Rear mudflap

I take it you are referring to a full width mud flap. In any case they can cause more problems than fixing. If too long they can flick up more stones than they stop and being full width can lessen airflow and cause overheating diffs.

My opinion is the best stone deflector is a trapeze type such as the Stone Stomper.

Whatever you use as extra insurance cover the back window with something like corflute or a beer carton.

Hi Sheza,
I use Stone guards brand name Rock Tamers, They slide over the tow bar and are adjustable for hight and width. They work well I have not one stone chip on the trailer when I use them. You can get them at any 4X4 shop and they are easy to fit them yourself.
Andy

Hi Sheza. My previous Hilux had huge mudflaps hanging off a home made rear bar. I still managed to smash a rear window. This time when I go outback I will be putting a layer of thick plastic (from Bunnings) and attaching it with velcro spots. Put this on friends prado when he was towing my camper to the cape and had no problems.

As mentioned above, full width mud flaps can cause stones to fly up. Better to cover the window.

One of the problems is that typical domestic pasenger car mud flaps are pretty piss poor.

If you look at the pic in the post above, you will see that the supplied mud flaps do not even cover the full width of the mudguard.

If you go to a truck parts or diesel spares shop, they will have a "small" mudflap that will fit very well and cover a great deal more.....fit with length to suit.

If you look under most aluminium trays, the mudguards are on adjustable rails.

I have shifted mine back so the whole mudguard sits about 8 inches away from the wheel.....this gives better protection for stuff behind..and the flap is less likley to get caught up when reversing over curbs and the like.

And the flaps from the truck shops are fairly priced.

It aint no mirricle but is stops heaps more stuff than the supplied arrangement.

cheers

thank you everyone for your replies. I had searched for rear mudflaps, but found nothing. Rod I will now search for stone deflectors as you mentioned. I like the idea of relocating the larger mudflaps further back towards the bumper bar as shown in the photo. Will ponder all suggestions.

Sheza,

I have a set of "Rock Tamers" and they appeared to stop stones, etc. from hitting the camper, but I noticed stones were still being deflected at an angle sideways, which may have caused problems to oncoming traffic. I wasn't really comfortable with this solution.

I now have a Stone Stomper (trapeze) which is custom made to the measurements you specify when ordering and this solution is excellent to protect both the camper and the rear windscreen of the vehicle from stones, etc. that are flicked up by the rear wheels.
It runs from the front of the camper to the rear of the vehicle, is simple to install and removes "in a blink" should you be traveling through extremely sticky mud.
Because it is slung underneath the draw bar of the camper, stones do not impact on the 'A' frame or the front of the camper. By the time a stone reaches further along the underside of the camper, the impact force I assume has lessened as I have not noticed any stone strike marks underneath.

Stonestomper

Sheza;
If you decide to go with Rock Tamers (I did, they are great) you can get them out of the USA cheaper than the local supplier. The Australian supplier's price is about $350 to $400

Google Cabelas.com and search for Rock Tamers. The US cost is $249 and when I bought mine in June last year DHL air freight from the states to the Blue Mountains was about $50 compared with road freight from the Australian NSW south coast supplier for about $45.

The DHL air freight was great, they give you a website and code and you can monitor the consignment every step of the way.
Just check size etc.
Good luck

Stay safe out there
TK

Mate,
I fitted some truck mudflaps on my old troopy. In the photos, I had just fitted them and I hadn't cut them to height. If they are to low they flick up more rocks. They were easy to detach by undoing 1- 8mm bolt, about 30 seconds.

I found that they didn't stop rocks hitting my van and all of the marks on the front were in line with the tyres as well as a little wider. You can see they are as wide out as I could get them.

I will not fit them to my new vehicle and instead I sikaflexed aluminium to the front of the van.



RA.

There are two issues,
protecting the kamper front and your back window from your own stones and
protecting them from other peoples stones.
The addition of a protective layer to the back window of your vehicle protects it from stones thrown by passing vehicles. There have been many comments from people who have lost the back window when they have been stopped and stones have been thrown by passing vehicles.

Mud flaps that keep your stones down are much friendlier to other road users than flaps that just deflect them. large flaps that can touch the ground will flick up anything loose on the surface and even if they don't touch, then the air they disturb makes dust behind a lot worse. The dust problem is even worse with the full width type of flaps favoured by some.

It is also worth remembering that some stones get thrown sideways from your wheels as they are squeezed out so no mud flap system will stop everything, travelling slower is the only answer if there are lots of loose stones.

As others have suggested a forum search will provide lots of references to practical experiences.

regards

A

Sheza

We have a Pajero and Kimberly Kamper. Across a couple of trips to central Australia including Oodnadatta track, parts of Binns Track, Plenty Highway and dirt from Boulia to Windorah I have never observed any damage on the rear tailgate which I could attribute to stones being flicked off the KK.
After earlier seeing rear broken windows in vehicles towing caravans with stone guards, I take no chances are put a neoprene type rubber blind I made up over my rear window.
The stone guard on the KK seems to be pretty substantial compared to those fitted to many other campers around.

That's my experience

Mark

My simple solution was that I went to Bunnings and bought two wire door mats and attached them with hose clamps to the draw bar. The exhaust blows straight through, stops a large amount of rocks and can be easily (cheaply) replaced when it wears out.

Cheers
Greg