I tow my
Bigfoot through some pretty crummy stretches of road, often in foul weather. At the end of the day after pulling into my camp site for the evening, I often find my fold-up entry step caked with dirt/mud/snow/ice etc. which often requires a significant amount of wrestling with it to open the step. The road debris also blasts the
paint of fairly quickly resulting in the need to repaint the step once or twice a year.
My truck has mud guards but on wet, muddy, or slushy roads, the spray from the rear
tires seems to kick up in just the right spot to foul the step. I didn't want one of those huge full-width rear mud guard set ups so I spent some time thinking about a possible solution and finally came up with one that seems to be working so far.
I built a small rubber mud guard that is bolted to the frame just a few inches in front of the step. It doesn't touch the step but it's close enough to it that the spray can't get around it and get all over the step.
I did a week-long trip just before Thanksgiving last year and the guard worked beautifully. No issues opening and closing the step no matter what I drove through. The acid test will be later this year when I head up to Alaska but for now I'm pleased with this simple and functional modification.