I am looking at this as 2-day trip because of the location of the trail. I have to drive 3.5 to 4 hours to get to the trail head. If I wanted to make it to a day trip, that's almost total 8 hours of driving. After 8 hrs of driving, not much day light is left to wheel or do anything...

Removing step rails and mud flaps is just suggested. If you want to keep them on, you can do that, of course.