Trailer Underride Safety: What the Toughguard Award Covers

Fruehauf joins the list—with a future production cutoff

On September 15, 2026, IIHS announced Fruehauf’s first Toughguard award. It covers 53-foot dry vans with aluminum or composite walls built after September 30, 2026. The qualifying production window has not begun as of this article’s September 16 check. MGA Research conducted the tests that IIHS reviewed. Read the IIHS announcement.

For a fleet buyer, that date is the useful detail. An order, delivery date or familiar badge cannot establish when a particular trailer was built. Ask for the trailer’s identification and the specification of its installed guard before describing that unit as award-qualified.

Why a rear guard matters to people in cars

A trailer’s high rear structure can pass above a car’s front crash structure. The car can travel underneath, allowing the trailer to intrude into the occupant compartment. A strong rear guard is intended to intercept the car before that happens. This is a vehicle-compatibility problem: a good rating in a car-to-barrier test does not establish protection in an underride collision. NHTSA’s underride overview.

That is why our passenger-car score and a trailer’s rear-guard qualification answer different questions. Neither should be substituted for the other when evaluating a particular crash scenario.

What the award tests—and what it leaves open

The original program used a midsize car at 35 mph against a stationary trailer in full-width, 50% and 30% overlap crashes. The smaller overlap loads the guard near its edge. Today, IIHS says separate full-width and 50% tests are no longer needed under the federal requirements; the 30% condition may be assessed with a quasi-static force test. Qualification therefore does not necessarily mean three newly filmed crashes. Current IIHS process and test protocols.

Read Toughguard as evidence about rear underride protection under the program’s conditions. It is not a side-guard award, a guarantee at every speed or angle, or a substitute for checking the condition of the guard on the trailer in front of you. Side underride is a separate engineering and research question. NHTSA’s rear and side underride work.

Four questions to ask before buying or documenting a trailer

1. Which unit? Record the VIN or serial number, manufacturer, trailer family and build month. Match the trailer type and date to the table.
2. Which guard? Where an option is required, obtain written confirmation of the guard identification and eligibility for that exact trailer.
3. What has changed? Ask about collision damage, repairs and guard replacement. An original build specification does not describe every later repair.
4. What is documented? Keep the manufacturer’s confirmation with the purchase record. If the answer remains uncertain, record it as unverified rather than inferring qualification from appearance.

This is a purchasing and reporting checklist, not an engineering inspection procedure. The manufacturer’s instructions and a qualified repair facility are the appropriate sources for inspection and repair decisions.