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Keep dirt and debris off the front of your towed vehicle while you're flat towing. Polyethylene panels with an aluminum frame create a robust shield for your car while still being able to flex with the wind, keeping it aerodynamic.
Features:
Specs:
Note: Cannot be used with Blue Ox AutoStop braking systems.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hey there flat towers. Today on your 2018 Ford F-150, we're gonna be taking a look at and showing you how to install Blue Ox's Kargard. And this is what our kargard looks like when it's installed. You can see here that it provides us a shield all the way across the front of our vehicle. So, when we're hooked up to our motor home and the motor home's throwing up dirt, debris, rocks and everything else out there on the road. Not to mention, just the bugs and everything else that are just naturally out there in the wild when you're trying to flat tow your vehicle.
It's gonna protect your vehicle from all those things that are being thrown up on it. So, no longer do you gotta worry about having a nice vehicle that you bought, that was brand new, that you've put hardly any miles on, 'cause you're flat towing it across the country. But, the front end of it looks like it's been on the road for 150,000 miles. Not anymore. This will protect you from all that dirt and debris.
Now, of course, you still want to wash your vehicle and you can see here, depending on your vehicle, it may not encompass the entire cap of the vehicle. It's doing the best that it can though. This is a huge cover for a lot of your smaller vehicles, like your cars and SUVs. It does a great job on your trucks here. You can see that it still does a pretty good job but our customer opted to get a bug deflector as well.
And I would recommend that as well to protect a little bit here that our kargard is gonna miss. So, now that we've covered some of the features of our kargard, why don't you follow along with me and we'll show you how to get it installed. It's really not that hard to set up. We are gonna have to remove a few bolts from our tow bar, but you do get all the necessary hardware included with your car guard to replace those bolts. And it does come with various brackets and hardware for the different styles of tow bars.
So, once you get all done, if you got a few bolts left over, just check your instructions. Those bolts we're likely for a tow bar that you don't have. So, you didn't need those pieces of hardware. We'll begin our installation by removing the factory bolt here. After we get that, it zips off of there. We're gonna use the longer bolt that comes in your kit. We're gonna drop it down through the closest hole to the cup there, set it in place, and then install our new nut on the bottom. And these are the longer bolts that come in your kit. We'll then, snug it down. We don't wanna run it all the way down just yet because we wanna be able to orient it as necessary, so. You're just kind of snugging it up. That's pretty good there. Maybe a little bit more just to get rid of some of the play. There, we can still maneuver it so, we can come back and fully tighten that later, but that'll be a good starting point right there. We're now gonna take the tower legs here and put 'em in place. The plastic cap you see there needs to face upward. So, it's just gonna drop down in there. Same on the other side. After you get 'em dropped in there, we're gonna pin 'em into place. The hole here at the bottom should line up with the holes here. You can see that there. I'm gonna switch it just for a side one. Like that. Pin that in and we're gonna pin in the other side the same way. We're now gonna install our upper and lower clamps and brackets. So, just take these and slide it over your bar. We want it to face outward like this. So, we're gonna have one at the top and we're gonna have one lower down. We're not gonna, we don't have an exact position for 'em yet. So, we're not gonna tighten the hardware super tight so we can slide it up and down to get the appropriate spot. This is your lower bracket and this is your upper bracket. We want the pins that you see there to be facing up. Just like you see here. So, this one's gonna go on there. The other one will go up on the top one. So, we're gonna slide this one in place Just like that as well. We'll go ahead and put the lower one on first. This is gonna use the smaller bolts that come into your kit with a lock washer on it. That's gonna slide through the bracket. The clamp there, into the lower bracket. Same thing for the upper bracket. It's gonna slide through the clamp and right into that. And again, we don't want it to be super tight at this point. So we're just gonna put 'em in there, hand tight for now. And then we'll snug 'em down here. When we get it closer to being in position. We're gonna loosely install the other side the same way. On the top of each one of our brackets, go ahead and slide on one of the rubber gaskets. Next, we're gonna open this guy up. So, just go ahead and set it on the ground and get it all the way open. They are pretty stiff. So, you might even open to lay it down just to get it to open up. We're gonna take the lock rod here and slide it from the top. We can tell it's top because Blue Ox is written up there. Down, this'll hold it in the expanded position for us. There is a small pin that goes at the bottom there to hold that in place. We can go ahead and put that in there at this time as well. Now, we're gonna lift it up and we're gonna find the most appropriate holes that this will line up in. It's kind of looking like, this is wider than most of our attachment points here. Looks like this outer slotted hole might be our winner. So, I'm gonna slide it on there. We're gonna check the other side and see if it lines up. But honestly, I don't think it's gonna line up there either. So, we'll just, looks like we're gonna have to redo our bracketry since none of them line up, I guess we're gonna take 'em all off and flip 'em around and face 'em towards the inside. This is the recommended position, but if it doesn't line up on your vehicle, you just gotta figure out the appropriate orientation to where it does line up. So, we're just gonna set it back in place now. And it looks like that will line up with our slotted holes now. So, now we know how it's gonna line up. It's gonna line up with the slotted holes. We're gonna go ahead and pin in the top ones. The bottom ones don't actually have pins. So, just bring up your top one there, set it in place. Grab one of the pins out of your kit. Clip it on in. We're gonna clip in the other side the same way. Clip it in. Next thing we're gonna do is, we want this to, we don't want it to be resting on our tow bar like it is right now. So, we'll lift it up a little bit and then we're gonna snug down the upper brackets to hold it in the position we want. Then, we can raise the lower brackets up into their slots and snug those down. So, we're just grabbing our wrench here. Pulling upward on it. I think we're just gonna probably set it up pretty close to the top of the bar like that, 'cause of the way this one sits and snug it on down. And we'll snug down the other side. We're gonna raise it up so, it's in roughly the same position as well and snug it down. All right, so now it's holding itself up. It is not resting on our tow bar, so we're gonna bring our lower brackets now, up. Slide them into position and then we're gonna snug them down. So, now we can go back and snug our bolts up that we had left loose. Once all your hardware's tightened down, the only thing we really want to do next is to just verify that we're easily able to remove it and put it back in place. And there's a couple of ways you can do that. You can either pull the pins at the top here and slide this off of the arms or we can pull the pins down below and remove the entire thing, which is what we're gonna do. We're gonna pull the lower pin on each side, pull that one out. Here's both of our pins removed. We can then see that it slides right out of there pretty easily. Recheck that it drops back down in there easily. Looks like that was pretty easy. And then, just double check that your pins reinstall okay. And if everything seems good there. And that completes our installation of Blue Ox's kargard, on our 2018 Ford F-150..
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (89 Customer Reviews)
Keep dirt and debris off the front of your towed vehicle while you're flat towing. Polyethylene panels with an aluminum frame create a robust shield for your car while still being able to flex with the wind, keeping it aerodynamic.
I bought this one year ago to protect my 2017 Honda Civic (manual trans) as we towed it behind our small motorhome. We ised it as we made our annual snowbird migration to and from the Northeast to Florida, and multiple trips this spring and summer. The KarGard shield worked as expected and our car remained much cleaner and paint chip free as a result. Yes, it takes a little extra time to install and remove but in my opinion the results are well worth it.
We have come to love the response we get from etrailer.com. They have the right equipment to meet the right vehicle and a timely response rate from order to delivery. WOW!
light weight, but solid enough to protect our toad. Designed and sized to easily fold and store out of the way at the camp
Wayne
4/12/2024
I had a nut and bolt fall out due to road vibration, I replaced it with stainless nylock hardware. Other than that were still using it, currently in Mazatlan towing it Cherokee
I haven’t driven with in on yet, but installation was easy. Still trying to get the adjustment right.
After opening the box upon the timely delivery I discovered that there is really not much assembling to be done. Extremely easy installation instructions were also included. Total installation took less than 30 minutes! You’ll be pleased with the ease of use as well, on and off takes 5 minutes or less. The materials are very tough and reinforced for years of road use. I couldn’t be happier with the peace of mind we get by using this to guard against any road debris being kicked up by our Motorhome as well as vehicles on either side of us! A great investment and value!
Mike
8/13/2023
It’s been a year since purchase and installation of the KarGuard and it hasn’t disappointed in working just as promised. I can’t say that it’s saved the front end of our Jeep however I’ve not seen any damage to her nose after our many trips so the guard is doing it’s job!
After about 6 months, one side of the car sheild broke completely off. Bloe ox replaced that side. Now after nearly 8 months of occasional use, the other side has broken off. I hope that the large piece that broke loose didnt impact any other drivers. Not sure what I will go with next, but I wouldn't get another one!
Jenny N.
6/24/2022
I reached out to Blue Ox who will reach out to you. They advised that it is possible that very high winds or road debris that impacted the shield just right could be the cause.
The Karguard was easy to set up initially & even easier to put in place prior to trips. I have traveled as far as 11 hours and not a single ding on the dingy. I highly recommend this if you pull a vehicle behind your motorhome!
Daniel
8/12/2023
Its been a year & we have travelled thousands of miles using the KarGard shield to protect my Jeep & it hasnt suffered a single stone chip. This was well worth the price to pritect out toad
I used the shield on my open car trailer . It was easy to install and was pretty straight forward . Very sturdy and looks great .
Easy to set up and great protection. I wish I got it sooner. You would be surprised how much road trash is thrown up from your rear wheels into the front of your toad. This is perfect protection.
Excellent. Fast delivery
This was an unnecessary purchase. On the surface the idea of protecting out tow vehicle from rocks thrown up by our big rig seemed appropriate. however after further review of how our rig itself handled rocks it was not needed.
When stowed this product takes up a lot of room even when folded. its cumbersome and not the easiest to install.
We left it along with all the parts at an RV campground hoping someone else could use it. NO one wanted to purchase it in the aftermarket.
Live and learn.
Great product to protect towed vehicle or trailer. Easy assembly and use. etrailer great to work with.
I received the Blue Ox KarGard as promised on time. It was an addition to my new Blue Ox Ascent tow bar. I am using the KarGuard to protect the front of my 2018 Jeep JK. I read the directions and watched the install video on the eTrailer website. Using a few hand tools it was easy to set up and install. It took about 2 hours to set up. I needed an adjustable wrench and two different sockets. The KarGuard kit came with extra hardware to allow it to be installed on other tow bars. I am not mechanically inclined and do not have many power tools. This was easy to set up and install.
Mark
4/27/2022
Fantastic! I towed my Jeep 2500 miles to Yellowstone and back. Stopped at National Parks along the route. Quick connect and disconnect made it easy. One tip: I bought the 7500 lb tow bar. Had to make several sharp turns. The tow bar is longer that the 5000 lb tow bar. The extra length prevented the Motorhome from making contact with the Jeep!
Good product that is well constructed. The installation ended up being quite easy but felt quite challenging at the start. I found the instructions that come with the guard to be very hard to follow. Some illustrations in the installation guide are out of date. Identifying some part names with the items being referred to in the instructions is difficult. However, E Trailer has a series of installation photos on their website. Once I figured out to rely on the E trailer photos to guide me it was a snap to install.
Steve
8/17/2022
Outstanding. Continues to work exactly as expected.
Very simple to put together and protects the towed very well
The BX8870 Kargard was easy to install on my Blue Ox Alpha Tow Bar. The instruction that came with the Kargard are very poor because they are written for many different applications. Once you determine what the instruction are trying to tell you, the installation went great. I haven't had the a chance to see how well the kargard will actually protect the toad, but it looks like it is going to do an excellent job. As usual, I was very happy with how quick I received my order from eTrailer.
I ordered this item from etrailer after having several missed deliveries from Amazon and it arrived today as promised. I am very pleased with the Blueox Kardgard. Thank you etrailer for getting it to me on time.
Tommyd
9/21/2017
This product works as described. Keeps the front of my Jeep free from stones and other debris that gets kicked up from the motorhome.
We purchased the BLue Ox car guard BX8870. We are happy with the fast service from e-trailer however we are towing a Jeep and the towers were only 18” and to cover our 2018 Jeep Wrangler Sahara we need the towers to be at least 24” for this guard to protect our vehicle hood. It would work great on a car.
Got it a day early from etrailer. Instructions that came with it are very hard to follow. I used etrailer's video for installation and things went OK. The difficult part is figuring out which hole to use on the stanchion brackets and which way to point them. It's a bit of trial and error to get it right. Just hope I didn't wear out the locking nuts as I had to change things 4 times. Everything depends on which base plate you have. Got it all done in a couple of hours with a few interruptions. Looks good. More importantly, it looks like it will work well.
Used for five months so far and it provided great chip protection for front end of towed vehicle. Durable yet light weight,easy to installation and easy to mount.
Love the Blue OX KarGuard!
I pull a Mini Cooper behind my Class A and haven’t experienced any stone chips since I started using it.
Installation is easy and it folds away nicely for storage.
I give eTrailer 5 Stars and UPS 1.5 Stars. eTrailer never disappoints. Great installation videos and service after the sale. Extremely quick to ship.
UPS on the other hand delivered the product in a box that was so destroyed, parts were laying on the porch outside the box (pictures attached).
Notified eTrailer customer service. If any parts were missing, they were going to make things right.
Better than I thought it’d be. Easy install and removal.
I did modify to lower it as truck was higher than car I was towing. Lowered it to get better coverage of frontend on truck.
Great product. easy to install and adj ust
Easy install and using it is a breeze. Lightweight and small enough to stow in the basement.
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Wes
6/16/2024
The KarGard we use for our 2023 Buick Encore GX does an excellent job at protecting our car as we tow it behind our Winnebago Tour. It’s easy to setup and protects the front from all road debris. This is one of the best parts about using our BlueOx tow system.