ROADMASTER 4750 Tow Defender

The brackets that were to be connected to my Roadmaster All-terrain tow bar had too small of holes to fit but was able to use parts from the tow-defender that I was replacing after 20 years.

Good quality, easy to assemble.

I've seen bad reviews but My experience was a 1,100 mile trip without a scratch, chipped paint or broken windshield on my towed truck.

I give them kudos for at least designing and selling such a product. Very creative. I debated between 1 star and two stars. I am giving them two stars because they actually designed and offer the product. Other manufactures (Blue Ox in particular) stopped making similar products. But Roadmaster really deserves a 1-star because of the issues with the design and the installation instructions. I really needed this to work. But it simply will not and I had to return it. If you intend to try it on your RV, please read this review carefully and make sure the product will fit on your tow bar stringer -- and watch videos to install the product, ignoring their terrible instructions.We have a 2019 Coachman Leprechaun with a bumper (which holds our sewer pipes). We are using Blue Ox tow bars.This device must be installed on the stringer of the Blue Ox tow bars (the bar that inserts into the hitch). There are two plates which must be installed. The first plate goes around the stringer and a second plate mounts on the first plate. The bars which hold the mat are mounted to the second plate. The issue is that the plates will not mount to the stringer because of the bumper. But there were other installation issues as well.Part of the issue is the design of the Leprechaun bumper and it's location relative to the tow bar. The bumper is a nice feature for stowing septic hoses. We keep two hoses in our bumper (and we have needed both at times). But the bumper is mounted directly (1") above the tow bar/hitch receiver and out just far enough that it you only get about 1.5" of clearance between the bumper and the RV and the Blue Ox stringer sticks out only about 1.5" beyond the bumper. The bumper covers most of the stringer! Uggghhh.But the most important issue is that the Towmaster's second plate has a 90 degree bend in it, with about 5 inches of steel on the vertical (perpendicular to the stringer) side of the bend to attach to the first plate and about 3-4" of steel on the horizontal (flat to the ground) side of the bend. This means that the second plate requires / covers about 3-4" horizontally along the bumper stringer. You must have this much space of clearance down the length of the stringer to install the plate. Roadmaster could (and should) have designed this second plate to require less horizontal space along the stringer. In fact, I'm not sure why any of it needs to be horizontal at all. I can imagine multiple scenarios on RV's and other tow vehicles where there would not be enough space on the stringer for this to fit.Roadmaster really deserves a 1-star because of their shoddy instructions -- and dangerous advice.The first step of their instructions say to roll out the mat. The second step says to attach the pistons to the bars which hold the mat. But they completely miss the step that you have to insert the bars into the mat BEFORE attaching the pistons to the bars! After I figured this out, I had a tough time figuring out how to disconnect the pistons from the bars.This is when I called Roadmaster. I give them credit for answering the phone (many companies do not offer such customer service lines). I asked them how to disconnect the pistons. The gentleman was nice, but not informed about their product. He put me on hold to go ask someone else. But I figured it out before he came back (you have to insert a flat head screwdriver in the band around the tips of the pistons.)Besides missing the step about inserting the bars into the mat (and probably other steps), their instructions include very few pictures, which are poorly exposed and poorly printed -- so much so that you can barely make out the parts. If you try to install this yourself, I HIGHLY recommend ignoring their instructions and watching videos you can find online ( I found them too late).It was while I was waiting on the phone, I also identified the issue with the plates not fitting on the stringer. I asked the gentleman what I could do to resolve this issue. He suggested a tow bar extension. I then saw that tow bar extensions were also mentioned in their printed instructions. He (of course) recommended their extension bar.I asked him why their product descriptions don't mention the possible need for such an extension and why they do not say how much stringer length you need. He said he would mention that concern to their marketing folks. I also chided them for their poor instructions -- missing steps, few pictures, poorly taken pictures, and poorly printed pictures. He said he would also pass that along. (Based on this experience, I'm not holding my breath on either.)I started looking online for tow bar extensions. After a couple of hours, it turns out that Roadmaster makes what appears to be excellent, well-built tow bar extensions. They are some of the best on the market. But, alas, they could not ship what I needed in time for an upcoming trip.That started me on a wild goose chase to local stores to find an extension. I finally found one, but THANKFULLY the clerk at the store recommend STRONGLY that I not use the extension. It turns out that when you extend a hitch like that, you add significant torsion to the hitch on all vectors. Thus you must reduce the capacity of the hitch by at least 50%! That means that my 5,000 lb, Class III hitch would have been reduced to only 2,500 lbs. My tow car weighs 3,500 pounds (plus what we store in it during trips). It would have been DANGEROUS -- even DEADLY -- to have used a hitch extension.One other design note -- this product is installed ABOVE the tow bars. If your tow car has body parts BELOW the tow bar pins on the front of your car, those body parts will not be protected by this device. You should consider a bra to protect the front of the car. Roadmaster should consider a design where the mat mounts under the two bars.Overall, they get credit for a creative idea and the fact that they actually attempt to manufacture and sell the product. They also get some credit for answering a call.But they utterly fail when it comes to design (too much space along the stringer is needed) and installation instructions.But they really failed on the advice of using a hitch extension -- both on the phone and in their instructions. Such advice should come with significant warnings. Really, it probably would never work as this product is designed to protect a tow car and I don't know of many tow cars less than around 3,500 pounds. Most hitches are rated to 5,000 pounds and thus a tow bar extension would almost never work.I think this product will work well for some (maybe even most) RV/Toad applications. But it did not work on mine and I think Roadmaster should send this product back to the drawing board. If they resolve the design issues (less horizontal space used along the stringer and mounting the mat under the two bars, I would happily reconsider my purchase. But for now, the product was returned. Thank you, Amazon!

A bit difficult to align the holes for the pins, but with practice it gets easier. Lightweight and easy to store

There doesn't seem to be many options available for larger tow vehicles. Most other options don't fit the tow bars that are made for full sized pickups and SUV's. I used the Tow Defender on a recent 3500 mi trip. It stopped most of the gravel chips on my F250, compared to the previous F150, without any deterrent. The function of the gas shocks work very well on turns and it seems to be well built. I only gave it 4 stars because it didn't totally stop the gravel chips. Possibly the addition of a mask or film on the front of the truck would help.

We have a Blue OX tow package and after some review I found out we could use this Roadmaster 4750 Tow Defender with our Blue Ox. Well, it worked but not until some modifications were made to make it work. We had to drill two new holes to the securing rod cause it would not line up correctly. Additionally, we had to buy and we added three washers on each bracket attached to the blue ox to make a good fit. After these modifications, our tow defender has been working great.

My friends consider me somewhat of a handy man. I have "all the right tools" The instruction brochure is very difficult to follow. Steps are not adjacent to photos, of which, most are not helpful. Instructions don't clearly demonstrate how to connect this cover to the Tow bar or coach. And instructions don't list tools needed, like size wrenches/sockets. So if you do it yourself, have your full wrench set handy. It took the better part of 6-7 hours to install before I could even road test it. I'm sure if I could install another one tomorrow, it would be much easier. My suggestion is: Get a professional to install it and connect it to your towed. Then ask for lessons on how to use it. I still think I have the gas strut connections on wrong side of flap. They are currently above it. And they definitely rub and the outside one does not retract after turning sharp corner (e.g. left turn; right one does not completely retract.). Now, having reported the above, I recognize I owe another report after using it few times. Let's see how it works after a "break-in".