Thread: Half Aus loop trip- Do I need a windscreen stone guard?

Nope....

I had a smashed side window once. I guess you could stone guard your whole vehicle.

...seriously you don’t need one. You’ll be the only one with one!

Don’t interrupt the spectacular view and if you’re going to have a smashed windscreen it’ll probably happen on the highway when your guard is folded down anyway.

When I see a road train coming on the dirt roads, I pull off on the side away from the dust plume- be it left or right- and let them have the whole road. For other oncoming vehicles, I slow right down and get as far left as I can to avoid exchanging stones. Not everyone is as courteous, unsurprisingly. I have copped a few stone chips thanks to drivers who can't be bothered slowing for the one oncoming vehicle in a hundred kilometers, but I would not consider fitting a seventies-style stone guard over the windscreen. Bad enough having antennae in your field of view on long hauls.

Towing a trailer though, extended drawbar or not, you absolutely need some kind of protection at the rear of the vehicle. I've seen some vehicles with a few layers of cardboard taped over the rear window, probably works. I built the front box of our camper trailer in a shape that deflects stones down and to the sides, this has worked well. Not sure that I'd trust one of those trampoline arrangements.

Originally Posted by POD

When I see a road train coming on the dirt roads, I pull off on the side away from the dust plume- be it left or right- and let them have the whole road. For other oncoming vehicles, I slow right down and get as far left as I can to avoid exchanging stones. Not everyone is as courteous, unsurprisingly. I have copped a few stone chips thanks to drivers who can't be bothered slowing for the one oncoming vehicle in a hundred kilometers, but I would not consider fitting a seventies-style stone guard over the windscreen. Bad enough having antennae in your field of view on long hauls.

Towing a trailer though, extended drawbar or not, you absolutely need some kind of protection at the rear of the vehicle. I've seen some vehicles with a few layers of cardboard taped over the rear window, probably works. I built the front box of our camper trailer in a shape that deflects stones down and to the sides, this has worked well. Not sure that I'd trust one of those trampoline arrangements.

The ‘trampoline’ stone guards are angled down (or should be) so that stones are deflected downwards, away from the rear glass. The key is not to have the mesh too tight, that way the mesh absorbs the rocks inertia and thus, the chance of a busted rear glass is reduced markedly.

That said, I have the Rock Tamer mudflap system and although not cheap, reduces stone damage to campers and caravans by a huge percentage.

Just google Rock Tamer

Yes, I've seen campers with checkerplate steel stone guards and thought what a dumb idea which will bounce stones back at the vehicle.

The angle that stone guards are set to is also very important.
If you've spent some time in a pool room you shouldn't have any difficulty in working out the optimum angle though.

I always thought the point of having a laminated screen rather than tempered glass was that the laminated screen would take cracks and stars without becoming opaque and you rarely needed to replace one. Queensland has gone all politically correct and many people have found that a lam. screen with minor damage we would have ignored thirty years now have to be replace to get a Safety Certificate or if pulled over by police or transport inspectors and defected. Stars in the drivers line of sight- a defect, replace! A crack that goes from an edge to an edge- a defect, replace. I 'phoned the dept and had this confirmed after I got a defect notice for a large star in my Falcon ute. Not in the line of sight either. My God, in the sixties and seventies one would have replaced a windscreen every trip on the country roads of the era.

Having just replaced the windscreen on the County (crack from top to bottom), I agree. I replaced it because I knew it would not pass the annual inspection.

Talking about the past, I remember (1963), one of our trucks (F600) set off from Roma to Brisbane - got less than 30 miles and returned with a broken windscreen. Repeat the next day. The third day he got past Condamine before it got broken, and continued on to Brisbane without a windscreen. And those were expensive windscreens.

An indication as to the number that were being replaced was that Roma had at least two windscreens for a relatively uncommon truck. For that matter, I could have got a windscreen for a Citroen in Condamine a few months later - if I carried that much cash (no credit cards then). And Condamine, even then, I doubt ran to more than one horse!