Driving on Bad Roads? Protect Your RV! ROCKSTAR Full-Width Tow Flap Review

How to protect your RV / trailer / boat from rock or stone damage – a review of the ROCKSTAR Full Width Tow Flap.

When we started our Alaska road trip, we knew our drive would include rough gravel roads and some very long construction areas. Driving on that many gravel roads created a significant risk for the nose / front of our travel trailer to be damaged by rocks or stones thrown up by our truck.

We wanted to avoid that stone chip damage so in addition to adding regular Weathertech mud flaps to the truck, we added a full-width towing flap.

There is a very popular brand of tow flaps called Rock Tamers. They mount to the shank of the trailer hitch and sit behind the truck. But our Ram has a rear facing dual exhaust that produces significant heat that could damage a rubber flap hanging right behind the exhaust outlet. Now Rock Tamers do make a heat shield you can add but we decided to try something new – the Rockstar Full-Width Tow Flap. It is heavy duty, made of aluminum and thick rubber. And the tow flaps are custom designed for each model of truck.

For our Ram, there are two mounting brackets that attach to the truck using bolts that already exist from the factory. It only took about 10 minutes to install the brackets and the flap was ready to put on.

We like the fact it mounts under the truck, not behind it, so it is unaffected by the exhaust heat. It just takes a few seconds to install and the flap can be left on the truck when the hitch is removed….and it doesn’t interfere with the truck’s back-up / parking sensors.

Now we drove 11,141 miles on our Alaska trip and never removed the flap from the truck. When we got home, one of the first things we did was clean and inspect the trailer. We were genuinely surprised we couldn’t find a single stone chip in the fiberglass.

We should caution that if you do add any tow flap system check the instructions for ground clearance. Rockstar specifically suggests at least 3 inches between the bottom of the flap and the road so that the flap doesn’t drag going over a bump and actually kick up stones. The measurement should be done when the trailer is connected.

One other quick caveat, when backing up, be aware of parking blocks or curbs that could impact the flap.

So here is a quick review (strictly our opinions) of the pros and cons of the Rock Star Full Width Tow Flap:
1 - it can be left mounted to the truck, even when the hitch is removed
2 - installation and removal is fairly quick and simple.
3 - because it mounts under the truck and not behind it, the tow flap isn’t affected by exhaust heat
4 - because it mounts under the truck, not behind it, the tow flap doesn’t block the trucks rear parking sensors.
5 - we found it provided effective protection to the front of our trailer

As for cons, well there weren’t many, but we would say that it is pretty big so it does take up a bit of real estate in the garage when it's being stored.

We’re not saying everyone should run out and get a tow flap, but if you do plan on a long road trip or expect to encounter gravel roads, and you want to protect your RV, boat, travel / horse / atv / snowmobile trailer, whether it’s a ROCKSTAR, Rock Tamers or another brand, we recommend considering adding a tow flap. For us it was $300 (US) well spent.

And we want to mention that Rockstar is not a sponsor - we bought the tow flap ourselves – we just wanted to share our experience with a product that worked well for us, particulalry on the Alaska Highway (ALCAN) and helped protect our trailer.

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