all the same.

thook love that avatar shot and is that Canadian or Alaskan or Europe or where?

 

ron....those tires make a guest appearance every now and then....and are in unbelievably good shape.....only a few thousand miles on them i assume....back in storage again now.

fender flares are holding up well......flexible enough to take a hit (they did alot this past weekend 4wheeling) and retain their shape. i still would like to tweek the installation a little so that there is no gapping.

 

Thanks for the idea! Was going to use drive belts, but this is better and cheaper!

 

thanks.....and they are holding up quite well too. they give (bend) so rather than getting dents or scrapes they just bend back.

 

Sick, im deff doing something like this when the time comes!