hood bra?

[jdarin]

I have a Leisure Travel Free Spirit SS, Mercedes Sprinter. Do I need to cover the hood? And what about deflecting rocks away from the windshield? What do the rest of you do? This will be my first time driving through Alaska.

[rafo]

check your insurance. if you chip or damage the windshield it could be inexpensive or free to get replaced.

as mentioned, avoid the bra too. I find you are better off saving that money to respray or fix later. The bras are ugly too. Enjoy RVing and put aside some maintenance cash for down the road.

[AKSuperDually]

Avoid a Bra....I did it once, our first trip up the Alcan in 2002. The the end of the trip up, we had ruined the paint on a brand new vehicle.

It WILL collect sand and rocks, and WILL ruin your paint underneath.

Gimmick and hype. Avoid them.

[pigman1]

We use the Bra's from Coastline RV and Offload We've had their bra's on 3 toads and 2 Busses and couldn't be more pleased. Six trips to Alaska since 2006 and about 100 miles on gravel each trip. We do NOT get any damage to the toad paint as a result of the bra being on because we clean the bra between uses and don't put on a wet sandy bra. If we get another toad, it'll have one too. By the way, if they don't have one that'll fit your car, they'll custom make one for your car/RV if you bring it to them. We've done that 3 times out of the 5 bra's we've bought from them.

[sue_t]

Been living here three years and don't have a cracked windshield on my car.

With the truck we made six trips up and down the Alaska & Cassiar Highways, plus it has lived here for three years and it doesn't have a broken windshield but does have a chip.

The other car developed a crack BUT the originating chip happened on Vancouver Island in southern British Columbia.

On one of our winter trips with the Class C the overhead bunk window was broken by a rock tossed by a semi climbing the Donjek hill that had just been gravelled after a snow fall. A bit of plywood and duct tape fixed that until we got home to Vancouver Island.

[Grit_dog]

Well I'm an AK rookie, but somehow with 2 trips up the Alcan and a combined 25-30k mi on both trucks over the last year in AK I've managed to not have any broken windshields and the same or less rock chips than living in any other rural snowy area.
The bra will just ruin your paint anyway. Worse than a few rock chips.
IMO get packin and don't worry about your hood.
PS don't call me for a replacement windshield though. They don't call them Alaskan windshields up here for nothin!

[explorenorth]

Wind River wrote:
The road is paved all the way to Alaska with some construction sites just like in the US.

I've had a bad month - 5 breaks in my windshield. Two in construction areas, 3 on paved highways with rocks coming out of nowhere. Probably the worst month in my 25 years in the Yukon. Usually you'll be lucky, but sometimes not. If there's a hood-mounted rock deflector for your rig, I consider it to be good insurance.

[Wind_River]

The road is paved all the way to Alaska with some construction sites just like in the US.