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Chaz59's avatar
Chaz59
Explorer
Sep 18, 2016

rock put a hole in my new travel trailer..help

I have a small forest river trailer, with no diamond plate rock guard.
How should I try to patch or cover a 1 inch long gash in the front of my trailer.
I checked ,they do not make an after market protector for this unit, my guess is the only thing I can do is put some type of rockguard on my truck ,like a mud flap that goes all the across.

any suggestions?

thanks

8 Replies

  • donn0128 wrote:
    Patch then have a sheet metal shop fab a diamond plate rock guard for the front. Not cheap, but permanent.


    Get a fiberglass repair kit at any car parts dealer. Fix the hole, as smoothly as possible on the outside. Keep the water and bugs out.

    Then, follow the above. Get diamond plate rock guard,. of suffecient thickness.
  • Thanks for all the info , ft worth is close having sheet metal formed sounds like a great option. You guys are great!
  • Our trailer is currently being repaired for a rock in the side (from a lawnmower, not a car). It's not a cheap repair. In our case, the rock went through the exterior, the plywood, the insulation, and cracked the interior panel (it's in the garage portion of our toy hauler). It's $2,600, mostly in labor.

    To help prevent the type of issue you are having, we have Rock Tamers on our truck.
  • When we punched a hole in the front of our TT with the tail fin of our 1960 Country Squire, we covered it with a (well sealed) patch cut from scrap of aluminum siding. We made it a name tag.

    The don't much do aluminum siding anymore, but a piece of PVC siding material, or any opaque HDPE, might work. Depending on what we were patching, sometimes the one-gallon rectangular tins used for stuff like Coleman fuel, paint thinner, or turpentine were good sources of patch material, although not as well finished as aluminum siding.
  • About $40 for a 8 x 1 sheet of painted aluminum (.05).

    $50 for plain 5052 .125

    $60 for .125 floor plate

    Hope this helps.

    BTW, Discount Steel has a facility in Fort Worth, if that is close. The Mpls facility has a fab shop that can cut, roll, form. I shop the cutoffs section for plate and sheet. It is sold by the pound when sold as offall.
  • X2
    donn0128 wrote:
    Patch then have a sheet metal shop fab a diamond plate rock guard for the front. Not cheap, but permanent.
  • Patch then have a sheet metal shop fab a diamond plate rock guard for the front. Not cheap, but permanent.
  • Get some kind of temporary patch on it for now, to prevent water damage or whatever. Gorilla tape is good; it even comes in white, black, or clear. That will give you time to research and consider a permanent solution. Good luck!