Reviewer's Notebook: Roadwing Mud Flaps - Trucks 4x4 @ Off-Road.com
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Reviewer's Notebook: Roadwing Mud Flaps

Matthew Baynard
Chevy at Off-Road.com
The Roadwing! A brand new snowmobile, the brightest yellow you could imagine, open trailer and the need the trailer it less than two miles. I'd never need to bother with the cover and I wanted all to worship my new steed as I cruised through town. The sled is on trailer, without a cover, and off we go. Less than a block away, I hit a slush trail from a plow truck that just cleared an intersection. My truck picked up what seemed like a forty-pound load of slush and plastered the front of my 2-mile on the odometer sled. The engine compartment was filled and whole front was a disaster. I vowed that would never happen again and went searching for a cure. I purchased a new enclosed trailer and realized I was just changing what was being hammered by the same slush and road junk. The front of my trailer was now being pelted away.

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The Roadwing flaps offer excellent protection and are also easy to remove.
Click picture for larger image


After each season (summer and winter), I would assess the damage to the front of my trailers. I'm almost glad I don't have a nice fiberglass boat to examine, since damage to it could be very costly. The stone dents, tar, grease, salt splatter (it looks like a double barrel of salt rock hit it), and general filth are taking their toll. The angle and distance from the rear wheels is almost perfect to have basically everything you run over, thrown at your trailer and load. At highway speeds of course. I needed a pair of flaps that would keep the debris off the trailer and load period. I was just dreading looking like a RV with massive flaps permanently hanging from under my truck.

Enter the Roadwing to save the day and my paint on my trailers front-end. I don't mean to sound to melodramatic, but the Roadwing is that good. The Roadwing is designed to keep the road muck off the front of your snowmobile trailer, boat, or caboose if you're a RV owner. This is one item that I was extremely impressed with to the point of saying, if you tow a trailer you need this product period.

The product is not permanently attached to the tow vehicle, which is why I like it so much. Similar products I've reviewed all required some sort of permanent attachment that leaves a rather large set of flaps on the tow vehicle when you don't need them. Drilling into you bumper is not a pleasant task anyway. Without a trailer in tow, the huge permanently attached flaps will make a vehicle look ridiculous. This not the case with the Roadwing since you can remove them easily when not needed. The Roadwing slides over a standard 2" hitch shank and is held in place by two ½" bolts that draw down onto the shank itself. You may need a longer shank to have the required extra 1" of shank length for the Roadwing to tighten down on. Once tightened, the flaps are firmly attached and unaffected by highway turbulence. (Tested to the speed limiter on the test Yukon XL, don't try this at home.) The box frame is also extremely well built and no amount of frozen road sludge or mud is going to bend or break it up.

Another distinguishing feature of the Roadwing is the width and length of each flap and the flap material itself. The flaps are shipped extra long so you can cut them to the ride height of your truck if your truck has been lifted or rides lower when towing. Other flaps would not work as well if you have a lifted truck or a heavy duty dually since the length is standard. Other products that I have reviewed all had flaps made from a hard plastic material. The plastic is not very pliable and always seemed to bend and eventually break in a season or two. The plastic also tends to develop a bow from the wind and the flap becomes less effective over time. The Roadwing flaps are made from hard rubber that is ribbed on one side to help reduce spray and add strength. They're extremely durable and strong, but pliable enough to not break when backing up if you catch them on something. The material also does not become brittle in the cold.

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Whether you tow a boat, motorcycles, or a snowmobile, the Roadwing flaps are almost a must.
Click picture for larger image


In my opinion the Roadwing is an excellent investment to protect what you tow and will wear for years and years. Skip trying to find a cheaper clone, they're not as good and wont last. I know from experience and the Roadwing wing is now a standard part of my tow rig. Roadwing also make several additional models designed for smaller vans and trucks along with a RV specific model that runs the width of the RV.

Thanks for the bandwidth.

Matthew L. Baynard

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www.roadwing.com
4831 S.W. Obsidian
Redmond, OR 97756
Manuel@roadwing.com
Direct 541-548-6300
Toll-free 888-548-6336

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