 |
| Blue Ox Kargard II in use |
With the right setup, towing 4 wheels down is an easy way to bring along transportation once you setup your motorhome at the campground. But it's no surprise that towing a vehicle right behind your motorhome is destine to ruin the vehicles finish along with possibly doing quite a bit of damage. Just one run in the rain will have you questioning the idea of towing a $20,000 + vehicle 4 wheels down with it covered in a rocks, dirt and silt. I hate to even hit the windshield wipers on the toad once I get to our destination for fear of scratching the glass with all of the sandy silty mess plastered on the windshield.
 |
| Kargard II rolled up and stored |
So a toad protector would be a logical accessory to add to the towing setup, but I always hated the idea because I did not want to add more time and steps to the connection process. There are some campgrounds without a good place to disconnect your toad and you find yourself holding up other campers who are trying to get to their campsite. So when Blue Ox introduced the
Kargard II with it's fast setup and easy storage I was all in.
 |
| Newly installed bolts with pins and clamp brackets in place. |
The installation is very easy, it comes assembled and slides on to the tow bar receiver tube that is inserted into your 2" hitch receiver on the motorhome. There are 2 bolts that are included to replace the bolts on the tow bar legs that connect the triple lugs. The only thing left is to adjust the Kargard II so that it's stretched out tight and tighten the 2 bolts located on the bracket that mounts to the receiver tube.
To use the Kargard II when it's rolled up in the stored position, you simply undo the velcro straps that keep it in place when not in use, unroll it, slide the clamp brackets over the bolt pins and use the quick clips to secure it. (takes less than 30 seconds to get it ready for use)
 |
| My setup does not allow for the perfect fit. |
The very first time out with it installed we traveled over 200 miles in the ran and I noticed some added benefits to having it installed. First was that my rear camera was not getting blurred by all of the road spray like it normally does without the Kargard installed. When we got to the campground the Jeep that we tow was in far better condition than it ever had been before. By no means was it clean, but the hood and windshield were not filled with small rocks and silt like it normal would be. Also, we have had an issue with a small amount of water leaking in the doors on Jeep while being towed in a heavy rain and we had no issue with that either. And finally the back cap of the motorhome looked pretty clean and it never looked like that before. Even with my hitch being extended out (see the final photo), which allows for a pretty big gap between the motorhomes rear cap and the Kargard II, I had very little damaging dirt and road grime on the car or motorhome.
Like most all of Blue Ox's products, this is very well built, the screen material used on the Kargard seems very rugged and I don't foresee any potential issues or failure points. Viewing it in my rear-view camera I didn't notice much movement at all while under way even while it was being pummeled by a torrent of water that was being kicked up by the tires of the motorhome. I have to say I am really happy with the performance of the
Blue Ox Kargard II and look forward to it's protection of our Jeep for years to come.
If you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment and I will make every attempt to answer as accurately as I can.
