Forum Discussion

Sandy___Shirley's avatar
Sandy___Shirley
Explorer
May 05, 2015

Mud Flap

We have owned our new motor home for 1 month and 1 day now. Still waiting for RV.net to fix the My Preferences link so I can update my signature (hint,hint).

It came with a full width mud flap with the name Georgetown on it, but it was not installed by the dealer. We can’t tow yet until the break-in mileage is complete, but we’re sure that it would look nice from behind the motor home, and protect the cars who are following us.


Asking the group if installing it permanently is a good or bad idea. It is heavy if we decide to install it only when towing. It is also full width and would be difficult to store when not in use.


We’ve seen quotes on line like: “I understand that a full length mud flap across the rear of the coach may do more harm than good.” and “I have been towing for over a year and have only the factory mud flaps. I have no marks or chips on my toad and I have been on many gravel roads.”


Again, asking others: Would you have the full width mud flap installed permanently, install it myself only while towing then take it off and store it after each toad trip, or just either toss it away or save it for a later sale of motor home?

Thanks in advance for any replies!
Class A
  • jwmII's avatar
    jwmII
    Explorer
    May 06, 2015
    They look nice and give the rear end of the motor home a nice finished look. They are heavy and there in lies a problem. We all try to avoid running over alligators (truck cast off treads)but once in a while traffic can be such that the flap is going to get drug over some kind of road trash. Those flaps with the chrome or stainless name plate mounted on the bottom of it can be knocked loose either totally or in part and wreak havoc with the motor home, the towing equipment and possibly the vehicle being towed. I prefer the rock solid curtain as most road junk will brush under it. It does not give the nice look of the other but does a decent job. I have yet to get any chips on the front of my toad using it.
  • obgraham's avatar
    obgraham
    Explorer
    May 06, 2015
    Converse view here. Full width flap caused me nothing but trouble. Stirred up rocks. Came partly off three times, despite trying several different heights by adjusting the clevis pins and hooks.

    After the third dislodgement I tossed it in a dumpster in Carlisle PA. Life was a lot better after that, and the toad was cleaner.

    Useless piece of junk designed simply to "look good" in my opinion!
  • subtroll's avatar
    subtroll
    Explorer
    May 07, 2015
    In MHO solid board mud guards act more like "scrapers" than guards and cause more damage than good. When we purchased our coach in 2004 we had Lazy Days install a ($100) Rock Solid shield on our coach. We have since towed more than 100k miles in every state(except Hawaii) and every Canadian province and have had zero damage to our "Toads".

    In 2007 on a caravan to Alaska we traveled with friends with a higher end coach but similar size coach. We traveled the same roads at the same speed, day after day. On the worst roads their ($500) solid board "scraper" with "Zephyr" on it, dug up rocks that by days end covered the toad hood and roof with small rocks. Our Toad had only dust.
  • tinkerer's avatar
    tinkerer
    Explorer
    May 07, 2015
    I think it depends on your motorhome design. I put one on my Discovery and it was nothing but trouble and served very little purpose. This motorhome might be lower in the rear compared to others. On the other hand the regular flaps behind the rear wheels only covered half of the dual wheels. I put extensions so it covers the whole dual wheel and that has helped.:)
  • sailor_lou's avatar
    sailor_lou
    Explorer
    May 07, 2015
    Ours came with both ridged flaps directly behind the rear tires and the large one across the back of the rig. Based on what I have read I believe the key is that it is hung at the correct height. If high, stones fly under them like they are not even there and if too low, it appears they kick up small objects from the road. From what I have observed a 4"-5" clearance at normal ride height on a flat surface is a pretty good location.

    Lou
    05 Travel Supreme Envoy
  • DrewE's avatar
    DrewE
    Explorer II
    May 07, 2015
    My motorhome has a full-width broom or grass skirt sort mudflap thingy across the back. Since I've yet to tow anything with it, nor driven without it, i can't say whether it's effective or not, but it would seem to be far less likely to stir up stones and stuff when it does tickle the ground.
  • 2gypsies1's avatar
    2gypsies1
    Explorer III
    May 07, 2015
    We actually saw folks removing them while on our trip to Alaska. We saw the damage they caused on the gravel roads - a layer of 1" rocks laying at the base of their windshield.

    We didn't have the stiff mud flap. We only had the flaps behind each tire. We didn't receive any damage on our towed vehicle.

    Later on, for lack of anything better to do on a heavily-raining day driving on I-15 in Utah, I watched the opposing traffic of motorhomes towing. The ones with the big flaps had a arc of water hitting the hood of the towed. The ones without a flap had the shooting out at the tire level.
  • rgatijnet1's avatar
    rgatijnet1
    Explorer III
    May 07, 2015
    2gypsies wrote:
    We actually saw folks removing them while on our trip to Alaska. We saw the damage they caused on the gravel roads - a layer of 1" rocks laying at the base of their windshield.

    We didn't have the stiff mud flap. We only had the flaps behind each tire. We didn't receive any damage on our towed vehicle.

    Later on, for lack of anything better to do on a heavily-raining day driving on I-15 in Utah, I watched the opposing traffic of motorhomes towing. The ones with the big flaps had a arc of water hitting the hood of the towed. The ones without a flap had the shooting out at the tire level.


    Do you mean roads like this in Alaska? If you look closely you can see the rocks at the base of the windshield and even see a few on the roof. Naturally the windshield was all chipped in addition to the headlights being broken out. This was with a full width mud flap that was taken off too late. Road damage with a full width mud flap
  • soren's avatar
    soren
    Explorer
    May 08, 2015
    rgatijnet1 wrote:
    2gypsies wrote:
    We actually saw folks removing them while on our trip to Alaska. We saw the damage they caused on the gravel roads - a layer of 1" rocks laying at the base of their windshield.

    We didn't have the stiff mud flap. We only had the flaps behind each tire. We didn't receive any damage on our towed vehicle.

    Later on, for lack of anything better to do on a heavily-raining day driving on I-15 in Utah, I watched the opposing traffic of motorhomes towing. The ones with the big flaps had a arc of water hitting the hood of the towed. The ones without a flap had the shooting out at the tire level.


    Do you mean roads like this in Alaska? If you look closely you can see the rocks at the base of the windshield and even see a few on the roof. Naturally the windshield was all chipped in addition to the headlights being broken out. This was with a full width mud flap that was taken off too late. Road damage with a full width mud flap


    I pulled into a gas station on the Kenai, and saw a Subaru wagon that looked even worse that the pic. you posted. The headlights were gone and the windshield was cracked in five places. The guy was pulling the car with an old class A with a huge tail overhang, and a flap that was about 2" off the road, while parked on level concrete. When I suggested that the mud flap was the issue, he looked at me like I was Forrest Gump....... Oh well, you can't fix stupid, LOL
  • 2gypsies1's avatar
    2gypsies1
    Explorer III
    May 08, 2015
    soren wrote:
    rgatijnet1 wrote:
    2gypsies wrote:
    We actually saw folks removing them while on our trip to Alaska. We saw the damage they caused on the gravel roads - a layer of 1" rocks laying at the base of their windshield.

    We didn't have the stiff mud flap. We only had the flaps behind each tire. We didn't receive any damage on our towed vehicle.

    Later on, for lack of anything better to do on a heavily-raining day driving on I-15 in Utah, I watched the opposing traffic of motorhomes towing. The ones with the big flaps had a arc of water hitting the hood of the towed. The ones without a flap had the shooting out at the tire level.


    Do you mean roads like this in Alaska? If you look closely you can see the rocks at the base of the windshield and even see a few on the roof. Naturally the windshield was all chipped in addition to the headlights being broken out. This was with a full width mud flap that was taken off too late. Road damage with a full width mud flap


    I pulled into a gas station on the Kenai, and saw a Subaru wagon that looked even worse that the pic. you posted. The headlights were gone and the windshield was cracked in five places. The guy was pulling the car with an old class A with a huge tail overhang, and a flap that was about 2" off the road, while parked on level concrete. When I suggested that the mud flap was the issue, he looked at me like I was Forrest Gump....... Oh well, you can't fix stupid, LOL


    Yes, the picture posted is somewhat like we saw but there were a lot more rocks laying at the windshield. There were some mighty unhappy campers taking off their mud flaps.

    This was a construction area and one that couldn't be avoided. Everyone drove through it but not everyone had the damage.

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