Toad Front Mudflaps

[LostNotStuck-Yet]

To eliminate the problem of rocks being thrown into the back of the moho by the jeeps front tires I cobbled together easy attach/detach mudflaps for the stock steel bumper from an old semi mudflap and camlock straps.

I don’t have any miles on them yet so there may be field revisions but they seem promising.

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[LostNotStuck-Yet]

First trip report for the front mud flaps.

Flat towed behind a Mercedes b+ rv with these on two lane paved roads. The first 275 miles without any other tow protection (except RokBlokz mudflaps). There was plenty of rain, some road construction, and some loose gravel. The JL was pretty clean and ready to drive.
After the tow, we drove about 160 miles on chipseal, washboard gravel, mining roads, and about 10 miles of rock/mud trail on and along the Denali Highway - didn't bother taking the front mudflaps off for that 160 miles since they were riding well. I'm really happy with how they performed. Going through stream crossings, large puddles, and deep mud (up to the rear tow hook) there was none of the usual muck thrown up onto the hood and fenders.
I didn't want to push my luck - put the protect-a-tow on for the return 275 miles. At the end: No windshield chips! (I expected windshield damage) No grill chips! Cleaned up pretty easy except for the fresh asphalt thrown onto the jeep from a couple of oncoming trucks where they had been hand patching potholes in about 20 miles of the chipseal.

So far, it's a win. I'd do it again even if I wasn't flat towing. I really like it for the puddles and stream crossings. If there's a downside - I haven't found it yet.

Here's what it looked like just past the halfway point but prior to the deepest mud (it didn't look much worse after the deep mud - I just don't have any photos) - one of the stream crossings gave it a nice underbody wash:

And some of the beautiful scenery about midway along the Denali Highway.

 

[Mx5red]

To eliminate the problem of rocks being thrown into the back of the moho by the jeeps front tires I cobbled together easy attach/detach mudflaps for the stock steel bumper from an old semi mudflap and camlock straps.

I don’t have any miles on them yet so there may be field revisions but they seem promising.

Personally, I love it. Very Mad Max. Go full time

 

[dragoneggs]

Interesting… I flat tow my JLR behind my Class C. I am not fully understanding the benefit you are getting? What is it about flat towing that is different than daily driving your JL? Looking to learn.

 

[LostNotStuck-Yet]

I don't know that there would be any benefit for those that tow where there is mostly clean pavement.
There's a lot of gravel on the roads that I tow on (even the paved ones). The rate of windshield breakage in Alaska is very high - I'd estimate that it's close to 100% for cars over 3 years old; it's probably 40 or 50% for cars that are 1 year old (higher in communities with few/no paved roads). The gravel/rocks come from side roads that are unpaved (typically topped with D-1 crushed rock), gravel put down for traction in the winter, erosion from cut slopes adjacent to the road, construction gravel trucks that "leak", etc. The KO2s do a good job of grabbing the gravel/rocks and they hang on to it for a while - some of it lets go at 1/2-3/4 rotation flinging it forward. There's only a small bit of steel bumper to stop it from flying into the back of the moho. Some of that drops to the ground (to potentially get grabbed by the tire again) and some of that bounces into the jeep grill and windshield.

My main objective is to protect the back of the moho. This is a cheap and easy option for me to reduce rock damage to the back of the moho.
While I expect the jeep to get trashed over time, stretching that time out is a bonus.

Maybe gravel flung forward where it bounces up and dings grills and windshields is part of the reason (along with windshield angle and the fact that jeepers drive in the rocks) that Jeeps have such a high incidence of broken windshields. Or not.

 

[dragoneggs]

Ah… Moho damage from forward flinging rocks? I wasn’t aware of that phenomenon. Toad windshield damage is on the rebound? Don’t get me wrong, I am not pooping on the protection.

On KO2s, definitely good at picking up gravel and flinging it.

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