Rock chips while towing

[VitaminSea]

Do you guys know if you can buy color matching gel coat touch up from yamaha like you can for a car?
I probably at least need to fill the big one and this is a unique color of blue.

yes, Spectrum Patch Paste.
Navigate to the below, enter color, then select Yamaha, then year. I believe I ordered mine from boatID.

Gel Coat Search

 

[AZMark]

@AZMark what is your year/make/model tow vehicle and what brand/model/size tires are you running? I am thinking your vehicle geometry on the back end and the current tread has your hull in the “sweet spot chuck zone”. I have an F150 with 285/70R17 Nitto Ridge Grapplers and also ran the factory 20s with Pirelli scorpions, BFG KO2s and Cooper Discover ATP for 9,737 miles towing back East with none of that. Pebble size and tread pattern likely have a lot to do with it.

I think you’re right. It’s a Toyota Land Cruiser so it doesn’t have a lot of rear overhang. Tires are 33x11.5” Falken Wildpeaks which are milder than those Ridge Grapplers but similar tread pattern.
I just measured and the stock mud flaps are 9.5” off the ground so really just protecting its own fenders.
The front axle on the trailer got it the worst & looks like it’s been shot with a 12 ga.
I’ll probably just make my own version of those rock tamers flaps - almost $300 for those seems a little crazy.

 

[Ibeflyinhigh]

Mine

I washed and put rejex on my boat yesterday and when I was doing the bottom side I noticed a ton of white specks on my blue hull. Turns out they are rock chips and they are everywhere on the boat and trailer
My suv has mud flaps and I only tow on pavement so I was shocked to see this much damage. This is after less than 1000 miles of towing on the boat.
I go through all kinds of trouble to anchor off shore and not beach this thing to avoid scratches so this is really disappointing.
I found one thread on this 6 years ago. Is it really not that much of a problem, or is it such a common problem that I’m the only idiot that didn’t think of it before the damage was done? I guess I’ll get some of the hitch mount mud flaps now.
The biggest chip appears to go through the gelcoat - do I need to fill this to avoid water getting in the fiberglass?

View attachment 122093View attachment 122094View attachment 122095

Mine is just as bad. I bought my boat in texas and by the time I got home to Arizona I had rock chips on the hull everywhere. I had hitch mud flaps for the whole trip and it didnt help. I even found rocks inside the boat. I think the cars and trucks passing you kick them up. There is no solution to prevent this. It sucks.

 

[Babin Farms]

Where I live there are a lot of gravel roads & driveways so there’s going to be rocks that get kicked up from either direction. I just do what I can to prevent chips from happening but in the end, it’s just a boat and can be repaired if it gets to bad. As long as the glass stays in one piece I can handle chips in the gel coat.

 

[AZMark]

I ended up buying a towtector (towtector.com) that has two brushes that cover almost the whole back of my vehicle. I could tell a lot of rocks were previously flying between the mud flaps because the trailer tongue was beat up worse than the boat.

Due to the exhaust and hitch setup on my particular vehicle it was a huge PITA to get this thing set up right, but now that it is it seems like it works very well to protect the boat. I will say they have very good customer service - I melted one whole side with my exhaust and they replaced all the necessary parts without any hassle at all.