Jungle Fender Flares:

Interview: Blake Gratton

4x4 owners who want to keep their truck street legal often need to install fender flares. We at 4x4OffRoads stumbled upon an interesting fender flare company in Canada and decided to interview its owner, Blake Gratton. Jungle Fender Flares offer high quality flares with an attractive price tag.





Tell us a little about your company.

Jungle Fender Flares is a small Canadian company that specializes in only fender flares, which are also known as wheel flares, or wheel arch extensions. We focus on making just a few models but
doing them right! We are always looking for feedback from customers to improve our products, and also to let us know what they want to see us come out with in the future.

We are also committed to keeping the cost down for these high quality fender flares. This is why we are shipping them factory direct, instead of bulk-shipping them once in a container, and then shipping them again to the end customer. We also provide personal and prompt online customer service which is difficult to get out of the competition.



How did the idea about selling fender flares come about?

Years back, I considered putting fender flares on an old 4x4 Toyota Pick Up that I was restoring. When I found out the price that these things were selling for, I was shocked. Later on, I was living overseas and learned more about manufacturing abroad. It was then that I realized that I could make a competitive product to the big companies, yet at a much better price for fellow off road enthusiasts.



What should be the main goals for a good 4x4 fender flare?

Adequate Coverage:
The primary goal of a fender flare is of course to cover big tires that stick out past the fender. So when considering buying fender flares, its crucial to know how much they stick out from the stock fender. Some companies make them that hardly stick out at all and are only for show. All of our fender flares provide some adequate tire coverage, and some of our models are the biggest available for a particular truck.

Durability:
Since these are an off-road accessory, durability is also very important. Our fender flares are all made from either a flexible ABS (just like the bumper shell on newer cars) or a heavy duty fibreglass to handle some serious abuse on the trails!

Finish and Styling:
To make your 4x4 look good, its important that the fender flares have great styling and the material already has, or will take a good finish. Both our ABS and fiberglass models can easily be painted to match your truck and look awesome. Actually, most of our ABS models are already professionally painted with a proper automotive grade finish. If you are considering fender flares, its always nice to see the brand in question already installed on a truck that is the same model as yours. That way you can see if you like the fender flare's styling and integration with the lines of the vehicle. We have a large Fender Flare Photo Gallery available on our website so you can look up your truck model and see how it looks with Jungle Fender Flares installed.



How much work is needed to install the fender flares?

Our Heavy Duty Fibreglass fender flares and our ABS fender flares install in totally different ways. The ABS fender flares already have pre-drilled holes in the underside lip of the flares so installation is quite easy. These Toyota fender flares also come with a hardware kit that includes small clips that go over the factory holes in the inner fender of your Toyota Pick Up or Hilux. After you slide these clips in place, you basically just put the fender flare in position then thread the provided screws in place through the clips to secure the wheel flares or wheel arch extensions. Overall, these ABS Toyota fender flares are quite easy to install.

Installing the Heavy Duty Fibreglass models is a bit more involved but certainly not too difficult. These wheel flares do not come with any installation hardware or predrilled holes. You basically hold them in place, then drill through the underside lip of the flare into the inner lip of the fender. Then you thread the hardware of your choice through the holes to secure them. Most people just use sheet metal or even self-tapping screws, or nuts, bolts and washers, and some even prefer rivets. In any case, there is no special hardware required.



What are the major advantages of having fender flares?

The most common reason for having fender flares is to abide by the law. In many places, it is illegal to have tires sticking out past the body of the truck. Obviously, the wheel flare effectively makes the vehicle's body wider to cover these wide oversized tire and rim packages.

Like any automotive accessory, nicely styled fender flares make a 4x4 offroad truck look cool! Naturally, there are many people that add fender flares as well as other truck accessories just for esthetic reasons.

Another major advantage of having fender flares is to keep dirt and rocks from flying up off your tires, hitting the painted finish of your truck, as well as other vehicles and people. They not only help keep your 4 wheel drive clean, but they save your paint by stopping the debris coming off your tires before it hits the side of the truck.



How much more do the fender flares cover than the original setup?

First, let me explain what we are talking about when we say "tire coverage". This term refers to how much the fender flares stick out from the stock fender or wing. Some people also consider this the width of the flare. We offer a few different models and they range in tire coverage anywhere from about 1.5 inches to 2.75 inches. The last time I checked, our Dodge Ram fender flares were the biggest available for the 1994 to 2002 generation.



What are my options when I plan on making an upgrade and are there some special issues that I should consider?

There are quite a few companies out there offering fender flares so you have to do some looking around to get just what you need. They tend to be fairly pricey so if cost is an important factor, we have some of the most competitively priced wheel flares going.

If you are trying to make your vehicle law-abiding, the first thing that you should consider is "how much do my tires stick out, and therefore; how much extra tire coverage do I need from fender flares?"

If you are buying fender flares to hide some nasty rust on your truck, then you may want to consider how high they go up on the body. We consider this height to be "fender coverage" as apposed to the width being "tire coverage".

When buying fender flares just for the styling, you of course need to look around at other trucks the same model with a similar wheel, tire and suspension set up as yours. Then just see which look the best in your eyes! Searching "images" online is really handy for this, and its also nice when fender flare companies offer a photo gallery as we do!



 What kind of trucks do you carry kits for?

We specialize mostly in Toyota fender flares but we do carry a couple other models like the 94 - 01 Dodge Ram and the 97 - 03 Ford F150. For Toyota trucks, we have wheel flares for the;
89 - 95 Pick Up
89 - 97 Hilux
90 - 95 4Runner & Hilux Surf

95 - 04 Tacoma
98 - 04 Hilux (Single Cab & Double Cab)
2005+ Hilux

Currently under development, we are working on the largest fender flares available for the 2005+ Toyota Tacoma SB (short box). If you'd like to leave us information and requests about what you would like to see in future models of Jungle Fender Flares, we'd love to hear from you.



I suspect there are some great off road trails in Ontario. Tell me about your off roading experience or a recent tour.

There are definitely a lot of wicked trails in Ontario including logging roads, snowmobile trails, unmaintained winter roads, sandpits and lots of other muddy paths through the woods. Some of my most-memorable 4x4 off-road trips included deserted muddy logging roads in the mountains just outside of Jasper, Alberta in my old 1990 4WD Full-size Chevrolet 2500 with custom steel bumpers, Baja Widetrack mudders, fender flares, and 350 V8 motor with a 3 speed bull-low tranny. Ever heard of a corduroy road? They do exist! I used to have fun North East of Toronto on the Enfield Road trails and sandpits in a 1992 Toyota Pick Up 4x4 that I restored. I also had some good times in my 1994 Suzuki Sidekick 4WD in the Huntsville area of Muskoka on the snowmobile trails in the summer and then on unmaintained snowy roads in the winter. Recently, I had some great times dirt biking on single track and double track muddy trails connecting remote villages in the mountains of Northern Thailand!



Thanks Blake for giving us an insight into your 4x4 fender flare company and your offroading. We hope you continue your valuable production and experience grand fun off roading!

You can contact Blake and find out more about his fender flares:

Jungle Fender Flares
81 Cedar Crest Beach Rd
Bowmanville, Ontario
L1C 3K3
Canada

Thrandur
4x4OffRoads.com

 

 

 

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