Our mudguard was pretty beat up from dragging under our relatively low-slung coach as we crossed the sidewalk dip to our driveway. One year I finally removed it, put it across a couple sawhorses in the backyard, used ballpeens and other devices to straighten it, and painted damaged rusty spots with POR-15. I couldn’t do a whole lot with the scratched chrome, but overall it sure looked better and remains so.
After listening too many times to Lee screaming at me as the thing drug across the concrete, or got caught between driveway and hitch, nowadays upon arriving home I unhitch the car and crawl under to remove the mudguard. It stores nicely out of harms way in the garage on the floor under the pickup. When we leave for a trip, I spray some dry silicone on the clevis pin threads and remount the flap after driving the coach out on the street, and then hitch the toad.
Yeah the thing is heavy and clumsy for one old guy to maneuver under there, but I still believe it keeps a lot of bouncing stuff from the toad front, and is worth the 8-10 mins effort. Yet it’s not a solve-all, for sure. The toad suffered a lot of grit damage the first year until I added a Roadmaster Guardian that had a noticeable effect. One could also add the Roadmaster under-hitch screen as well, but I’ll only do that if we ever afford a new pristine toad.
It has occurred to me to remove a chain link from the mudguard or insert the clevis one link higher, to lessen it’s dragging events, but stopping ricocheting pebbles to me is more important, and the lower the better. A beat up guard is better than a beat up toad. It’s hard to imagine a worthwhile mileage change without the mudguard, and a properly functioning and maintained engine should run at optimal temperatures regardless.
Just one fellow’s opinion among diverse others’.
Joel
