Fifth wheel front cap protection

Thank you for your comments. Aside from a screen to protect the radiator, most of you folks travel to Alaska without added protection. I appreciate your feedbacks.

Over the years I have sure seen a lot of "protection idea" mounted on the front of vehicles headed to Alaska, but only on the north bound lane. Many/most of these contraptions got removed and thrown away somewhere on the trip. Many caused more damage than what they prevented. Chicken wire and two by four enclosures were always popular with some. LOL I regret that I never took any photos of some of these.

I put 1/4 inch hardward cloth in behind the grill on my trucks or motorhomes to keep all the bugs and junk out of the radiator. My current truck is wearing a "store bought" screen on the outside like Veebyes mentions. It is not just the small bugs, but at times I have run into swarms of bees and butteflies. Then if you hit somewhere that the cotton wood trees are putting cotton into the air, often in Montana at the right season of summer, then that needs to be kept out of the radiator fins as well.

I also broke the upper front window on a truck camper, with a rock that came off my truck's front tire, We were able to watch the rock get tossed out ahead of us and as in slow motion, we watched it come back and hit the glass above us. Visqueen and duct tape till we could get to a glass shop. This was back before the Alaska Highway was paved. On the lower part of the 5th wheel, under the overhang, I have seen rigs with diamond plate aluminum permanently attached that looks good and offers good protection. Our current 5th wheel has some sort of a poly plastic on that area that looks near to being indestructible. Now we have never hauled this trailer to Alaska but have taken it to western Colorado, Utah and back home with no damage.

Maintaining a speed appropriate to the road conditions, seems to be the only thing a person needs to do to prevent most damage. Remember the road is not moving, only your RV is doing so. How hard the rocks hit is directly related to how fast the RV is going. I have cracked two windshields in the last ten years of driving to Alaska, one in Iowa on an Interstate and one going into Valdez when I met a loaded dump truck running an uncovered load. Both I had fixed at glass repair places and my insurance paid the $35. Many folks just up their insurance glass coverage for the trip and/or get rid of the deductible. Here in Florida, full glass coverage is required for everyone. Before you do too much to protect your headlights, check to see if the covers are glass or plastic. I have never covered my headlights and don't remember ever breaking one, but something that minor I might not have filed it to memory.

Done Alaska twice & gave truck & trailer some protection. You see all kinds of stuff people put on.

The 5er front cap got nothing & got nothing in damage save for a tiny chip that you really have to hunt for. The front of the trailer under the overhang got protection. Taped cardboard covered with bubble wrap to protect it from my own truck even though it does have long mudflaps in the back. Since all of our driving was by day I also taped bubble wrap over the headlights.

Then there are the bugs.......Oh yes, you will kill thousands of them. I did not worry about the trailer front cap but I did worry about bugs going through the grill & lodging for a slow cook in the radiator fins, hardly enhancing the cooling ability of it. The fix for that was sinple & cheap. Good old house nylon screen wire cut to fit the grill & zip tied to it.

The daily collection of bugs, & there were many, was brushed off at the end of each day with the snow brush. 6 years later that screen is still there keeping my radiator clean & efficient.

Our fifth wheel and truck camper have no special protection. Nor does the truck. The main highways are paved with gravel in construction zones only, through which we go slow. We also go slow when we're on the backroads (where there usually isn't any traffic).

We did have one of the overhead bunk windows get broken in the motorhome on one of our winter trips. Hills are gravelled in Yukon winters and flying rocks are common then. A semi-truck was climbing up the hill from Donjek River while we were going down the hill. It threw a rock that broke the overhead bunk window. Plywood and duct tape did the job until we got home.

Bugs wash off. While stopped at Haines Jct one trip, another traveller commented he felt bad for all the bugs he was killing. I told him we encourage tourists to kill insects...if it wasn't for all the tourists on the highway the bugs could be real bad!

We have made 8 trips in the past 7 years. I have not found any damage to the truck outside of small stone damage to the lower part of the trailer from stuff tossed up by the drive wheels. I have had greater damage on the Interstates and Federal Highways from thrown debris and unmarked chuck holes. I would guess that puts me at about 48,000 miles to and from. Others such as joe b and sue t may have a lot more miles and experience, but I have not heard them doing anything special.

We still see some units with all sorts of nets and frames and such draped over the fronts, but it is not 1964 any more. Enjoy the trip and don't worry about it.

Sorry for the mistake in the topic. I meant to write fifth wheel. I believe the auto correct did a job on me. I am looking for ways to protect my fifth wheel cap and the front of my pickup truck.

johnna wrote:
Use the same precautions as you use in the lower 48 to avoid vehicle damage. Nothing else is needed.

I agree. It is a LONG trip, but damage per mile is no worse that lower 48.

OP wrote:
Front wheel cap protection

I'm assuming that your title is what you're asking about though the text of your question seems to be referring to the body part (front cap, not the front axles wheel cap)

Adding protection to dust caps on wheels is a good idea whether in Alaska or any place else where you travel on gravel. Probably the BEST protection you can get is to cover the wheel dust caps with solid hub caps. If you can't do that then you're pretty much leaving it to chance. When rocks hit the dust covers is WILL remove them. I ended up traveling almost 600 miles with no dust cap on my trailer because it was knocked off by rocks.

I suppose if you want to grind off the hubs enough to remove ALL grease you might help some by duct taping around the edges but probably won't survive much wet weather.

Good luck / Skip

Use the same precautions as you use in the lower 48 to avoid vehicle damage. Nothing else is needed.