Mud Guards/brooms vs Mud flaps

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
SWNimz

SWNimz

Active member
Joined
May 17, 2011
Posts
44
Location
Northern California
Just had a not so nice experience towing for the first long trip my smart car.  Half way between Winnemucca and Boise they were repairing the road. Tar and gravel.  I kept a decent distance to the cars and trucks in front of me and did not seem to hear any rocks on the front of my 40' dp.  An hour or so later I stopped to walk the monsters and checked the toad.  The whole hood, both fenders and some of the windshield had major to middle damage.  I always thought that the mud flap advertising "Damon" so well was to keep this from happening.  Met a fellow Rv'r later that trip and he said he took his mud flap off and put mud flaps just behind the tires and this worked much better at keeping the road off his toad.  I will be getting a full bra for the front of the Smart car now but the damage is done.  Any thoughts about cures and or why the flap? 

 
The height of the rear flap is critical. Too low and it actually dredges up loose gravel, while too high and it is nothing but decoration. I would guess at 2.5-3" as the optimal road clearance, but don't have any data to back that up. Even then, at speed the flap can stir up loose gravel.

Nor do I think that the rear flap is a substitute for wheel flaps. Most higher end models have both.
 
There is a formula that D.O.T. uses from rear of tire to height off road .Don't remember what it is but I'm sure some of the truck drivers here will
 
Thanks guys.  Going to get a full bra for the smart car next time I hit road repair like that it's unhook and put it in front of the moho.
 
We have both the rear wheel mud flaps and the Tuscany rear flap, mounted just several inches off the ground on our Tuscany. We have had no damage from this coach or the last coach with that setup to our Honda.

That said, however, knowing what I know about stuff that flies, there may be something a bit unique about your very small car behind your very large motorhome and the way it sits in relation to the rear bumper and mudflap. Think air flow (which in turn carries rocks and fluids). I can tell the Honda gets a bit of wash when the roads are slimy and you can actually see a pattern on the hood of how the air is taking that muck across.

I have also seen those who put the big screens up between the coach and the towed, but since I am not having that problem,  I am not seeing the need. I do slow considerably when tracking through gravel or road repair because the damage I do to the toad is going to be the stuff I threw out the back of my coach. That car is too small behind my big coach to catch anything else on the front. The sides, maybe.  ;D
 
Thanks Skyking.  Your right about patterns.  Most of the damage was down low across the front fenders and hood. The windshield did get some but nowhere near what the lower half of the car got.    Your right, the Smart car does sit low on the road. 
Went to our body shop and he said that if we plan on using like this don't repair now. Wait till we are ready to sell or replace.  Then just swap out the fenders and hood.  Just under 500 to REPLACE them.  What they are doing with cars nowadays!
Really like towing this car because of weight and ease of hookup.  One bonus it that it is the "passion" model, so it is a pretty bright red.  Can't miss that back there.
Where did you get your mud flaps?  Went to a couple Truck repairs places recently and saw some on display.  Jeez I really don't want to invest the 401 in this project. 
 
Steve,

Here's a picture of the one we have, which was an option on my coach. It had an Ultraguard standard mud flap from the dealer when delivered but we discovered the designer mudflap was part of the sticker price and Thor shipped me one free!

I feel sure you can order one from the Thor parts folks. I have no clue about the Ultraguard but I had one on the other coach and it did fine. The mounts are eye bolts and you drop a chain or d-ring.

Hope that helps!
 

Attachments

  • DSCN1416_540_tuscany_flap.jpg
    DSCN1416_540_tuscany_flap.jpg
    41 KB · Views: 58
SWNimz said:
Where did you get your mud flaps?
Click to expand...

goggle "truck mud flaps"; even Amazon has them with the hangers for a reasonable price.  You need to pre-measure though... there are many different sizes, even for trucks.  The truck frame based hangers are really helpful because the rubber is very heavy duty and is easy to replace if it gets damaged.  Rear Dualies come as one piece for each side.  We got fairly long ones and trimmed the bottoms to get a close clearance from the road.  I put some on the Jeep too so anyone behind us is protected.
 
Hi,

Frankly, the full width mud flaps seem to be more a place for the manufacturer to advertise than useful protection. Tires do throw stones and a slightly wider than the tire flap makes sense. Between the tires there is very little likelihood of throwing stones up onto the toad (I'd be interested in the theory that says they will be). Conversely, a flap close to the road will pick up stones due to the venturi effect (air must speed up as it passes through the small gap).

I've never had full width flaps and also have not damaged the toad in over 50,000 miles of MH travel.

Ernie
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,185 (members: 32, guests: 1,153)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,974
Posts
1,388,499
Members
137,723
Latest member
CarlSpackler
Back
Top Bottom