So, on the front of my trailer there is about 12" of diamond plate at the very bottom to protect from rock damage. That is great, but after a few trips down gravel and dirt roads about 4' above that, (no protection), is now completely pitted from rock damage.

Has anyone sprayed rattle can undercoating or bedliner on the front of their trailers? I want to cover up this ugly damage, protect the current damage from any rusting or leakage and also prevent any future damage.

Any tips?

 

Have you determined 'how' you are getting rock chips that high up the front of the trailer? Even running down a gravel road, I can't see them getting that high?

I've taken mine down a few at about 30 mph and I heard a lot hitting the diamond plate and the frame. I never got any go above the plate however...

I don't know about using an undercoating.. I guess if you could get it in white, then it might not look too bad.. Might cause more drag however...

good luck with whatever you do! That would suck to have that happen! Mine is fiberglass, so maybe I'm just not seeing the damage where on aluminum, you would see every dent!

Mitch

 

It's just like a rooster tail of rocks. I have the moulded Ford mudflaps but those do little to nothing to preventing this damage.

The undercoating I've seen in spray cans actually says you can paint right over it after its dried, but I think that might look even worse than black.

You are right about aluminum, its terrible for seeing every last dent.

I'll keep everyone posted on what I decide to do.

 

Very common problem.
I do this very repair 4-5 times a month

Just install a larger piece of aluminum, like 4' instead of 2' tall

Elixir makes aluminum diamond plate in .025" in 4x8 and 4x10 sheets

Make sure and repair damage under where you plan to cover so rust won't occur if you are dealing with a steel trailer.

 

"...after a few trips down gravel and dirt roads about 4' above that, (no protection), is now completely pitted from rock damage."

Did you mean 4 inches or feet?

 

Feet. And it's all the way from the bottom of the trailer to 4' - not that there is only damage at the 4 foot level.

Like I said, it was basically a rooster tail of rocks that was hitting the trailer.

 

Wow, you must have really been slinging them rocks! Looking at your pic and visualizing the geometrics of it, I can see where that can happen now!

How fast were you going? What size was the gravel? I've traveled on freshly 'chip stoned' roads with my trailer and while it makes a lot of noise, I could not see the rocks flipping up at the 4' level..

Is your WD hitch stinger set that far back? Meaning, on my setup, I can't fully open my tail gate with the trailer hitched up. (well, I could just barely when I had the manual tongue jack. I can't now with the new electric jack..). Maybe a couple of extra inches on your setup is making that much of a difference?

I think if you travel on those kind of roads a lot, then you might want to invest in some full length rock guard flaps that attach temporally to the hitch. I've seen them in trailer mags, but don't have a link of any kind to share.. You could then take them off when you are not towing...

That, or doing like Colorado suggested and going higher up on the diamond plate!

Mitch

 

Full width rubber flap mounted on the hitch stinger is the answer. Use rubber not hard plastic as the plastic ones work like a ping-pong paddle and bounce rocks everywhere. A heavy rubber flap will kill the momentum of the rocks and drop them to the ground. Also be sure that the flap does not touch the ground at anytime as a flap dragging on the ground will throw up more rocks than your tires. For mine I just purchased a U-bolt made for a 2" square axle and used it to bolt 2"x2" angle iron to the hitch stinger across the full width of the bumper and then bolted the flap to that. It does make the hitch rather large to store but it is better than leaving the ugly flap on the truck or beating up the trailer.

Here is a link to one Cabela's sells if you don't want to build your own:
Cabela's Link

 

heres an idea....SLOW THE HELL DOWN. I tow 50k+ boats down gravel roads and have yet to put so much as a scratch on one.

 

Obviously you don't live where there are mostly gravel roads.
The reason we install so many 4' aluminim rock guards is because we live in a state where there are more dirt roads than paved roads.
Sure the towns and highways are paved. Leave the Highway or Towns/Cities and you got gravel. It has only been the last 15 years where some highway mountain passes have even been paved like Wolf Creek Pass.

When I go to the lake I have to travel over 65 miles, mostly on a gravel roads. There is no way I'm going to drive 35mph on a 55mph road and spend over 4 hours on the drive to the lake and back.

This year they finally paved the 34 miles of the 80 miles of Highway that I need to take to the airport.

In most states when the weather gets bad, drivers stay home and roads, schools, business and highways close.

Colorado drivers say it isn't that bad and wonder what all the fuss is about.

We get 6-8" of snow in the morning before breakfast and nothing closes or get delayed; the kids need to be at school and you are still expected to show up at work on time.

10-24" of snow and you might get an hour delay.
Oh, yeah. Snow could come in January or June and you could get 6" of hail on the ground in under 10 minutes.

Sure slowing down would be an easy fix; but not realistic.
I'd bet Alberta is not all that different from Colorado in those respects.

The rubber thing has merit. I have seen lots of them on RV's.

 

We did exacttly this to our trailer since it had NO diamond plate or aluminum. If we had the $$ we would have done the whole bottom with diamond plate, but this stuff was like 4bux a can and we used 6 cans. It definitely cleaned up nice and looks awesome, BUT do not get RV cleaner Voom on it. It takes it off, well not off, but makes it run and smear. We had to touch it up. We did the wheel wells too and it looks tuff.

I ll get some pics this weekend if i remember of the trailer with my truck pulling it and hooked up etc.

I def. recommend this if you are on a budget.