Blue Ox Adjustable Mud Flap System w/Rock Screen - 2" Hitches - Matte Black

Video Transcript for Blue Ox Adjustable Mud Flap System with Rock Screen Review

Hi, everyone. Aidan here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at this Blue Ox Adjustable Mud Flap with Rock Guard. Now, even though this is designed for hitches, let me preface that by saying it's really going to attach to your ball mount. So, if you're the type of person that maybe has a two-inch ball mount and you're using a sleeve reducer for your 2 1/2 inch hitch, you'll wanna go with the two-inch version of this mudflap. Just be sure to pick up the right one because the title might be a little bit confusing.

But regardless, they'll all work the same way. So let's check it out. So, here's a closer look at what that attachment method looks like, clamping around the shank of our ball mount, and in each corner giving you a bolt that'll tighten against the shank and a jam nut that will prevent that bolt from backing out, giving you a really solid hold. I mean, there's really no movement here on the mud flap, which is great. A couple potential drawbacks that you might find because chances are you already own the ball mount, you're just looking for the mud flap.

You're gonna need an inch of clearance on that shank between the end of your receiver tube to the closest point of contact for the collar here to actually wrap around. So, some areas to watch for obviously is your hitch, but also on the bottom of your ball mount if you have some sort of reinforcement gusset plate here, you'll see ours is pushed right up against the gusset. That's something to watch out for and it can cause problems. The other thing is if you have a particularly rounded shank on the corners, that might cause somewhat weird fitment. Ours, we've got these beveled edges, and it actually works out pretty well because the bolts in the bottom corners could press flat against that.

But just a few things to watch out for since you probably own the ball mount already. You also get a lot of adjustment here, starting with the flaps themselves. You've got this carriage bolt with a nut on the back that you can undo, and during your initial setup, we'll set at a certain interval. There's fixed positions for those to give you different spreads to line up with your tires better. For more minute adjustments, these main clamps here will allow the rods to slide back and forth, giving you, again, those more minor incremental adjustments to really dial it in perfectly to your truck.

On this particular Silverado 2500 today, we've got them spread from end to end at about 75 inches. Now on a truck, maybe with some dually tires, you might find that you need a much wider spread. These can go up to 96 3/4 quarters of an inch from end to end. So, you can get a pretty wide spread there. And if need be, you could always go a little bit more narrow too. But around this middle of the road should be pretty good for most trucks. And one final piece of adjustment is this bolt here, which allows you to adjust the angle of this entire arm here, pivoting it out, or in this case, straight up and down, which is the preferred mounting option. But depending on your bumper and how it sits in relation to your hitch and your ball mount, you might find that giving yourself a little extra clearance by pivoting that arm out gives you just better fits and more room from your bumper, if especially you had an aftermarket bumper that's a bit bulkier. And the reason I think that adjustment is so important is kinda the exact same reason, I think, these mud flaps could be a really good option for you. And it's because it allows you to get full coverage on the back of your truck. Because let's face it. If you get yourself a new camper, you've got a nice trailer, you start towing it, and you're just kicking up rocks, ruining the front end of it, it's not gonna feel good. And while you've got plenty of other options for mud flaps that could maybe attach in the fender behind your tire, they're gonna be small. They're not going to give you as much coverage and in turn not give you the same kind of protection. Whereas these are one, much larger. These rubberized flaps will just cover a large area and be able to adjust to the width of your truck perfectly. But you also get this rock screen in the middle, which joins those two pieces together and really gives us that true full coverage behind the back of our truck. Now, a couple unique things about that rock screen in the middle. At the very bottom, you've got these weights that are going to just help weigh this down so it doesn't catch near as much wind and billow as much. At the top, you'll be able to see a couple of these metal grommets that extend pretty far out. So, even if we have these mud flaps set to a wider spread or a more narrow one, we've got some sort of attachment point to keep the rock screen suspended between the two flaps. But I think coolest of all is this slot in the middle. So, if you've got a ball mount that has the optional attachment of stabilizer bars, like that is available for a bulletproof hitches ball mount, or maybe a Gen-Y ball mount, you can still use that with this rock screen. This gap will allow those stabilizer bars to pass through to the back and reach their attachment points on your vehicle so you can still get that same stability out of your ball mount and get the protection of this mud flap system. And now, while this might not be the nicest looking thing to have on the back of your truck, it is removable. So, if you're not actively towing and don't want it back there, you could remove it. But I'll just take this opportunity to show you and talk about it. It's just gonna be a little cumbersome. I've already got my bolts and everything loosened up, because the main thing I wanna show here is that when it's all assembled, it's just kind of unruly, getting this detached and slid off the shank. Just means that (metal clanking) you're gonna be just in an awkward position. And I think having an extra set of hands for that, although this isn't super heavy, would be really helpful so they don't have to drop your ball mount or anything like that. And the same goes for resetting it back up because you're gonna have to get this (metal clanking) pre-slid onto the shank of your ball mount in order to get it back in to the hitch of your vehicle. So, if you can get it supported somewhat like this and lift from here, it's possible. But it's just gonna be a little awkward, maybe unbalanced, but not terrible overall. At the end of the day, it's removable and I think that's pretty cool considering the size and nature of it. Once you do get this all set up in the hitch though, you can choose the spot you wanna mount this. I would always opt to just push it a bit further away from the vehicle and tighten up the bolts in the bottom with a 5/8ths inch wrench, trying to tighten them down evenly. Going for those bolts first to get this tight, and then going to those jam nuts second to keep those bolts in place. But when it comes to other options that are similar to this style that clamp onto your ball mount, there's tons of other options out there and you can get very similar systems from Rock Tamers or even BulletProof Hitches. But where I think this option from Blue Ox really separates itself is that rock screen in the middle. So, depending on where you're towing, maybe the tread of your tires, if you find that they kick up a lot of extra rocks, or even if you're just towing a trailer or a camper that you really wanna make sure is protected, this could be a excellent option, especially if you have those stabilizer bars for your ball mount. This will still allow it to work. But today, this has just been our look at the Blue Ox Mud Flap with the Rock Screen. Thanks for watching.