The Tow Defender's heavy-duty nylon screen deflects rocks, gravel, and road debris down and away, protecting your towed car's finish against chips and dings. The nylon mesh lets air through, keeping it low and over the road.
Features:
Roadmaster Tow Defender Protective Screening
The Tow Defender's heavy-duty nylon screen deflects rocks, gravel, and road debris down and away, protecting your towed car's finish against chips and dings. The nylon mesh lets air through, keeping it low and over the road. Fully extended, the Tow Defender measures 40" x 72" and is held in place with adjustable, shock absorbing steel struts. Adjust the tension to fit your towing system by simply sliding the strut mounts up or down the tow bar stinger.
Note: The Tow Defender fabric may become warped or otherwise damaged if exhaust is in close proximity to the fabric and cannot be redirected.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Today we're going to be taking a look at the Roadmaster Tow Defender Protective Screening. It's part number RM-4750. Now, the Tow Defender is a great idea for all flat tow setups, but it's really going to be handy if you find yourself on gravel roads or unpaved road surfaces where the likelihood of rocks and debris being thrown up on the vehicle are much greater. Now, from front to back, the tow defender can be adjusted to cover all the way up to 40". As far as the width, it's a full 72" or 6' of coverage. The material is a strong and durable nylon mesh. This is going to give us great protection but also allow wind flow to go through it, so we don't have any of the whipping around that we sometimes can get with other covers. The stitching is also heavy duty and reinforced.
That's going to help add to the durability. This heavy duty construction helps the Tow Defender last for many miles in even the toughest road conditions. All steel components here in the front and rear sections are also powder coated, so we don't have to worry about corrosion. Now the Tow Defender also comes with the bracket here that's designed to bolt right to the end of your tow bar arm. It comes with three different length bolts to help it fit multiple different applications. This is going to work for your Blue Ox, your Demco, and all of your Roadmaster Quick Disconnect tow bars.
Now, for other tow bar applications, you'll want to check out part number RM-4700. Another huge benefit that I really like about the tow defender is that when we remove our two clips, we can simply roll this up and store it with our tow bar, so there's no need to go through the whole setup process again. We'll pull both pins out, lift straight up, and then just begin to roll forward. With 00:01:42 that point, we'll just slide our provided straps around to keep it secure. As you can see fully rolled up, our tow bar can easily go into the stored position, and with the cutout design here, it's going to allow us easy access to our release handle the next time we need to hook up to our towed vehicle. To begin the installation of the Tow Defender, we're going to have to take the collar plate. This needs to slide on our tow bar.
It's designed to fit a 2" x 2" tow bar. Then, we're just going to hand tighten the two bolts here on the bottom. Once we've got those hand tight, we'll slide our tow bar into the back of our motor home. Once that's in place and secure, we're ready to reconnect our tow bar to the front of our towed vehicle. The next step we'll do is spread our Tow Defender out here. We'll have the top up.
We've got our two hydraulic arms. We're going to be connecting those to the balls that are on the arms that come out. These are just going to, they go over the top and will snap down in position. We'll do that for both sides. Now, we can attach the Tow Defender to the bracket. When you do it, you're going to have a high, a medium, and a low setting. We're going to start in that medium setting and we can move it up or down if necessary. Bring the bolt through the bracket on the Defender, through the middle hole, and we've got a lock nut that we'll just thread on there. We'll do the same thing for other side. Then, we'll snug those down. For this, we'll use a 9/16" wrench and socket. Now, we're going to pull the pins on our tow bar. Of course, you'll want to make sure your vehicle's in park, your emergency brake is set. We're going to be removing this bolt. Keep in mind you've got your nylon washer on top and bottom here. When we put our new bolt in, we need to replace those. Now, we can reassemble our pieces here. Remember, we got to have those nylon washers in place. We put our plate down on top. Then, we need to choose whatever bolt is going to give us the appropriate length. In this case, it's going to be the middle bolt. Your application might be a little bit different, so just check it out. Once that's through, we'll place on our flat washer, lock washer, and our nut here. Now, we can reconnect the tow bar to the vehicle there. Position these so that they're straight and get them secured. For this, yoU'll use a 19mm. Then, we can repeat the same process for the passenger side. Now, with those in place, we're going to move our Tow Defender rearward so that if we have any type of catch or anything that it'll come up through. May have to loosen those bolts just a touch, pull that back. We're just going to try to prevent anything pushing up on the bottom of that fabric. Looks like right there will be a fine spot. We'll get our front bolts tightened down now. Now, we'll get the rear crossbar set in position. You'll see that we have three holes here. We need to make sure that those holes are sitting flat with the ground. We've also got a hole and then the portion that that's going to slide into. We want to make sure that these are on the same side. I usually like those towards the back so where we can keep the front seal. Now, we'll slide our cross arms separately into position starting in the middle, and there's going to be two loops or two openings to choose from. We got the larger size. Then, here it's going to cause a little bit more tension. We're going to go in that second set. Now, as we come across you're going to see three separate pieces here. This allows us to leave an opening proper for our crossbar, which ours is going to be the middle one, so that'll be the one that we skip running it through. We'll take this all the way out to the end of the Defender. We'll just do the same thing on the other side here, and we'll slide our two sections together and get them clicked in place. Now, we can bring it into our shoulder bolt holders. Now, we'll align it so one of our three holes matches our shoulder bolt bracket, bring that through and secure it. We'll do the same thing on the other side. Now, we'll check the front of the Tow Defender here. Ideally, we want this to be about even with the bottom of the bumper. As you can see we're a little bit below, so we're going to back our bolts out here, bring it up to that higher setting, and tighten that down. You can adjust that up or down depending on how the Tow Defender matches to the rear of your RV. Now, we're ready to tighten those down and get it secured. Here on our test course, we'll start by going through the slalom. This is going to show us the side-to-side action. This simulates turning corners or evasively maneuvering. Once we get to the alternating speed bumps, we'll see the twisting action. This will simulate hitting a curb or pothole or driving over uneven pavement. That'll complete our look at the Roadmaster Tow Defender, part number RM-4750.
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (35 Customer Reviews)
The Tow Defender's heavy-duty nylon screen deflects rocks, gravel, and road debris down and away, protecting your towed car's finish against chips and dings. The nylon mesh lets air through, keeping it low and over the road.Have not installed it yet. 434732
The best I've ever used. A+++ etrailer made my purchase from the Sales representatives knowledge, Quality Products to fast shipping.Thank You etrailer Regards Ray 639679
Received the road master rock shield and tow bar cover .. everything looks good and will make the install next week sometime..I want to thank everyone at etrailer for all of the help making my decision what product to buy .. thanks again. 644770
Very happy with the product, however I wasn't happy that a important part was missing from the box. 566991
Robert - 09/20/2019We have towed our 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee over 15K miles behind our Class A motorhome in the past year. I'm happy to say that the tow defender did it's job well. Can't find a single rock chip on the jeep. 577426
Edward L - 11/01/2019I wrongly ordered the RM-4700 model and had to exchange it for the RM-4750. Michelle at etrailer was excellent in providing a return authorization and reorder of the correct RM-4750 model. I received a full refund minus only $21.00 for return shipping which is certainly more than reasonable since this was my mistake. New product arrived promptly, but I was missing two 3/8"x1" bolts that were supposed to be included. Obviously, this was a mistake on the manufacturer's part not etrailer. Fortunately, I have a good selection of bolts and hardware and I had the exact type of bolts needed. Product has been installed and seems to be working as promised. 321529
Product arrived quickly. It was well constructed. Watched the etrailer video and read through the instructions and started to install. The 2 3/8 by 1" bolts and nuts were missing otherwise I would have given it a 5 rating. Luckily I only live 1 mile from the hardware store so I went ahead and got 4 because they were only 35 cents each. Rest of installation went great and test drive was good looks like it should do the job. Ready for the trip and will follow up on performance. 525759
Michael R - 07/27/2019The product works well and is constructed well. I gave it 4 stars because it mentions about being to close to the exhaust and causing damage to the fabric but doesn't talk about other possible concerns. I have a Tiffin 2018 Allegro Red motorhome. My ladder on the back of my motorhome interfered with proper operation of this part. My solution ending up being to cut off the lower section of my ladder. I have attached pictures so hopefully someone can see this as an issue before purchasing. 647695
This product does a good job of protecting our tow vehicle. It keeps road sluge from damaging paint and windshield. The best part is that it stays on the motorhome when not in use. It can be hooked up for towing by one person. Just what we need to protect our new truck. 327493
Miranda B was very helpful and pleasant to work with. Product in great condition. I will have NO problem ordering other items from you. Thanks for the prompt service 749720
easy to install and works better than a shield 734318
Great product. It really helps protect the tow vehicle and is easy to use. The initial installation was simple as well. I had to drill some custom holes, but otherwise easy. Highly recommended product. 719312
Installed it on our 2019 Chevy Equinox on the back of our 2004 Itasca Meridian and everything fit as it should, easy to assemble, I will need to install an 8 inch extension to my receiver hitch to provide clearance for the exhaust pipe, looks good confident it will keep debris off of our new car. Thank you for the great service and great products. 615516
Product seems to be as advertised. Hoping it will protect my toad. Etrailer has always been a great company to deal with. 565020
Ed G - 09/14/2019I placed a big order with etrailer to flat tow my Jeep. The Roadmaster tow bar was back ordered but was in transit. etrailer notified me of the possible delay and monitored the parts and was able to ship my complete order within my deadline. I always buy from etrailer due to the great service, follow up support and installation videos and instructions and they keep me informed. Thanks 540406
Good product. Relatively easy to install, us and store. etrailer customer support is outstanding. I will use them in the future. 472760
Great product ,great price, fast shipping and easy installation....Thanks Sandy J.. You guys at etrailer are the best..... Adrien A 460949
i towed a car to Alaska 8,000 miles total. There was a single ding on it when I got home. I noticed other cars at RV parks with damaged radiators due to rocks being thrown up. This was a great investment! 353020
It looks like it will definitely do what I want. Have not used it yet it was missing 2 screws that hold the collar and collar bracket together. 336328
Good product. Use with a Blue Ox towing hitch for RV dingy vehicle. Protects the front of the towed vehicle. Easy to hookup and retract when not in use. 272856
e-trailer always ships fast and delivers great service. I will install the tow-defender this coming weekend and will update on the product once it is installed. Thanks e-trailer.com, you saved me time and money! 206005
Easy to install, exactly what I expected in quality. 126045
Product should work as advertised. Instructions and photos for the install are very poor. But, the tech services people at RoadMaster are good at getting you through it over the phone. 114323
Product was as advertised and received on time. Great service. 67647
Review from a similar Roadmaster Tow Defender in Accessories and Parts
Haven't used it on the road but installation was a breeze. Material looks heavy, well made 127479
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