Protecting The Truck

Most posts here on spot on with recommendations and input....

I only use a cheap effective one quarter inch wire mesh that is sold at the hardware store on a roll (three feet wide), and cut to length to buy by the foot.....

Once I pre-measure the area I want to cover on the front grille, I fold the wire mesh in half to make it even stronger as it narrows the one quarter inch square gap even smaller (while leaving the folded uncut side on the top) so to not be exposed to the sharp ends, in which I tuck in the cut edged side underneath the front bumper so it is not exposed, and zip tie onto the front of the grille itself.

Real effective upon :

Durable against striking with large or small rocks and debris, fully protecting the radiator especially against small pea gravel thru construction zones....

Still having unrestricted full flow of air to the radiator....

Radiator core will not build up with bugs and other debris and is easy access directly in front of grille to clean any buildup on the screen mesh in place....

Mesh screen on my 1970 camper rig :



Mesh screen on my 1973 truck rig :



Mesh screen on my 1975 truck rig :



The one element you cannot control is the oncoming traffic thru construction zones and unpaved road surfaces by the careless commercial and passenger vehicle drivers who tend to be in a constant hurry as gravel, flying dirt and debris will spray across your rig after crossing paths with these idiots....I will turn my rig to the far right towards the shoulder and almost stop completely when safe to do so, in order to minimize debris from directly striking the front of my rig and windshield from the speeding careless drivers on these unpaved surfaces.

Here is an example using your imagination of oncoming traffic driving fast in this kind of stretch at a high rate of speed, which can cause damage to radiators without additional protection and potentially damage windshields....

Sep 2013 - Mile 336 Alaska Hwy - Northern British Columbia Canada :


Just my camper rig alone, I have exactly 46,009.2 miles logged in the 20.5 summer season years of ownership as this rig is strictly my one and only designated RV camper vehicle.

I can estimate a conservative number approximately a minimum of 20 percent of log travel total (at least 9200 miles) driven on unpaved road surfaces and buckled frost heaves throughout Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, and Alberta.

jnharley wrote:
Our damage came on good paved road just about 30 miles north of Dawson Creek. We had a cracked windshield and dents in both the truck hood and the front cap of the 5th wheel. A gravel truck going the opposite direction lost some of its load and it hit our truck. We had the damage to the truck repaired after returning to the lower 48 and not more than a couple months later, we were hit by a rock on the interstate and the windshield was broken again. So damage can happen anywhere. That was the only damage we had and we did not meet anyone else who had damage. We were just unlucky.

OK folks, I am going to give out some serious advice on what jnharley posted and what I am going to be preaching here....

What happened to me in September 2011 was practically identical, which it happened 12 miles north of Dawson Creek also on a clear paved roadway as this stupid gravel dump truck with a full load NOT covered at all crossed paths headed southbound around 65 mph and me moving northbound as my windshield got violently hit with more likely a gravel rock as I never saw the debris, glass fragments spread all over the front seat and hit me and my cat in the process, as my cat was so startled she was trying to jump out of her harness she was so scared (sitting on her pillow on top of the generator box which is setup on the passenger side seat), and I was concerned if any glass got in her eyes as I was wearing UV shades when the impact happened....

The traffic was so busy during mid afternoon travelling thru there I could not turn around and attempt to chase the truck down, let alone if I could track the careless driver down at that....I drove straight to Ft. St. John non stop to Walmart and purchased some strong postal clear packaging tape (which one should have onhand) and patched up what I could for the duration home....also purchased a couple towels to place on the dash as the rains had allowed water thru the damaged windshield - I just thanked the lord I did not get potentially killed by the incident - totally unexpected and I am sure it happens more often than one would tend to believe with uncovered loads in the area with so many commercial trucks in the gas industry commuting there.

Sep 2011 - Mile 14 Alaska Hwy - Central British Columbia Canada -windshield damage 3 minutes after impact- :


Glass fragments scattered on pillow and bench seat :



Since 2008 I became aware of all the gas wells and economy boom they had in the central BC area as the whole Peace River district region there had grown substantially...it was a culture shock not seeing the area between 1991 and 2008 with all the changes and population growth in that 17 year gap....I also took note how busy the Alaska Highway was with the commercial gas well equipment related traffic during the summer especially in September as they are gearing up for winter while staging and hauling more equipment around.

Ever since the ordeal that happened to me, I vowed NEVER ever again commute between the Taylor and Dawson Creek areas during mid morning and late afternoons where those dump trucks are hauling the most.....I have arrived thru there late evenings or at night ever since, especially where there is road construction areas there and it was pretty bad in 2016 within the region on the Alaska Highway between mile 20 and mile 38 portion of areas where they have four lane widening projects here and there.

One service that the protective contraptions do
is provide a laugh for the natives.
I asked about headlight covers in Whitehorse,
the Ford parts guy laughed and said" we only sell those to tourists"!

On our trip we saw a few times as we traveled a guy with a truck who fashioned a chain link fence from his bumper to extend higher than his windshield.

Can you imagine experiencing the beauty of the trip looking through a chain link fence? Plus, that would keep boulders from hitting the windshield but not the road gravel!! :) Folks just shook their head when viewing this contraption.

Slow down! Remember, on gravel if a truck or fast moving vehicle approaches, just stop. Damage occurs when your vehicle runs into an air borne rock- not when that rock hits your vehicle. If you are stopped and an air borne rock hits your vehicle, it will not hurt it. It is only when you run into that rock going fast is there damage.

DownTheAvenue wrote:
Slow down! Remember, on gravel if a truck or fast moving vehicle approaches, just stop. Damage occurs when your vehicle runs into an air borne rock- not when that rock hits your vehicle. If you are stopped and an air borne rock hits your vehicle, it will not hurt it. It is only when you run into that rock going fast is there damage.

Or when you get rear-ended by the vehicle behind you.

Sea Dog wrote:
One service that the protective contraptions do
is provide a laugh for the natives.
I asked about headlight covers in Whitehorse,
the Ford parts guy laughed and said" we only sell those to tourists"!

Totally, seen a few contraptions up there or on the way that gave a good chuckle.
Yes there are a few gravel stretches under construction. Yes the TOW hwy, Denali hwy etc are gravel, but idk what make people think it's different than anywhere else.
Use some common sense and don't take a vehicle you can't handle a few rock chips on.
Overall it's a mellow easy drive. Only thing that got me on my toes was hitting that area in.....wherever .....where the bison sit on the road.....at dusk!
Come flyin around a corner and here's a dozen big brown "rocks" in the road! They didn't move, had to weave thru them and it kept me awake pretty well for the next couple hours!

The only thing I plan to do when we go is to put a tube front guard on the truck to help prevent animals from hitting the truck. Some of those have built in headlight and grill guards/screens, but I want one for the lower 48 too.

tinner12002 wrote:
The only thing I plan to do when we go is to put a tube front guard on the truck to help prevent animals from hitting the truck. Some of those have built in headlight and grill guards/screens, but I want one for the lower 48 too.

Make sure it is very well made and solidly mounted, many brush guards cause more damage than not having one. We have big animals (moose) that are tall enough to fold the top of the guard over into the grill/radiator area.