Rear-mounted factory rockguard

[Jim Gill]

On a recent trip through southern Wyoming, I had to travel through a very poorly maintained construction zone on a narrow two-lane, heavily travelled highway. The route through this zone was defined by orange cones on both sides of a single traffic lane...traffic had compacted the soft ground where the tires travelled but the dirt in the center of the lane was grossly uncompacted and was visibly higher than the established tire tracks. At one point, moving very slowly, I could feel my coach sinking into the established tracks (which confirmed that none of this material had ever been compacted) to the point that I had to hit the throttle and make a downshift into first gear to even pull through the soft ground. At this point, I could hear something dragging...I assumed that it was the rear rockguard but didn't know for certain so I stayed in first gear until I was out of this mess. Because of the heavy traffic and the fact that I was pulling a loaded car trailer, it was going to be difficult to either stop or to turn around to inspect the damage and contact somebody from the construction company if needed. In hindsight, this was my mistake. I should have inspected for any serious damage before I continued and then should have contacted the construction company immediately... ain't 20/20 hindsight great!!!

Not surprisingly, both the Wyoming DOT and the contractor denied any responsibility for this damage. WDOT said it was the contractors responsibility...the contractor told me that over 2 months of construction work at this location, I was the ONLY person to have any problem with any ground clearance issue!!! How could I prove him wrong?
 
So now, based on the attached image of my rockguard, I need to buy a new one. My choices are either to buy a new Beaver rockguard from the folks in Bend for $650-$700.00 or buy some aftermarket rockguard made of either rubber strips or some type of bristle material for something less. I'd like to have the factory guard but my broken guard had often gotten pinched between the ground and the hitch frame when I was leveling up unless I was very careful so buying a new one to immediately damage it isn't real appealing. If I buy a new guard, I would figure out some way to tie it up and out of the way when I'm either backing into uneven ground or trying to get level.  

Is there a third alternative which has worked well for somebody that I'm not aware of?  

Thanks in advance.
Jim

[Edward Buker]

Jim,

I feel your pain.... We have a full width factory rubber mud flap that originally had just two stainless Beaver outlines and that would leave the flap more flexible for leveling. I added a full width stainless panel with Beaver cutouts from a firm in Oregon. I like that this offers some added weight and some car protection but when we level we carry a boat hook and my wife wrestles with this at times to keep it from being vertical and damaged in the process of dropping the coach. I think if the rubber panel was flexible enough and you had smaller beaver outlines out of stainless and not a whole panel then it might work better for leveling at the expense of appearance. I do not know of a trouble free system that really affords reasonable protection. The ones on chain links seem to have a wide gap where stones could find their mark (from behind the grassy knoll)....

I have seen a few with hinges in the flap suspension on other brands of coach but I do not know if that really helps or not. You would think that a mud flap would not have to be such a problem...

Later Ed

[Dick Simonis]

Last time I was in Quartzsite there was a vendor that had all sorts of rock guards and some with Beaver on them.  Don't recall the price though.

[Joel Ashley]

Our Monterey is pretty low in the back and because it is only 37 ft. its limiting straps keep me from raising the back more than 2 inches with air.  The flap gets trapped under the hitch like yours regularly, and I've removed, cleaned, and straightened bends in it a couple of times.  I've been tempted to shorten its chains, but that defeats some of its purpose.

Because of that, I've taken notice over the years of an ad or two in the FMC Magazine for custom flaps should the day arrive the thing is totally unrepairable.  Looks like yours has met that day, so check the magazine ads.

Joel

[Roy Warren Co-Admin]

I have added two large eye-bolts to the edge of my flap to prevent it from dragging while backing up.  I also cut the rubber right down to the stainless steel where the hitch is located.  I used to drag on small dips whether going forward or back and the flap would either scratch the steel or it would catch on the hitch.  By doing these two things, I have eliminated the dragging and the catching which would cause it to bend.  Good luck with yours.
Roy Warren

[Doug Neal]

I am having duraflap.com in Grants Pass make a new custom logo for our 03 Contessa. The stainless plate installed will be under $300.00. We will be in Seven Feathers Sept 11th if you would like to take a lool at it. I understand they make mud flaps for Beaver Coach in Bend.

[Edward Buker]

Dura Flap were nice folks to work with and they are the folks that made my stainless plate. Very high quality stainless and construction. I do not know what the configuration is for the mud flap on various coaches but if you have a full width heavy rubber design that is bolted to framing like mine then considering a two piece configuration may be a better design for you. When had ours made we had them build a one piece stainless design. In subsequent use there were instances where we would drop the coach while on pavement and depending on the slope of the site the metal would hit on the 2 inch receiver and the metal had no give like the rubber did so it would bind and damage the stainless and the metal backing plate. I pulled the assembly this winter and had the stainless and backing plate water jetted and cut into two pieces. Now when we drop the coach the rubber will contact the receiver and bend and flex as needed. We like this design much better for our situation. Others may not need to consider this option but some may share our problem.

Later Ed

[Richard Cooper]

Here is the link for Ed's Duraflap:

http://www.duraflap.com/rv.html

If I were replacing mine, I would not opt for an extra cost logo, etc.  --- just black all the way across for me.

[Jim Gill]

Thanks to all for a bunch of great ideas and images related to rear mudflaps.

Sounds like Duraflap is a good way to go since they can customize something (width, height, mounting location, etc.) that might work better than the factory flap. From what I hear, Duraflap probably made my ORIGINAL flap and supplied it to Monaco when they built my coach.

Thanks again to all,
Jim