Tips for stone-proofing the underside of your caravan

Dave Darmody, Director of the Australian Offroad Academy, shares some handy caravan stone protection tips for what lies underneath.

There is no shortage of very flash-looking caravans and campers confidently strutting their way around the country. One does not need to look hard to see a proliferation of body armour, usually in the form of chequer plate, adorning the more exposed bits of the van’s body.

This is all well and good and a worthwhile investment for folks who intend on taking their van a bit further than their local beach-side family caravan park. But does this caravan stone protection extend to the less obvious places? To the underside and away from the admiring glances of all who set their eyes upon your magnificent trailer?

So let’s look at those functional, important, yet unaesthetic parts of the underside of your caravan or trailer as well.

The thing about dirt roads

The thing about driving on dirt roads is that they are always made of a bunch of different rocks. Some of which are small enough to get picked up by your tyre’s tread but large enough to create quite an impact when thrown against the underside of your van.

This constant peppering by fast-travelling rocks will eventually cause damage to any exposed surfaces and fittings. This may be really inconvenient damage to the fill pipe for your second water tank, or it might be potentially lethal damage to the wires that power the brakes on your 3-ton trailer. Do you see why we need to think about stone protection for the underside of your caravan as well?

It’s not always a direct hit that causes your dramas. A small, inconveniently placed stone, which has managed to find its way between a supporting bracket and your water tank, could quietly and eventually lead to a hole that you may not discover until many kilometres after you’ve left the dirt behind.

Pop your head under a few vans rolling into Birdsville for the popular Big Red Bash and you’ll not only see plenty of evidence of damage to the gear of unprepared or unaware travellers but also some pretty creative ideas from those who may well have learned the hard way themselves.

With that in mind, here are some caravan stone protection tips for the underside of your caravan or trailer.

Tips for caravan stone protection

Pool noodles

Pool noodles are cheap, easy to get your hands on, flexible and very light. They’re not going to be a life-long caravan stone protection solution. But strategically placed around pipes and cables, they’ll be very effective – for a while. You could even colour-code your noodles if you felt the need to.

Flex tubing and conduit

Well, flex tubing won’t do nothing, but it will do pretty much nothing. The first couple of rocks will take out the flex and the next ones will take out the cable. Flex tubing is intended to reduce the likelihood of cables becoming abraded over time. It has no impact resistance. Conduit, on the other hand, certainly offers a greater level of protection. However, its rigidity can be the cause of its failure, with a well-placed rock being capable of smashing the conduit.

INSIDER STONE PROTECTION TIPS FOR AN EXISTING CARAVAN: Personally, we’ve had great success with electrical cables run through conduits. The conduits are then placed inside a split open (think hot dog bun) pool noodle for protection.

Air conditioning insulated tubing

It’s smaller, tougher and better able to turn corners. This high-density product, sold by the metre, could well be the answer to some of your caravan stone protection problems. It’ll be beat up and bruised after your first decent trip onto the dirt, but each of those missing chunks is evidence of it doing exactly what it was designed to do.

Flexible sealant

Using a flexible sealant in locations that could allow smaller rocks into awkward positions, like beneath water tanks or between bash plates and bodywork, could save a lot of effort down the track.

Steel

In an ideal world, your trailer will have had provision for pipework and electrical cabling to be securely fastened, protected from abrasion, and placed inside of purpose-made channelling either along the chassis or behind the cross bracing of the floor.

Mudflaps, stone guards and deflectors

All of these are good things and staple items when it comes to caravan stone protection. The marketplace is crowded with options for you here. Anything that can slow down the rocks coming off your vehicle’s tyres to lessen, or prevent entirely, their impact on whatever it is that you are towing has to be a good thing. Bear in mind that a ‘mud flap’ that drags on the ground will start kicking up rocks on its own. In addition, there are state-based regulations regarding minimum clearance of mudguards and the like.

Slow down!

An uncomfortable truth for some. The rocks you are throwing at your own trailer, travel faster and hit harder the faster you drive. Some dirt roads can be comfortably driven with a trailer at the speed limit. Others demand a slower speed from those who are towing.

Check it out for yourself

Next rainy day, borrow a skateboard and a torch and get up close and personal with the underside of your trailer. Can you spot any rock damage from previous adventures? Can you see any pipes, cables or fittings that are exposed and in the firing line for rocks coming off the vehicle’s or the trailer’s tyres? This is a good place to start with your caravan stone protection.

Dave is the Director of the Australian Offroad Academy. Based on the fabulous Fraser Coast but operating all over Australia for Corporate, Government and Private clients. Find out more by visiting www.4x4training.com.au