Makes you wonder why the Manufacturer does not do this in the first place?

What, say $100 a year?

Of coarse it would only make sense to have such a service with a brand new vehicle or a right after a windshield replacement.

Nothing worse than driving your freshly cleaned Mercedes into the sunlight and seeing the rock blasting effects fill your field of vision, Yuck!

You certainly do have a keen vision, Ross.

But I really do wonder if anyone has a practical solution at this point in time while our lawyers are busy fielding the patent rights paper work.

__________________
... Kerry

126 tailed by a 203, 129 leading the pack.

I could just spank them for being so bad! Hey, in case you haven't noticed, they DO have mudflaps, fenders, and the like to protect the public from debris and accumulation. Some cross country trucks (and buses) also have special mudflaps and wheel well "hula skirts" to reduce the amount of road spray, ice, and snow that is kicked up by these commercial vehicles! Sometimes, the commercial vehicles just coincidentally kick up debris that is already on the roadway...

As for the sand pocking on windshields, it's just a sign of an older windscreen that hasn't been replaced in a long time, maybe even never!

There was a product that I got to try a few years ago that was supposed to be a "glass polish" that was made by a company called "Auto Glym": http://www.detailsupplies.com/AG%20Products.htm but I think that stuff is just a glorified cleaner, so check out these other links:

http://www.novusglass.com

http://www.gel-gloss.com/nstrkpg.html

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/sunexcel/index.html

Eastwood http://www.eastwoodco.com (800-820-9042) has a "Pro Glass Polishing Kit" ($32.99)

http://www.caswellplating.com/glass.htm

__________________

Scott Longston
Northern California Wine Country...
"Turbos whistle, grapes wine..."

Oh they DO have things to protect from throwing up stones or spilling them from the bed? I guess its just by chance then that everyone here so far who has had a stone chip got it from some truck. And my two experiences (first one turned into a huge crack before I had time to take care of it) were also caused by trucks.

The AutoGlym glass polish just makes the screen polished. It doesnt remove those chips though I wished it did. Good stuff to use, but kinda but pricey. Would settle for RainX and see the drops fly by.

__________________
... Kerry

126 tailed by a 203, 129 leading the pack.

No, DTM FAN, not everyone here had damage from trucks. I've driven more miles over more years that I want to take the time to count, and the only windscreen damage I ever had was from road debris, not gravel off of a truck. That's not to say that it doesn't happen, but if you look at a heavy truck, you will notice the mudflaps, fender skirts and the like on them that are required by law. Go to the website for your state's motor vehicle bureau or department, and check out the regulations. Here's a link to every motor vehicle department that has a website: http://cache.cow.net/~friedman/dmv.html

But let's not assume that all of the windshield damage being done is done by all trucks. What we are specifically talking about is construction trucks, like dump trucks. Whether you mean all trucks or not, the main problem is the driver being in too much of a hurry to check the rig over to be sure that none of the load will spill on the roadway.

There is also another side of the story. Trucking companies are targeted by motorists who want someone to pay for their windshield damage. Every year there are countless fraudulent claims filed against them.

Here's a couple of examples. A driver who worked for my former company was pulled over by a motorist who swore that his truck had dropped a stone that had damaged his windshield. He insisted on having the Highway Patrol called. The bottom line is that the car that was damaged was an old VW Rabbit POS that wasn't even worth the cost of the windshield, and the truck was an enclosed van type that doesn't haul anything but electronic gear.
The Highway Patrol officer took the complaint, told the driver of the truck not to worry about it, and told the motorist that his damage wasn't done by the truck. We never heard about it ever again.

In another instance, the driver of a double bottom dump truck owned by a client of mine noticed a 1962 Chevy pick up had been behind him for several miles in the slow lane. The driver of the pick up pulled up next to the rear trailer and cruised there for a few more miles, then pulled up to the cab of the truck and motioned for the driver to pull over. After they had stopped, the pick up driver claimed that material had spilled out of the bottom dumps, and showed the driver of the truck a substantial piece of stone damage on the lower right side of the pick up's windshield. The bottom line was that the damage was obviously old, and the bottom dump truck and trailers were brand new, had never been loaded, and were being driven from the dealer to the company that had just bought them!

My advice is to stay away from any kind of dump truck, construction "low-boy" trailers, flat bed trucks, or any other vehicle that is regularly driven off road, or used to haul construction materials and/or debris. The law states that it is illegal to spill anything on the roadway other than clear water, and feathers from live birds. But how about straw and hay? They seem to be unofficially exempted...

Oh, and go back to my original advice in this thread.

__________________

Scott Longston
Northern California Wine Country...
"Turbos whistle, grapes wine..."

To add to what Scott had to say,

I have been in the unfortunate position of being on the road just after one of the offending dump trucks had showered the public highway with sand and gravel and the softer paints of today just don't stand up to such abuse. Perhaps the paint manufacturers should be busy at work, as we can build a space shuttle to reenter Earth's atmosphere on a routine basis but we can't invent a more durable paint! Hello, anyone home?

You just have to be in the wake of the shower to get the effect, even if they proceeded you by many minutes. Out of no where a rock will come zinging along and leave a small nick in the windshield, hood, fender and bumper, how nice of them.

Driving in an area that has regular truck traffic (Tacoma / Seattle unfortunately) is not easy. I have seen cars scatter like mice as soon as these trucks merge onto the highway after being taught multiple times to stay well back, speed and pass the truck or your paint will pay!

I guess some places are more safe than others.