I used to go off road a lot. Now, I only take a couple of trips a year. What I have found is this, Mud flaps do a great job at keeping the goop (rocks included) off of your truck by comparison to a rig without them. The ones on the Titan are styled in a way that they don’t grab your attention pulling it away from the rest of the trucks great looks. That’s my opinion anyway. As far as ground clearance, I have only ripped off a mud flap once before on another truck and believe me, if your ripping mud flaps off your truck then your probably going to be damaging your rocker panel anyway. “Nurf” bars will minimize this damage as well as save your mud flaps. I think the bottom line is this… get the mud flaps. It’ll keep your Titan looking great for much longer.