preventing stone windshield rock chips

[lemen]

Thank you for your responses.

This is more for my daughter bc she just had her 3rd or 4th windshield replaced in 2yrs.

Looked at the film coverings and they last about a yr b4 getting cloudy, scratches from wiper blades, etc.

Hopefully a product will emerge w a much better ROI & > longevity, but for now, there's nothing really sustainable The last one i received had nothing to do w tailgating. Single lane country rd and truck coming at me dropped rocks snd hit windshield when passing it. That's the luck of the draw.

I also prefer staying in far rt lane snd let gravel based trucks take the far left lane.

Not to be unkind, but this is hardly readable for not american citizens.
B4 and those kind of things looks more like a rebus than language.

I'm not the only one that have probles with it I guess:

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/threads/humor.560203/page-132#post-7250683

The second picture

 

[Old Jarhead 03]

I used a Rain-X 600001 Windshield Repair Kit to fix a couple of chips. A bit of a pain to use, but it worked great and kept chips from running.

 

[rocco611]

Had one about 4" tall on a 77 Ford F250. Didn't help keeping rocks from hitting the windshield. It did help with bugs and chips on the front edge of the hood. I always keep a glue kit around to fix chips soon after they happen. I live down the road from a quarry

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Yes, but 3 repairs in 6 months (or something like that) will get you a letter from your insurance company saying you're being dropped. That happened to me 25 years ago.

If you need 3 windshields replaced in 6 months I can understand be dropped, you would be better off with a piece of plexi-glass.

 

[mx842]

Hello to all,

Based on a lot of Interstate driving, having small rocks hit the windshield happens too often. Are there any new technologies that help prevent the chipping and resultant cracks? Never had one installed, but they used to have those plastic "air-lifts" installed on the front of the hood. Do those work or are they obsolete?

thank you in-advance for your suggestions.

They work!

 

[SwingOak]

It's a sign of living thru the 1990's, that my mind went immediately to, "did Mythbusters do an episode on this?" Well, damn...

View attachment 4184765

My landlord had been in Morocco in the early/mid 80's and said he got it there. I always assumed gimmicky things like that would not do much of anything except separate a tourist from their money. In fact, a couple of years later I was following a friend of mine up into the back country and his truck threw a rock about 1" across right through my windshield. And when I say through, it made a hole. No fixing that.

I travel a lot for work (And by a lot I mean almost every week), and get to pick anything I want for a rental car most of the time. I like Wranglers, they're fun to drive. Every single one except relatively new ones (<3000 miles) has chips, cracks and bullseyes in the windshield. It's a function of the mostly flat angle and direction of impact. Par for the course.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

Modern vehicles are far less prone to chips, than older vehicles were, because they are designed to be more fuel efficient, which includes wind tunnel analysis. Things now flow past in the air and don't make contact. But, dense things like small rocks are heavy enough to separate from the air and hit the windshield. So, the old micro-pitting which was endemic on high mileage vehicles, is now nonexistent, but the incident of actual rock chips is more frequent.

I would be hesitant to install anything non factory to the front of the hood, because it might disrupt the air flow, and actually make things worse.

 

[ultrarunner]

Much easier in the Carolinas, than North Dakota. Of course, with the size of some of the flying insects in Florida or Alabama, the no windshield in south ain't exactly without its own perils.

I use this for my cars without windshields…

 

[WinterDeere]

I use this for my cars without windshields…View attachment 4185733

Yep! But there's still a limit to what you want to take in the face, even with those goggles.

Somewhere on this forum, I've already told the story of a friend's father who was a Navy figher jet pilot, and had a bird explode their canopy. He thought his copilot had been killed, until they got the jet landed and he realized the blood covering the divider between them was mostly the bird's.

 

[998cc]

In several decades of driving, I have had my share of stone craters/cracks in the windshield. Some have come from transfer type dump trucks, belly dump gravel trucks, trucks/trailers hauling construction equipment and other construction vehicles. Another source is off-road/snow tires on pickups that travel on gravel roads; these collect a few of these stones in the tire tread and deposit them on paved roads as the vehicle gains speed. Jagged, crushed gravel fits well in the tread! Many of my windshield contacts have come from what I assume were from stones kicked up by other vehicles. Thankfully, no stones in my face while on a motorcycle.

It's doubtful these hazards will ever go away, so the better defense has already been stated--stay back from vehicles more likely to drop these stones. Otherwise, insurance coverage may be a better route.