Adding rear rock guard

CA Traveler wrote:


The Protect A Tow is the best device.

Ditto...our works great and protects the tow bar and cables too!

The vertical shields can and do reflect rocks forward, especially not good for rear radiators. The rear bumper flaps serve only one purpose which is advertising and public relations. In addition they can and do cause rocks to fly up to the toad.

The Protect A Tow is the best device.

We use a homemade version of the protect a tow and it has worked well for our last 2 motorhomes. I tend to agree the rear mud flap on pushers create more of a problem w/kicking up debris from the road. The only stone chip we had on our last toad occurred when the wife was driving it during the winter months.

We didn't have a rock guard on our trip to Alaska. We were in a campground in Whitehorse, Yukon and there were quite a lot of folks removing them because they were getting so much damage. We looked over their damage and it was amazing - all on the hoods and windshields. We didn't receive any dings on our Jeep.

On the Alaska drive you actually drive on long construction areas of mud and rock not solely on smooth pavement.

Later on as we were driving through Salt Lake City on a very rainy day - just for the heck of it I began watching motorhomes heading in the opposite direction. Those with a rock guard had a arc of water hitting the hood and windshields of their towed. Those without a rock guard had the much lower arc of water hitting around the tire area.

Fiesta wrote:
In my opinion a rear mud/rock guards help very little. My toad gets small rocks all over it every rain storm behind our 41' DP. I've seen pics where 1-2" rocks pile up on the toad windshield. I took it off my last 36' gasser and the trailer we pulled got no more damage/mud than with it. Gassers mud guard was solidly mounted and was very un-aerodynamic. DP's mud flap (no more effective) at least sways with the wind.

I disagree. The guard serves a purpose. One reason I noticed on Our's it keeps stuff from getting thrown into the radiator. There are two hoses and a middle aluminum connector that I asume runs coolant under our radiator. If road derby hit that we'd be in trouble.

Not saying it doesn't kick up dirt and small stones, but I've never had that problem with our last two toads.

IMHO mud flaps behind the rear wheels work much better than the rock guards which tend to kick up rocks on a gravel road every time you hit a dip. The aforementioned Kar-Gard and Protect A Tow work better than a rock guard by far.

In my opinion a rear mud/rock guards help very little. My toad gets small rocks all over it every rain storm behind our 41' DP. I've seen pics where 1-2" rocks pile up on the toad windshield. I took it off my last 36' gasser and the trailer we pulled got no more damage/mud than with it. Gassers mud guard was solidly mounted and was very un-aerodynamic. DP's mud flap (no more effective) at least sways with the wind.

Do a search using "Protect-A-Tow" on this forum. You'll find a lot of very good comments about it. My experience has been very good.

Dave

I use the Blue Ox Kar-Gard but don't know how it works with other tow bars other than Blue Ox. I have been happy with it.