Towing a toad to Alaska

I just get gravel and road tar all over my hood when I tow. So far it hasn't hurt the car, it's just a pain to clean it up when I get home.

We saw folks in Whitehorse taking off their stiff across-the-rear mudflaps because they were getting too much damage. We only have flaps behind the tires. We didn't get any damage on our Jeep.

DH put on a large flap at the back of the truck one year when we were towing the fifth wheel north from Vancouver Island. The flap protected the fifth wheel fine BUT rocks bounced around under the truck. Picture it - hundreds of ricocheting rocks rattling around underneath. Had to have the underside of the truck box repaired.

The body shop doing the repair also showed us teeny tiny little paint chips (pin point size) on the exterior of the truck box paint. Not visible to the naked eye, yet. They advised those would eventually rust and be more visible and the paint would start to peel. Thus, we chose to have the whole box repainted before rust set in.

The pinpoint chips were everywhere! The body shop said the ricocheting rocks must have flew out from underneath and hit the side of the truck. Now we tow naked, other than the factory mud flaps on the rear wheel wells.

Trackrig wrote:

I have heard (but never actually talked to them) of people who have the large single flap also on the back of their MH, having it removed because when HM goes over rougher roads that often has pavement breaks, the flap hits the pavement kicking up loose rocks onto the toad.
Bill

I have done three road trips from PA. to AK. I have seen this situation a few times, including one guy who nearly destroyed a Subaru wagon he was flat towing. He had broken the windshield in five places and cracked the headlights. He was mystified as to how he could of sustained such damage, but he had a full flap, hanging low, below the bumper, and a long overhang. I tried to explain it to him, but he looked at me like I was half crazy for saying something so stupid, LOL. Flaps need to be big, and tight to the rear wheels, not out back sweeping gravel up.

We towed a Vue to Alaska in 2008. I didn't put any kind of shield on it on the trip up. When we got to Fairbanks, the engine compartment and the cowling vents had a lot of small pieces of gravel in them. On the return trip, we had ordered a coastline and had it delivered to the shop in Fairbanks that was replacing our DP engine. We used it on the remainder of that trip and a couple of others and sold it with the car. It worked well, but any dirt between the cover and the car would scratch the paint. Kind of a tradeoff. This year, I am not planning to use anything on the replacement Vue. I bought it used, with a rebuilt (salvage) title solely to use as a toad. If it gets dinged up a little, I can always have it painted.

As I remember the Howens (Alaska by RV) installed a board in front of their toad.

pigman1 wrote:
We use one of these Coastline. The Silverado is the 3rd toad we've had covered with these and the second coach using one. I'd buy another when it becomes necessary. No paint damage but we keep these clean front and back. We've got 170,000+ tow miles on these.

This is what we use on our Vue.

We use one of these Coastline. The Silverado is the 3rd toad we've had covered with these and the second coach using one. I'd buy another when it becomes necessary. No paint damage but we keep these clean front and back. We've got 170,000+ tow miles on these.

We're headed down the highway towing a Wrangler Jeep. We sort of looked at a shield in front of the toad to protect it, but couldn't find one we liked. The only one that looked like it would work and was easy to mount, couldn't be mounted on our MH because the exhaust would have melted it. It's a 2002 jeep with 140K miles on it, so a few more rock chips won't rally be noticed if they happen. The rock shield was going to be a little over $200 and a new windshield for the jeep is less than that.

I have heard (but never actually talked to them) of people who have the large single flap also on the back of their MH, having it removed because when HM goes over rougher roads that often has pavement breaks, the flap hits the pavement kicking up loose rocks onto the toad.

And for those towing a Wrangler, look at these.

Jeep Lexan Headlight Clicky

I much prefer H4 lights over sealed beams and being Lexan they'll stand up to a flipped rock a lot better than a glass headlight. I put them in our jeep last week. A non-working headlight from a flipped rock was more of a worry than anything else.

Bill

Not much other than a reasonable hight mud flap on the rear of the motorhome. Onf my 13 round trips by RV to/from Alaska, I have only pulled a tow one time. Most of our trips have been in a Class C and the last 4 have been with a truck camper. The 25+ years I lived in Alaska, I did a lot of towing in state, either a boat or a vehicle behind our RVs. I liked the brush type of mud flaps better than the solid ones, but either need to be up far enough not to drag the ground when you hit a dip or hole in the road.

Some folks like the gravel guards that stretch between the toad and the moho like a blanket, parallel to the ground. Don't know if they are necessary or not, but if a person feels more comfortable with one, go for it. I now have a Jeep Wrangler that I tow here in the lower 48 and with the straight up and down windshield, I have some concerns with it catching a rock or other debris, but I haven't done anything about it.

Some folks just tape some bubble wrap over the glass in front including the headlights and leave it on till they get farther south. Since you have driven the Alaska Hwy in the past you no doubt know the secret to keeping vehicle damage to the absolute minimum is keeping the speed down, coming to a crawl if need be in the construction zones.

Here in Florida, where I now tag my RVs, they require full coverage on glass, so I don't get too concerned and figure if I break some glass, I will have it replaced when I get home. I cracked one windshield in Iowa on the Interstate, in 2004, had it fixed at a glass place in Roundup Montana, then got it cracked again on the Kenai when a guy still running studded tires pased me and threw a stud back. Then on a later trip. 2006, cracked another going into Valdez when I met a dump truck hauling a load of gravel without a cover on it. Other than that, not much in the way of problems. Back before the Alaska Hwy was paved I did break the upper front window in our truck camper, with a rock my pickup front tire slung into the air and I managed to hit it. LOL :P