Rear Flap on Class A motorhome- What to get?

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discus277

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Have a 31 foot Allegro. It has flaps behind the rear wheels but no flap hanging from back end. Went to Alaska this summer and by the time we got there the back end of the coach was coated in brown dirt which was semi-embedded in the gel coat....went through one of the truck washes and it took 5 iterations of whitener and power wash to get it clean.

Next step,  I went over the entire unpainted part of the back which means most of it with a good gel coat polish ......it now looks pretty good and I want protect it....what kind of flap is best?

I see a lot of those that look like long pieces of material hanging down that almost go to the road....that seems like it might do the best job

What are these called and how much are they? What are your recommendations?

Thanks, Jim
 
I know what you mean about the caked-on Alaska road dirt, but I'm pretty confident you would be disappointed with any of the available rear flaps. If anything, they are likely to stir up more dust and gravel because most are set up too long and nearly drag on the surface.  I've had the fringe skirt type, the solid flap with slits type, and the heavy solid single piece type and none of them do a whole lot. Probably better than nothing for some types of road debris, but not going to stop the road dirt you are concerned with.

The Protect-a-tow that Mike suggests helps keep gravel from bouncing up on the toad. Not so sure that it does much for dirt and dust that literally billows up behind the coach due to the vacuum formed as it moves down the road.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
The Protect-a-tow that Mike suggests helps keep gravel from bouncing up on the toad. Not so sure that it does much for dirt and dust that literally billows up behind the coach due to the vacuum formed as it moves down the road.

I believe it actually kept the back of the coach cleaner, of course with my limited experience and none whatsoever on the roads of AK I cannot speak of its usefulness in keeping that intense dirt off the coach or toad.
 
I went to Alaska several years ago. I had the big flap on the back. The rocks and gravel kicked up by the flap completely destroyed the windshield and front end of my towed Malibu. A good friend traveling with me had no flap and he had very little damage to his Wrangler Jeep.

I also had similar problems (but not as bad) in North Dakota several years later and with a newer Malibu.

If I were to go to Alaska again I would remove the flap and leave it at the house or the local dump. I might, however get a Protect-a-tow. 
 
What I failed to say in my original post is that I was not towing anything....I can see the value of the ProtectaTow if you are pulling a TOAD.

Gary is absolutely correct in that the dust (and dirty water) billows up behind the coach....my wife followed me the the place where we parked it on our return and when I hit a bit of dust she could see it billowing up

But that leaves the question...isn't something better than nothing and if so what is it? I do want to prevent a recurrance of what happened. I will also say that we did not see and coach as bad as ours and there were many which made the same journey.

Jim
 
We toured Alaska for 10 weeks in a previous coach, with a solid rear skirt, and were frequently heavily caked with dirt and mud. If it helped any, I sure wouldn't want to see what it would have been like with out it!
 
Fixes are limited.  I would say that an inexpensive item that may help some, is to install a rear full width mud flap/guard.  I have the cheepest solution in the Ultraguard mud flap.  It costs about $70.00 plus about $20. for the pre drilled painted angle mounting bracket.  It comes in 16" or 20" lengths.  All are 94'"wide.  It is made of heavy black rubber material.  it is recommended to keep the flap 5-6 inches off the ground at level travel.  The further to the rear, the better.  I have a toad and have individual rear wheel mud flaps as well.  This combination works really well for me.  Clean car when I get there and rear of coach is clean too.  I don't know of much more that you can do since you do not pull a toad.  Look at Camping World or Google Ultraguard, for more info.
I have not been to Alaska, so I can not speak to the Alaska dirt issue.
 
Full width flaps are an art to make work properly. Each MH has a different amount of overhang behind the rear tires. Each MH will have a different height. Exactly where you hang the flap and how high off the road might be a trial and error experiment for you. If you hang it and it doesn't seem to be working right, try raising or lowering or moving it forward or back. Even if you have it in the "factory" approved place the way your rig is loaded may have changed one of the dynamics and it needs to be fine tuned.

Some say that they are a waste of time entirely. I doubt that the medium to high end coach makers are putting them on just for grins and giggles. The key is getting it in the right place.

Ken
 
The high end coach manufacturers don't put those full width flaps on their coaches because they are functional in any way.  They put them there because they have the manufacturers name on them, and they are perfectly happy to let the owner pay extra for advertising their product.

Most after market installations, in my humble opinion, are done simply because the MH owner thinks it makes his rig look better.

I saw many different techniques tried, on our trip to Alaska, to protect the toad and the rear of the coach.  The protect-A-Tow (in my opinion) did the best job, of accomplishing both tasks, by far.

I've been looking for a full width flap to put on my old Bounder, but it would have to say "Does This Skirt Make My Butt Look Big" across it. ;) :D
 
Just Lou said:
The high end coach manufacturers don't put those full width flaps on their coaches because they are functional in any way.  They put them there because they have the manufacturers name on them, and they are perfectly happy to let the owner pay extra for advertising their product.

Wow Lou, who knew you had such insight into how high end coach manufacturers think? 

Ken
 
I don't claim great insight, just average powers of reasoning and some common sense.  How's things in your little world?
 
From one of my prior messages, here's a pro and con of the full-width mud flap on our coach; The flap was already installed on the coach when we bought from the dealer's lot.

I bent our full-width mud flap (large forward-facing bend) while reversing on steep terrain. Some time later, my driver ran over a large truck-type muffler on the freeway; It went straight down the center of the coach, between the wheels, and I heard a loud thump. When we stopped, I expected to see damage to the front of the toad, but all I saw was a straightened-out full-width mud flap.
 
    I had rear flaps on my 29' Tioga Class C. Haven't been to Alaska, but didn't see much use in them anyway in that they didn't help my Jeep toad and the back of the rig was always dirty after a trip during the winter months.

Howeve, the reason I removed them was because the ants in some parks used them as a bridge to my rig. I had them set to just clear the ground, but often due to the terrain they would occasionally touch. I removed and stored them until I sold the rig - they gave them to the new owner to make his own decision on usage.
 
Tom said:
From one of my prior messages, here's a pro and con of the full-width mud flap on our coach; The flap was already installed on the coach when we bought from the dealer's lot.

I bent our full-width mud flap (large forward-facing bend) while reversing on steep terrain. Some time later, my driver ran over a large truck-type muffler on the freeway; It went straight down the center of the coach, between the wheels, and I heard a loud thump. When we stopped, I expected to see damage to the front of the toad, but all I saw was a straightened-out full-width mud flap.

Wow, Tom. Talk about win-win! Not only did you protect your toad, you fixed the mud flap, too!

I uses a Protect-A-Tow when I went to Alaska last year. After a day of driving (there always seemed to be a 10-mile long construction zone), I would find quite a collection of small rocks in the center of the trampoline. That made me question the effectiveness of it. Has anyone else experienced this? Any idea where the gravel was coming from?
 
I used a Protect-A-Tow when I went to Alaska last year. After a day of driving (there always seemed to be a 10-mile long construction zone), I would find quite a collection of small rocks in the center of the trampoline. That made me question the effectiveness of it. Has anyone else experienced this? Any idea where the gravel was coming from?
On our Alaska trip, I found that I got hit by more gravel from traffic going the other way than I did by gravel kicked up by my own rig and tow.
 
I just purchased a KarGuard II will install it next week and see how it works when we drive to Florida.

Bought it for our pending trip to Alaska next summer. 

Curious to see if it keeps the car clean... This winter.
 
On our Alaska trip, I found that I got hit by more gravel from traffic going the other way than I did by gravel kicked up by my own rig and tow

Our experience was similar. Maybe not "more" gravel from opposing traffic, but a very substantial amount.


The high end coach manufacturers don't put those full width flaps on their coaches because they are functional in any way.  They put them there because they have the manufacturers name on them, and they are perfectly happy to let the owner pay extra for advertising their product.

Probably true. Besides, their buyers expect to have ALL the pretty goodies and techno-gadgets when they buy that high end rig. It's all about selling rigs and buyer perception, and they would put green polka dots on the sides if most buyers THOUGHT that made the coach better in some way. Or maybe just unique, which is something else they are paying for.
 
I use a Protect a Tow.  I hit a plastic lawn chair going about 55mph on the freeway while towing.  It did over $2000 damage to the front end of my MH.  There was no damage to the toad thanks to the the Protect a Tow.  The current price is about $220 versus over $350 for the KarGuard.  The KarGuard doesn't look that much better. 
 

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