[ember1205]

Originally Posted by PowerDemon

Nice! Did you have any rock chips? I would be towing mine with an F450 and I am wondering if I should buy one of those big rock guards that goes on the hitch.

How was the door clearance with the fender folded down?

I've used the gray U-Haul trailer with my car when I first bought it. It's the "newer" style of the trailer which will actually accommodate the car correctly. The older orange ones (if you run across those still) aren't quite big enough to fit the car. Folding the fender down allows the door to swing just fine.

The one thing that I had to do with mine was to put two stacked 2x12's under the front wheels to lift the nose over the front of the trailer. Of course, this had the negative impact effect of making the basket webbing not really fit nicely over the wheels.

You're supposed to chain the back of the car down on the trailer, but there isn't a great place to do this. I left mine unhooked at the back found that the back tires shifted about half an inch over about 150 miles of towing. What I don't know is whether that happened early and it stayed still, if it constantly shifted a touch throughout, or what.

While I don't -believe- I incurred and rock chips during my tow, it is something I would be wary of. I would probably not install a rock guard because it will change airflow and could actually cause issues in areas that wouldn't otherwise be subject to stuff blowing up against the car. Maybe consider a way to wrap the front of the car?

[Rock-It Man]

If you tow the car on an open trailer without a shield, you will get more rock strikes than if you just drive the car.

How far do you need to go?

[PowerDemon]

Originally Posted by ember1205

I've used the gray U-Haul trailer with my car when I first bought it. It's the "newer" style of the trailer which will actually accommodate the car correctly. The older orange ones (if you run across those still) aren't quite big enough to fit the car. Folding the fender down allows the door to swing just fine.

The one thing that I had to do with mine was to put two stacked 2x12's under the front wheels to lift the nose over the front of the trailer. Of course, this had the negative impact effect of making the basket webbing not really fit nicely over the wheels.

You're supposed to chain the back of the car down on the trailer, but there isn't a great place to do this. I left mine unhooked at the back found that the back tires shifted about half an inch over about 150 miles of towing. What I don't know is whether that happened early and it stayed still, if it constantly shifted a touch throughout, or what.

While I don't -believe- I incurred and rock chips during my tow, it is something I would be wary of. I would probably not install a rock guard because it will change airflow and could actually cause issues in areas that wouldn't otherwise be subject to stuff blowing up against the car. Maybe consider a way to wrap the front of the car?

Cool thanks for the info. I didn’t know there was a difference between the trailers. Fortunately all the ones I have seen are the grey ones so I should be in luck.

Yeah I think I will end up doing some sort of strap on the back, especially if you saw yours shift. I measured the rear track at 76” and the trailer is 79 1/4” so an inch either way might result in an unhappy situation. The roads I will be traveling are not the best either, so I imagine a shift could easily happen. I saw someone run straps through either the wheels or control arms down to the D ring on the back of the trailer.

I might tape the front of the car, or I might leave it I’m not sure. The truck has factory mud guards but they’re pretty short so I imagine something could still fly up. Have you heard of the big sail guards causing more stuff to fly up?

Originally Posted by Rock-It Man

If you tow the car on an open trailer without a shield, you will get more rock strikes than if you just drive the car.

How far do you need to go?

So you would run an extra rock shield?

I have to go around 200 miles round trip. It’s less about the miles and more the stress of driving in such close proximity to other cars (especially trucks) on the highway. It’s such a congested roadway it’s impossible to keep a good following distance.

[Rock-It Man]

Originally Posted by PowerDemon

Cool thanks for the info. I didn’t know there was a difference between the trailers. Fortunately all the ones I have seen are the grey ones so I should be in luck.

Yeah I think I will end up doing some sort of strap on the back, especially if you saw yours shift. I measured the rear track at 76” and the trailer is 79 1/4” so an inch either way might result in an unhappy situation. The roads I will be traveling are not the best either, so I imagine a shift could easily happen. I saw someone run straps through either the wheels or control arms down to the D ring on the back of the trailer.

I might tape the front of the car, or I might leave it I’m not sure. The truck has factory mud guards but they’re pretty short so I imagine something could still fly up. Have you heard of the big sail guards causing more stuff to fly up?




So you would run an extra rock shield?

I have to go around 200 miles round trip. It’s less about the miles and more the stress of driving in such close proximity to other cars (especially trucks) on the highway. It’s such a congested roadway it’s impossible to keep a good following distance.

If you tow the car in an open trailer without a rock shield, it's like tailgating, unless you have enormous ground hugging mud flaps on the tow vehicle.

Full disclosure: I am biased in favor of just driving your car whenever you feel like it and forgetting about rock chips. It's not a Ferrari. It's not an heirloom.

PS full disclosure: I put my car away for 6 months every year to avoid road salt, which causes real damage to mechanical systems like brakes, exhaust, and chassis welds. So I'm a bit OCD too. But I would not worry about rock chips on a plastic fascia.

[Christian1LE]

I always thought the rock shield was silly if you're going to the track. No amount of tailgaiting on the road is going to be equivalent to the rocks that will get thrown on your car on a racetrack at 100+ MPH.

I've never had any damage from towing with an open trailer, I've had plenty of superficial damage at the track although most of it is prevented with track tape + PPF. 95% of the damage is to the damn windshield at the track, the paint is fairly easy to protect. I wish I would have gotten windshield PPF. I've just accepted that I'll have to get a new windshield at some point in time.