Do you tailgate,if you do try staying back about 250 feet or more,I see people who you would think they were at Indy drafting the guy in front of them they are soooo close,realy bad if you follow gravel hauler's right on their bumper,here in florida they dont even clean off the tailgate of the box or the side's of the box,when I was hauling back in Illinois not cleaning your truck before going on the highway was a ticket IF you got cought,also keep a head's up for lowboy's hauling tracked equment,the track's and related part's can have stone's stuck on them which come lose going down the road,we alway's needed to clean the track's before loading the equment going on the highway and sweep the deck CLEAN of stone's and rock's,now if you meet someone going the other way on a two lane road all bet's are off if he dident clean up,I would not blame the glass mfg,rock's and stone's are a lot harder than glass and ford is totaly blameless in this.

 

NONE of my damage has been caused by any obvious vehicles...

First one I was on a road that was about 2 years old, had really nice blacktop. It was a divided road with a large median. Speed limit was only 45 though. I was probably going 50. I was in traffic driving a "normal" distance behind other vehicles. There were no trucks in front of me, but I don't recall specifically what was in front of me.

Second one I was on a 2 lane road, not divided. Going around 45-50. There was a Jaguar a LONG way in front of me, 10-15 car lengths? To this day I can't believe the rock was thrown up by the Jag, but there were no other cars on the road.

Third was the ice. I posted about it when it happened. Jerkoff in Virginia did not clean the 2" thick sheet of ice off the roof of his Liberty. In NJ(where I lived at the time) that would be a ticket, in PA he would have been criminally liable for the damage to my vehicle. In VA, he said "You can't prove that came from me" and got off scott free.

And the fourth time was just the other day.. I was driving north on 540(big 4 lane divided) going 70-75... As I was driving I happened to notice there was a good chip in the windshield. I don't remember hearing a noise. I'm usually pretty aware of that sort of thing. The chip was about 2" below where I look through the windshield for normal driving.

I do follow close(very close), but only when I'm in a hurry. I'm usually not in a hurry. All of these incidents have been when I was driving "normally" I put it in quotes cause I don't know how to describe that exactly. But I wasn't tailgating a dumptruck, I can tell you that. heh I give dumptrucks about 3 miles ever since the first chip.

I HATE stone chips... I'm **** about my truck, and even though I had it "repaired" and it won't spread, I can see it. and it bothers me.. a great deal. When the ice destroyed my last windshield I was kinda happy. And when I picked the truck up with the brand new glass I was really happy. Sucks that I had to pay for it all out of my pocket but whatever.

-Jay

 

its all chance. the ford glass (carlite) is some of the better glass out there. mopar also is good glass. some of the new gm glass is made in mexico. illl prob kick myslef later but if anyone has any glass questions ill try to help you out, ive been in the windshield industry for about 15 years. 02crew

 

I just got back from a trip from WV to TX and back again. Sure enough, on the interstate in TN we heard the "DINK" and saw the spot where the rock hit the windshield...but then it started sprinkling and had to use the wipers. At the next fuel stop I was unable to find where the rock hit.

Thats twice I've held my breath in the 250 and have not come out with a crack. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Joe

 

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I need to rant. Just this last weekend my windshield cracked while driving. A rock hit just under the passenger side wiper. I have one crack veering to the right and a second going to the left. This is my THIRD windshield that has cracked from rocks within 53000 miles.
No, I wasn't tailgating. No, I wasn't driving behind a commercial truck. I also don't put much into the bigger windshield idea either. All the cracks I've had, have been in different locations across the windshield. I'm settling on the fact that it's just bad luck.
End of Rant.

 

Reading the topic it made me thinking.
I got crack on my windshield a year ago, when during heavy snowfall I turned max heat on the defrost. Cold ice on one side and hot air on the other made long crack at lower part. When I ordered new OEM glass, the installer told me that the previous was not OEM.
So I got the new OEM glass and before I had a chance to go to Police to sign off the fix ticket --the new glass had a crack starting at the very bottom and in few days went 6" up the glass. The installer told me it was small rock chip on the crack and using my special edition glasses I could see "something" there. So the next glass was aftermarket, $129 glass installed on my driveway and good a year later.

 

I agree that it's just bad luck. I just replaced an OEM that had a crack all the way across the lower part of it. 2 weeks later I have a chip in the top right corner of my aftermarket replacement windshield. Oh well.

I'm pretty sure if I stayed 250 feet back of the car in front of me, I would never get to work. Do you know how many cars can cut you off in 250 feet of open space in Houston?

 

Replaced the windshield in our Escape this last year. Insurance paid, but we get to choose the company that installs. Chose a company that offers a 6 month guarantee free replacement if anything happens to the glass. Less than 6 months and we get another chip, and they came out and installed a new one, no charge. This is something to look for if you go through windshields frequently. They also sold longer warranty at fairly low rates, but I carry a low deductible on comp, so we didn't buy.

 

Maybe I didn't make it clear in my previous reply, but looks like this is more than bad luck.
The OEM windshield cracked having 1/64" rock chip. My aftermarket glass is having 1/4" chip at lower part and it did not crack.
Now windshields with road hazard insurance? That something I have never heard about.

 

It doesn't matter how big the chip looks, it all depends on how deep it goes.

 

A chip in a windshield is like a score in a brick, temperature and pressure will cause it to spread.some never spread.

 

Disagree. On our Mercedes the windshield has about 2" bullseye, couple of chips that makes about 1/2" stars and several smaller chips and none of them spread for over 2 years. They don't bother me and I am postponing the replacement as on those cars new glass is often fooling rain sensor.

 

What do you mean "fooling" the rain sensor? Unfortunately state inspections around here won't let people let the small stuff slide. Stupid rules!

 

Disagree all you want but its a fact that a chip,bulls eye,star brake is a weak spot in the glass. Your lucky that it hasn't spread but in some states a chip in the windshield will cause you to fail a state inspection .

 

We don't have state inspections and generally cops won't bother you if the crack is out of driver line of sight.
DOT inspections are more picky if you have to have them, but chips don't bother them.
Coming back to the glass, some of it seems to be way better than the other. It is not clay brick for sure.
Cliff - rain sensor is very sensitive optical sensor mounted behind top of the glass in special window in dark strip there. Small mis-perfection in this area makes the sensor going wild and your wipers having mind on their own.