Rock Guards on Fiberglass Campers

So the Uhaul, like many other fiberglass campers with front windows, came with a rock guard. My thoughts on this are that Uhaul wanted to make sure that the glass didn't get shattered either from a truck towing it and throwing up rocks behind or a car towing it and rocks from the road coming over the roof of the car. In any event, it's a great thing to have in my opinion.

The front window is a solid glass window. Unlike the door, rear and two side windows, which slide open and have a screen, the front has no way to open and therefore no screen. There are two types of rock guards on fiberglass campers that I've seen: a solid plastic/fiberglass piece that clamps to the front window (Scamps seem to have this style) and a hinged piece with shocks. The Uhaul comes with the later. I suppose having a hinged guard vs a removable piece that could get lost is better in a rental environment.

The nice thing about the Uhaul rock guard is that I can open and close it as needed. I tend to close it at night since it's right at the top bunk and it blocks out the sun in the morning to let my son sleep a little later. Granted that's a benefit only applicable to those with kids on the top bunk but for us it's a big one. I also like that when open it provides some shade over the window. You can even use the shocks to hang towels on to dry if you're at the beach or anywhere that you may be swimming. The one downside I can see is that since it shades the window so much it does block out some of the vistas you could view out the front. That's minor for me as I tend to have the car parked in front of it most of the time. (Some folks have said they don't like having the rock guard at all so they can see all the way through the camper and out the back window when towing.

When we first got the Uhaul I noticed a couple of issues with our rock guard. (Which I must say from the folks I've talked with and those I've seen for sale since, not all of them still have theirs.) It's made of plastic so like with anything plastic it's a bit brittle after so many decades. It's hinged at the top. Ours had apparently been broken at the hinge point on one side and the PO had moved the hinge over toward the middle and re-riveted it. So we do have a "hole" in the top side when it's closed which does allow for rain, leaves etc to come through. I do have to clean out the leaves before a trip since it's parked under a tree at home. I may try to patch it at some point.

The other thing I noticed with ours was that there were issues with the shocks. The original shocks were lightweight and after a few decades had worn out. I took the original shocks to an auto parts store and I matched them for length and bolt size. The pressure in my replacements is likely higher than the original ones when they were new. But I don't see any undo stress. If you have issues with yours, then I recommend replacing them.

On a side note, if you do not own a rivet gun, I'd invest the few bucks in one with a fiberglass camper. They're really useful; especially with the double hull of the Uhaul. They will allow you to attach things to the outside without having to drill through both hulls and using bolts on the inside. The hardware that connects the shock to the camper had snapped a rivet and the other one was close behind. So I ended up re-riveting it and it was quick and simple. Here's a link to a video on how to use a rivet gun (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPwNsQMnx88). It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it. Just make sure you use the right size rivets for the job.

Feel free to comment with any questions.