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As far as I am concerned the XL version doesn't provide any better benefit than the standard wide version. The reason is neither of them are low enough to stop the debris. I installed the original ACS guards on my 15 Z06/Z07 and found it didn't totally stop debris from hitting the rear quarter, brake vents and the rear of the door. I used my iPhone to take a picture from the entry of the brake duct toward the point where the wheel touched the floor. With the ACS guard installed and with a stock side skirt in place there was a direct visual path from the duct entrance to the tire. It went under the ACS guard and over the side skirt. The ACS guards need to be an inch or two lower to prevent debris from being thrown tangentially from the tire into the duct/rear quarter/door area. Remember from high school physics class when debris is thrown from something that is traveling in a circle (such as a tire) it is thrown at a tangent that is directly parallel to the path of the point on the circle it was at the instant it is thrown/released.
The green taped area is the ACS Mud Guard (not the XL version), the red arrow points to where the tire is touching the ground, the green outlined triangle just above the red arrow shows the area of the tire where it just rotates off the ground when the tire is rolling and the green outlined area above that is the remainder of the tire that is visible from the duct. When the car is rolling forward the rolling tire lifts off the ground and can throw debris tangentially from the green outline triangle area right into the duct and things around it. As you can see making the ACS guard wider (XL version) does nothing to block debris thrown tangentially out of the small triangle area. As the tire rotates further up the tangential path is less important because it starts to pass over the car Vs into the side.
When I originally installed the front guards I thought the standard GM guards would work in the rear but realized too late out the rear fascia wheel well opening stuck out about an 1/8 of an inch past the edge of the stock guard. It didn't take long for that small edge to get sand blasted to a white color which shows up quite a bit on a black car. Since my impact with the wall at VIR I now have a brand new rear fascia and have purchased the ACS guards for the rear. Other than damage right on the leading edge of the wheel well opening there was no other road debris damage to the rear fascia.
In the front the only solution to stop debris thrown onto the side of the car is to make them yourself. As for the people who haven't installed anything or say the ACS guards plus sideskirts worked they just haven't driven their cars fast enough/long enough for the debris to damage the paint. However, even low mile cars can show damage if the owner looks close enough because the damage starts out as very small sand pebble size chips in the clear coat that eventually build up enough to make the paint look dull/cloudy as the paint goes from a 3 inch to a 10 ft view. At that point the only solution is a repaint.
As far as I am concerned the XL version doesn't provide any better benefit than the standard wide version. The reason is neither of them are low enough to stop the debris. I installed the original ACS guards on my 15 Z06/Z07 and found it didn't totally stop debris from hitting the rear quarter, brake vents and the rear of the door. I used my iPhone to take a picture from the entry of the brake duct toward the point where the wheel touched the floor. With the ACS guard installed and with a stock side skirt in place there was a direct visual path from the duct entrance to the tire. It went under the ACS guard and over the side skirt. The ACS guards need to be an inch or two lower to prevent debris from being thrown tangentially from the tire into the duct/rear quarter/door area. Remember from high school physics class when debris is thrown from something that is traveling in a circle (such as a tire) it is thrown at a tangent that is directly parallel to the path of the point on the circle it was at the instant it is thrown/released.
The green taped area is the ACS Mud Guard (not the XL version), the red arrow points to where the tire is touching the ground, the green outlined triangle just above the red arrow shows the area of the tire where it just rotates off the ground when the tire is rolling and the green outlined area above that is the remainder of the tire that is visible from the duct. When the car is rolling forward the rolling tire lifts off the ground and can throw debris tangentially from the green outline triangle area right into the duct and things around it. As you can see making the ACS guard wider (XL version) does nothing to block debris thrown tangentially out of the small triangle area. As the tire rotates further up the tangential path is less important because it starts to pass over the car Vs into the side.
When I originally installed the front guards I thought the standard GM guards would work in the rear but realized too late out the rear fascia wheel well opening stuck out about an 1/8 of an inch past the edge of the stock guard. It didn't take long for that small edge to get sand blasted to a white color which shows up quite a bit on a black car. Since my impact with the wall at VIR I now have a brand new rear fascia and have purchased the ACS guards for the rear. Other than damage right on the leading edge of the wheel well opening there was no other road debris damage to the rear fascia.
In the front the only solution to stop debris thrown onto the side of the car is to make them yourself. As for the people who haven't installed anything or say the ACS guards plus sideskirts worked they just haven't driven their cars fast enough/long enough for the debris to damage the paint. However, even low mile cars can show damage if the owner looks close enough because the damage starts out as very small sand pebble size chips in the clear coat that eventually build up enough to make the paint look dull/cloudy as the paint goes from a 3 inch to a 10 ft view. At that point the only solution is a repaint.
Bill
That's why I have the entire car wrapped with PPF. The splash guards and the side skirts are just added [ extra ] protection to go along with the PPF. I wouldn't just rely on the splash guards and side skirts, because like you said eventually your going to get rock chips etc.
