Super-soft calmini/piranha flares

[Matthew]

Wasn't sure where to put this, as there is a bit of tech, or maybe just a dumb question.

I rang the manufacturer of these flares and they are $195 inc gst for a pair of fronts, not cheap but still better than piranha from what I understand. I didn't ask about rears as I don't need them (I think) but if anyone wants rears I will get a price. They are the super-soft ones that you can crush and they won't break.

If anybody is interested let me know and I'll see if they will give us a club discount if we buy a few pairs, I don't know if they will but from what I understand they don''t have them in stock and will be making them when I place my order, so a few pairs may get the price down.

P.S. do the fronts flares still fit cut guards or do I need to order the longer rears?

[gwagensteve]

from memory the fronts still work with cut guards - Greg and Michael have a complete set of flares (ie fronts on the front and rears on the rear) from memory and they fit their heavily cut guards - with 34's yours shouldn't need to be that big.

The trick is to mount them high - the higher you mount them the more cutting they cover.

Steve.

[Matthew]

Picked them up to-day and they are the Calmini ones, they say calmini on the bottom of them.

I have never really taken much notice of Greg's or Michael's flares so didn't know what to expect or how rigid they are. I'm pretty happy with them but they aren't as soft as I thought they would be. They will bend enough so that the ends will touch but there's no way they will flex enough to tie in a knot like in the photo. I don't think they would break if a car were to rest on them but I'm not sure if I'm willing to test the theory. I'll give them a call Monday to double check that they are the ultraflex version before I fit them.

Your wright Steve, I checked fit and even with them mounted in the factory position you can cut around 35-40mm from the guards, so mounted high will allow heaps of cutting.

For anyone that is interested rears are $195 a pair as well.

The owner was saying that if we want anything custom moulded they can probably make it. There would be a set up fee on top of what ever we get made but the mould would be ours to keep at the end.

[suzook82]

Gave the chap a call regarding the flares (nice guy) but I'm confused as he advised the only flares available for sierras are 40mm wide.
Steve, you said both Mitch & Greg are running these flare but with their some what small tyre choice I cant see how 40mm covers ANYTHING!!!!!!
I can only assume that they're using a flare off another car ie Jeep but it just doesn't sounds right.
Can anyone clear this up?

[gwagensteve]

That doesn't make sense at all - NT flares would be 40mm wide.

I'm more confused now as Matthew reckons the flares he has aren't super soft and the flares in the photographs are US made James Duff flares for the 66-77 Ford Bronco.

???

Steve.

[cj!]

If Matthew is coming up on the weekend he could bring the flares with him and Greg has his off the car at the moment so we could possibly get them to compare the two especially as I am now looking at them for mine.

[suzook82]

I might take a few pictures of the piranha flare down to the factory tomorrow and see whether he has anything to suit.
All going well this may jog his memory, otherwise it’s back to square one.

[Matthew]

They give around 40-50mm more coverage than stock wt flares. They have Calmini 6002 on the underside of them.

They have 2 types of material, the classic range, which is probably what the "rigid" Calmini flares are made of and the ultraflex that the Piranha flares are made of. They may have given me the wrong flare material. I am yet to call them back but to me it just doesn't seem as soft as it should be. Will definitely call them tomorrow and check.

[suzook82]

Well I went to factory and had a look for myself.
I ended up speaking with Mick who was able to show me one of the flares. At first, when I saw flare I thought he was showing me the 'brittle' version as the flare seem extremely ridged. However, after his demonstration which included jumping on the flare & twisting it about I was convinced in was as described 'indestructible'.
Mick pointed out that they make three versions of the flare. The picture in this post which shows the man depressing the flare with his finger is the version made for America (Calmini). For Australia (Piranha) a little more material is added to help keep its shape ie once loaded with mud etc. And finally, the ARB version which only needs to look at rock to break into a million pieces. Mick advise ARB want this ridged version to draw back customers...... I wonder why?

What was interesting is the company is looking at dealing directly with clubs this could mean a further discount (possibly). I asked Mick to keep me posted as we'd love to have them as one of our 'helpful suppliers/club discounts'

P.s: The flares rock!

[Matthew]

I didn't get around to calling but from what you have said it sounds like I do have the 'indestructible' version. Guess someones going to have to test the theory and rest a car on one.

the flares in the photographs are US made James Duff flares for the 66-77 Ford Bronco.

I think they've just 'borrowed' photos of flares from the web, they've used a picture of the camo calmini sierra with a different style of flare from what they make, could be the mudbusters flares.