Flying rocks while towing...

[Power Wagon]

I just put on some new Cooper M+S 's on the rear of my truck... great wet traction, quiet and even nice solid feeling in the gravel... BUT, with thier gazillion small voids, they pick up and throw gravel like a fiend.



What's the best way of stopping the thrown gravel from hitting the trailer? I've seen these things that look like brushes handing off the back of the truck that come close to touching the ground... Do they work? How about double strength?



I could put the big rubber mudflaps on, but I've driven by those things on other rigs and see them deflect thrown gravel right into an oncoming or passed/passing vehicle. Not to mention, they tend to "sail" a bit in the wind and leave an area open for gravel to fly through.



The wife just made the official request to work in Alaska this summer, ending early August, so it looks like we just might make the trip this summer to the great north. In which case I MUST have an effective gravel deflection system in place.



Your experiences are appreciated.

 

[Boldt's Wagon]

I built my removable stone guards. On my 97, the hitch receiver has 2 inch (inside) square tubing for the horizontal. I bought some scrap 2 inch aluminum angle iron and some scrap belting. The angle iron slides into the hitch receiver on each side. The belting is bolted to the angle with an aluminum strap as a clamp. The belting is about 18 inches wide with 4-5 inches sticking out wider than the tires on each side. This extra width catchs the stones that deflect at a slight angle and would hit the 8 foot wide trailer. I carved the belting to curve up to the top of the bumper on the outside of the bumper. The belting under the bumper is just high enough to catch the underside of the bumper and prevents the assembly from sliding out of the receiver unless you press down on the belting. No bolts or keepers are required to keep the stone guards in place. The stone guards are installed or taken off in a minute or so.

 

[Larry Willard]

I use mud flaps with weights and anti sail brackets. The length is set so that the flaps are only about 1 1/2 inches off the road when the trailer is hooked up. Seems to work pretty good, they don't move much at all when running.

Larry

 

[Doug]

I use the Ultra Guard mud flap. I have it mounted on the rear bumper. I feel that as it is a solid one piece flap that covers the entire width of the truck, it does a superior job compared to individual tire flaps. It is also thick and heavy enough that it does not appear to sail to any great degree.

Doug

 

[chuck3]

Flaps.

I did the same as Boldt's except I used 2in angle iron to slip in the sides of hitch and drilled small holes and put a bungie cord to hold the two together from slidding back out, stenciled a silver Rams head on the flaps and had lots of compliments on them.

 

[Royal]

Re: Flaps.

A company named ROAD WING makes what you are looking for.

Check www.roadwing.com or 1-888-548-6336.

 

[WCrovo]

I use rocksolid brand from camping world. They work good, better than I expected. What I will get someday are those nice ones from Northwest Custom. They are awesome. The problem with the Rocksolids is there is no paint protection on the bed and my truck is getting bad. If I had to do it again I would spend the bucks at NW Custom.

 

[Deezul1]

A friend with a motor home used the belt type guard across the full width of the motorhome and noticed quite a drop in fuel economy and then went to the brush type and got his mileage back.

 

[Larv]

I had my trlr dlr install Diamond Plate across the front of my trlr, 28" high. It doesn't protect the trlr tongue/frame dut does protect the painte front of the trlr and it looks nice too.

Larv