It’s located just in front of the fibrous sounded deadening piece (which I’ve already removed). The wife has said the part that hangs down is pushed down even further when traveling down the road as seen when she followed me previously. It’s made from the same material as the sound deadening “diaper” as well. What is this thing, what does it do, and is it necessary?

 

Its a splash shield.

 

It's not attached correctly. The "flap" you see hanging down should be above the metal power steering guard

 

I saw and heard that thing shoot out the back of the truck on a rather high speed run one afternoon. lol

 

Thanks!

Ah thanks! That makes sense. I thought it looked strange. I'll tuck it up there later today.

lol. Any negative impact to your truck with it coming off? Or did you buy a replacement?

 

I figured if it happened once it would happen again...never replaced it.

 

It's mostly for noise abatement and aerodynamics.

 

The metal shield in the middle saved me yesterday morning on my way to work. Trucking along on the highway at 70mph when the car ahead of me swerved to miss an empty 5 gallon pail. I was right there behind him with a car next to me so I could not swerve. Hit the pail head on, heard a bang, saw two halves on the road behind me. The car behind me hit one of the halves which got stuck under the front bumper. They had to pull over. I put the truck up on ramps last night and no damage to the fiber shield. There were light scrape marks on the air dam and white colored scrapes on the metal shield shown in the picture. The shield does seem to have a functional purpose as I was afraid the pail would have gotten into the plastic oil pan or the fiber shield.

 

Wow that could have been bad! Glad there was no major damage.

 

Update: got it put back into place. Had to take out the front 2 mounting boots in order to get it to flex enough.