Ultimate camper <span class="highlight">stone</span> <span class="highlight">guard</span>

Thought the idea of the large curved boot was that it did not throw stones forward.

Google 'stone stomper' .

Hi Anthony

I have an Ultimate (#519) and tow it behind my Troopy.

The Ultimate sits up quiet high and most of the stones go underneath it. If they rise high enough to hit the nose, they are deflected out the side. I do have Orbie's rear window protector installed but I don't think it is really necessary.

Ask Ultimate to give you access to the Ultimate Owners Forum, there is a lot of good info on there and you can ask questions to many owners.

Dick

Hi Anthony,
We have had our Ulti for about 8 years now and we tow it with our 60 series Landcruiser. We have not had any problems with stones in that time and we have been on lots of rough and rocky tracks and roads. Most stones either glance off the front of the camper or go under the camper. Even when we went through hordes of grasshoppers on our travels the camper stayed pretty much splat free but we had to clean the front of the car several times a day.
We only have standard mudflaps on the Toyota. I'm sure you'll love your camper! Ours is great.
Hope this is helpful,
Cheers,
Neil.

Anthony,

I believe the Stonestomper product would best suit your needs.
Not only will it stop stones from bouncing back into your rear window, but will also stop the "boot" of the camper and rear of the vehicle from stone chipping.

When I looked at stone guards, I chose the Rock Tamers and are happy enough with them. I didn't want to "block" access to the rear of the vehicle.
One problem I do have is that access to the underslung spare tyre is nigh impossible and I have chosen to carry it on top of the camper.
I can see stones being ejected out the side and I am careful to slow down when passing oncoming vehicles to limit a stray missile frompossibly hitting them.

I guess any stone guard will be a compromise of some sort, but the Stone Stomper looks to be a very good product that stops any stone from lifting above the underside of the A frame.
Maybe one concern is how they would cope with mud.

Hi Anthony,I also own an ultimate(713).I have just completed a trip across the Gibb River Road and with a Stone Stomper installed no damage to camper or BT-50.Ring Christian at Stone Stomper he is very good.Enjoy your ultimate Rob

Hi Anthony,

The stone stomper is the way to go with the Ultimate, it connects to the car easy with a few snap hooks which make access to the back of the car really easy, most times I don't even disconnect to get to the back of the car just push my shin against the mesh.

I will attach a couple of pictures.





Site Link

Anthony

I'd endorse the comments from others. Our Ultimate was one fo the early ones - from 1996 and we tow with a Nissan patrol as you can see.

I wouldn't use a stone guard as I think it will just complicate the access to the boot, back of the car and be a hindrance in rough country.

See you on the Ultimate forum in due course and welcome.

Cheers

Peter

Hi Anthony

We tow an Ultimate with a Landrover Defender (previously a Mazda Bravo), and use a set of rocktamers when on rough roads.

We've been very happy with them up till now with no damage to car or trailer.

Enjoy your Ulti!

Cheers

Anthonyp0808,

We pick up ours on the 2nd Dec woo hoo. Hope to see all you fellow ultimates on the road soon.

We tow our Ultimate XTrak behind a 150 Prado and take tours across most of Australia. Never had a problem at all. Yes we get a few stone chips on the bulldog coating but so far (20,000km off bitumen) all we see are the slight nicks in the coating. Oh and a couple of chips on the level indicator. We took several Ultimates and a TVan across the Simpson, up the Hay River and along the Plenty Hwy to Alice than back to Adelaide and all except us used some form of Rock Tamer type flaps and no-one had a problem.

This issue has had plenty of discussion on the Ultimate forum and in my view and experience the vehicles that seem to have problems have the tow hitch set lower than level, that is the Ultimate has a distinct nose down attitude. Our setup is level and one of my team also has one and we towed over the same tracks with the same tow vehicles and his had stone damage on the nose cone (had a nose down setup) and we didn't

I suggest you consider your tow setup and keep it as level as possible then keep and eye on things before you consider some Rock Tamers or similiar. But if you are concerned then they are pretty easy to make up

Regards

RobA

Many thanks all for the great advice, and for the great Pics.

I can't wait to get access to Ultimate Forum - I have requested this from Ultimate but no joy until I collect my new toy!

So great information until I get there.

Elsewhere in this forum there is mention of Obie's Outback back window saver - looks like a simple solution but does noting for the trailer. See http://www.obiesoutback.com.au/