Muds flaps

Julie,

Try this link. It will give you lots of ideas on stone protection for your camper.

Cheers,

Mark

Those long Mudflaps should certainly assist with minimising stone
problems. Many I have seen blow back nearly horizontal with wind
force when travelling & unless chained down provide little effect
in deflecting stones. I would suggest some form of protection on
the camper as well.....oldbaz.

You have to be careful with these that they aren't too close to the ground or they will actually flick up rocks making things worse.
Remember that on some dirt roads the centre of the road is actually higher than the tyre tracks.

I have simply made big mudflaps using conveyor belt rubber. Stops rear tyres from flicking up rocks onto camper, coupled with stone guard on camper gives good protection. Have a look at my rig photos.

Barnesy

Not only does the big mud flaps protect the front of the camper/trailer but it also protects the back of the tow vehicle.
What happens is when you pick up a rock with your wheels, it get thrown up at the flat front surface of the trailer bouncing back and still going up taking out your rear window.
This happens quite a bit to those who do lots of dirt/track travelling.
If you look closely at the design of the stone guards on the front of the off road campers, they are angled so that the up coming rock is deflected down (not back!)
Shane

Yep - that link from Mark E is worth a look - don't be tempted to try a trip on gravel without stone protection - its a biggy, because you will get a lot of damage to valuable surfaces without it. I prefer the trampoline style, in that it lets the stones keep going. Rear window protection is a good idea whatever you do with nets, because there is a good chance that a stray stone will still bounce off some part of the trailer and take out the glass.

Consider this, does heavy rubber across the rear of the towing vehicle retard the air flow under the vehicle, hence the gear box etc isn't cooled properly.

Baz

Julie,

There are a few types of "protection" against stone damage.
Having said this, I have yet to find any single solution to suit all circumstances.

Firstly, the stoneguard on a trailers A-frame does protect the front of the camper trailer from stone damage. Thats about all it does.
Stones can still bounce off this guard even if it's angled downwards. My theory (it happened to me) is that stones may still ricochet off the framework and bounce back into the rear window.

Secondly, to overcome the above, it would be good practise to also include a rear window saver when towing your camper off road.

Thirdly, a "big mud flap" across the rear of the vehicle will further reduce the number of stones flicked up, but it may still happen.

Lastly, a horizontal "trampoline" slung underneath the A-frame, between the rear of the vehicle and the front of the trailer, will provide the single most effective form of protection, BUT....the trampoline is useless when the track is muddy.

I now use the first three methods. Although I made and tried a trampoline, it dragged down to the deck when loaded with mud.