You know you live in Alaska IF

[starmac]

They put windshields on sale and you buy 6 of them, geesh, this is the first time in my life I ever hauled 6 windshields at home at one time. lol

I must hoard 22 ammo too. lol

[Ramar]

Is Nascar plexiglass illegal or more expensive? You have self-inspection there, right?
Ramar

[10x]

They put windshields on sale and you buy 6 of them, geesh, this is the first time in my life I ever hauled 6 windshields at home at one time. lol

I must hoard 22 ammo too. lol

Here in Northern Alberta the average life of a rock chip free new windshield is less than 3 weeks. It is less expensive to buy a new windshield every year than buy glass insurance....

[Akheloce]

I just let em go till I can't stand it anymore.

Last year, with my truck, I got lucky and hit a moose so my insurance covered it with the rest of the damage... Got some new KC highlights out if the deal too.

[starmac]

These are for my truck. The law is fairly forgiving here on cracked windshields, but we still have dot inspections. lol I actually went through a lot more windshields when I ran the Alcan regularly.

[Bullshop Junior]

My blue truck, I went a year Nd a half with no chips, and then got one once I got to Texas that has now spread most of the way across the drivers side of the glass.

[waksupi]

The local Napa carries the little glass patch kits for a few bucks. They will at least stop the stars from turning into galaxies. Does the same thing that a glass shop would charge you $60 for under $5.

[starmac]

I bought one of those kits, and am going to try it. I got a little ding right in the line of sight on a near new windshield, that I hate to change.

[rockrat]

Here, I expect a windshield to last no more than 1 year, due to the gravel they use on the roads instead of sand. Shortest trip I had with a new windshield was less than 2 miles before it was cracked.

[oldred]

Those kits are great for chips as long as there are no cracks but unless the crack can be ground out and the hole filled it will still propagate itself, the crack has to be eliminated before it will stop. They do a dandy job on gravel chips however and with enough patience and "elbow grease" they do a pretty good job on wiper blade scratches too.

[rush1886]

And here I been thinking SE Idaho was tough on windshields. In the winter around here, they don't put salt on the roads. They use crushed lava rock. Ice out is a bad time to drive in these parts.

[BruceB]

Living in Yellowknife NWT in 1988, I bought a brand-new F250 from a dealer in Hay River, 130 miles across the lake and about 350 miles by gravel road from home, going around the west end of Great Slave Lake.

I flew to Hay River, where the dealer gave me a new Explorer to drive for the few hours it took to prep my new truck.... they also bought my lunch at the best place in town. In addition, I was intending to buy fluids, belts etc for the trip to Yellowknife. There were NO service stations en route. The dealer GAVE me all the "stuff" I'd intended to buy.

Anyway... the first ten miles or so was pavement, and then I hit the gravel. Not more than HALF A MILE onto the gravel, I met an Econoline van.... rock in the windshield.

The truck wasn't more than thirty minutes old, and I had a cracked windshield. That's life on gravel roads.

[DLCTEX]

Thousands of loads of rock are hauled for oil field uses here. This spring I met one that dropped two quarter sized rocks that bounced into my windshield just right of my line of vision. I tried to have the stars repaired, but they were too large. Last week I met another that dropped a tennis ball sized rock that hit the bottom center of the glass and made a 2 inch smash that is rapidly spreading. Fortuantly Texas does not inspect glass.

[CastingFool]

I was driving to work one afternoon, when I drove past a row of walnut trees. Suddenly, a green walnut dropped on my windshield, and I was doing about 55 mph. It sounded like a shotgun going off. I immediately went on full alert, wondering what the heck had happened, was someone shooting at me or what? As I was looking around, I saw the almost tennis ball sized impact on the upper rt hand of the windshield, and the whole thing was covered with cracks. Fortunately it was relatively clear to see out the windshield and I drove on to work. Got it fixed a day or so later. All I have to say, is that hearing that sound was almost electrifying!

[starmac]

Hearing that sound and little shards of glass peppering your face is even worse. lol

[waksupi]

Road sand in Montana is anything that will pass through a 3/4" screen.

[snowwolfe]

In the 35+ years I lived in Alaska I never could understand why the state did not require commercial drivers to cover truckloads of gravel and rock.

[Superfly]

All loads of Gravel Rock or sand Should have to be covered WITH a Real TARP not the *** they call that ragged piece of cloth that was a tarp.

[Jailer]

Last year, with my truck, I got lucky and hit a moose

Just can't quite wrap my mind around that one...........

[Akheloce]

Just can't quite wrap my mind around that one...........

Little sarcasm there ;)

[MaryB]

I pay for glass insurance with no deductible, cheaper than a new windshield by far. When a stone took out the windshield on my Aveo it was a $500 piece of glass

[starmac]

I can't imagine what glass insurance would cost me. lol They usually get broke first, but I have after enough miles changed them because they will eventually get hard to see through when lights hits them, sandblasted or something. Luckily two piece truck windshields are pretty cheap, and when they run a sale we get them for about the same as lower 48 prices. The last bunch I bought in whitehorse, as they are cheaper there unless on sale.

[Superfly]

What kind of truck Starmac?

[Ed Barrett]

Around here when it gets icy the road crews heat gravel with live steam and spread it at the intersections and hills. For the next month the hard roads are as bad as the gravel roads as far a chipped windshields go. They don't use salt so the bodies last longer.

[starmac]

What kind of truck Starmac?

Kenworths, international and now even shoosh, a freight shaker. lol I mainly just run one of the kw's anymore, but will be running the freightliner some this winter.

[tommag]

I have a crack along the lower edge of my freightliner century drivers side. The dot never seems to notice it. I meant to replace it after "rock season", but didn't get around to it. I've used the walmart epoxy kits a few times, and they work ok. The glass is pretty well sand blasted, and I'd like to replace it, but its rock season again. Oh well, maybe next year....
I guess I'm just a cheap bugger.

[MaryB]

Winter road salt and sand sandblast them here, but most people manage to get hit by a rock and get insurance to pay for it...


I can't imagine what glass insurance would cost me. lol They usually get broke first, but I have after enough miles changed them because they will eventually get hard to see through when lights hits them, sandblasted or something. Luckily two piece truck windshields are pretty cheap, and when they run a sale we get them for about the same as lower 48 prices. The last bunch I bought in whitehorse, as they are cheaper there unless on sale.

[Rufus Krile]

Oilfield rock damage is common here.... but who else has hit a buzzard hard enough to put him in the back seat?

[starmac]

Not a buzzard, but a pheasant. lol It even ruined a cell phone.

[bear67]

Having lived most of the last 50 years living on miles of gravel/dirt roads with oilfield traffic, windshield cracks are a given. When we farmed in West Texas, my wife had to drive 15 miles of dirt and Texas farm roads to work at the local school every morning. We had plenty of Rio Grande Turkeys and they were a bane to dryland wheat farming. Her route went in a deep draw between two Texas high hills and the turkey flocks would fly from one side to the other across the road. One year we replaced 3 windshields in her surburban from turkey strikes. The birds would panic and looked like they flew directly into your windshield. My neighbor who I swapped work with had the same problem, just on a different road. Insurance agents were used to these claims, like deer collision claims. In Jack County, we had 15 miles of gravel and dirt to get to the house. and all the remote pastures were on dirt and sandblasted windshields were normal. You really don't realize how bad they are until you replace them.

[NoAngel]

I just let em go till I can't stand it anymore.

Last year, with my truck, I got lucky and hit a moose so my insurance covered it with the rest of the damage... Got some new KC highlights out if the deal too.


Was anything still edible? Be a shame to not grab you a quarter or two and some backstrap meat as a consolation gift for your troubles.

[starmac]

Alaska has people that harvest road kill moose. I don't know all the particulars, but I do know the law gets real upset if just anybody harvests one.

[Bullshop Junior]

VERY upset.

[dakotashooter2]

A vast majority of my rock chips have come from passenger vehicles rather than trucks. I think it might have something to do with the tires. My insurance will usually pay to repair chips. Generally after a few years after it gets pitted so bad I just skip fixing the next chip and let it crack and turn in a claim to insurance. I have to pay the deductible but it's cheaper than paying for the full windshield. When you start getting a crack often you can put pressure on the glass and direct it to where you want it to go. The last couple of cracks I got near the bottom of the windshield I successfully directed the crack back downward as soon as it started to move across the glass.

[Echo]

Driving to GF's @ Sierra Vista, I was on the bypass around town, doing maybe 50-60, and heard a sharp POP. Saw nothing flying toward me, nada, but POP. Right in my line of sight. ***? I'm lucky - State Farm just about requires changing WS's when a chip, or crack, appears in line of sight, or at least where the wipers wipe, so got it replaced post haste.

[Akheloce]

Was anything still edible? Be a shame to not grab you a quarter or two and some backstrap meat as a consolation gift for your troubles.

As mentioned, the person who hits the moose can't touch it. The troopers have a list of needy families that volunteer to come out and harvest road kill. In some areas, a charity organization has volunteers who do it.

In my case, I clipped her hind end at about 40, and she took off into dense terrain. I queried the trooper about looking for her, but he said absolutely not. Lots of brown bear and wolves in the area, so I'm sure they got an easy one.

(Not so) Funny thing was, there was a guy on the side of the road waving a flashlight trying to warn drivers of the moose. I looked over to see what he was doing just long enough to take my eyes off the road, and not see the moose. Braked from 55 to about 40 before hitting her.

[Bullshop Junior]

I hit two moose in my GMC about a week apart from eachother. Not so much fun.

[starmac]

99% of my busted windshields come from 4 wheelers. Where I drive the trucks slow down to around 30, trying real hard not to rock each other. The tour buses and the pipeline employees in pickups basically do the same. A lot of the tourists won't slow down until they have a busted windshield, so we oblige them. Once it goes out on the radio that a 4 wheeler is rocking everybody, no one slows for them.

[Multigunner]

Oilfield rock damage is common here.... but who else has hit a buzzard hard enough to put him in the back seat?
An Owl sent through the windshield of my brother's 65 Mustang.

[starmac]

A large snow owl took out the windshield of a friend of mines truck. It sprayed his face and eyes to the point he couldn't see. He stopped in the road and other driver took his truck to a pullout and he rode to the clinic in prudhoe with another driver. Big birds of any kind are nothing to play with. lol

[Multigunner]

My sis hit a deer once and most of it went through the winshield. She said she remembered one hoof flashing past the end of her nose. Just missed killing her.

[starmac]

There used to be a picture hanging in the scalehouse at whitehorse of a car with a moosed head on the trunk, and back end on the hood. The lady reportedly only had a broken arm and got a little messy out of it. It just wasn't her time. I don't know how to find it, but that picture is on the net somewhere.

[MaryB]

I was on the receiving end of a spray of deer parts when a trucker hit it at 75mph. I was coming at him and the deer exploded and splattered my truck. I had guts hanging off antennas, under the wiper blades, plugged the radiator... Friend who was with me barfed, she has never hunted or seen the insides of a deer and having it all over the windshield, roof, hood.... so I had a mess in the car too

[Bulldogger]

MaryB, your seemingly bottomless pot of VERY interesting stories sure has some LuLu's in it...

Keep 'em coming!

Bulldogger

[MaryB]

I don't want to repeat that one, took me 8 hours to get all the deer parts washed out of the nooks and crannies and it still stunk for a month from something rotting I didn't find. Nasty! Trucker destroyed the front left of the hood/fender, he had about half the deer in the engine compartment.

One worse was when a rendering truck 5 cars ahead of me had its end gate open and a full load of wet rotting turkey feathers dump on the road. I stopped in time, first 2 cars ran through it and had it everywhere. Road i drove to commute to work was also the route the rendering plant used to pickup turkey leftovers from the packing plant. I always backed way off the rendering trucks because they almost always had liquid seeping and spraying back.