I have done two lengthy tours and commuted for years on 700 x 35 tires with the appropriate Bontrager fenders. They worked well in rain but when locking the bike to a rack the single soft steel wire or rod brace on each side of the front fender easily gets deformed such that the fender rubs against the tire. Also they clog easily with mud, necessitating removing the wheels to scrape the mud (or dried mud later) off of the fenders.
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This here is my latest project, a commuter now but likely to be the bike on my next tour; a '95 RockHopper with some 26" custom-built wheels I had.
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...and see...
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My preferred tires are 26x2.0 Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tours; about as bulletproof as a tire can be with a good road/offroad tread. Over them I have squeezed in SKS P65 fenders, the widest I could find that would fit, set as high as possible so as not to bind with mud. I have found they block the rain well, and though I have ridden through the brief stretches of dirt/mud on my 10 mile morning commute, they have yet to bind with mud.
Also, and this is important, they have two supports on each side to the Bontrager design's one, and the steel support rods on the SKS seem to be made of sterner stuff than the Bontragers. Sure is nice not having to bend the fenders back into place a couple of times a week. In fact it hasn't happened at all yet.
Mike
Mike