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

If your vehicle has large rear mudflaps there should not be many stones flying back to bounce off the trailer.

A lot of people towing campers/caravans cover their rear windows with high density foam &/or heavy cardboard.
Doesn't stop the stone chips to the paint work though.
As with a lot of these type of things, reducing speed avoids a lot of trouble.

Defender screens get chipped easy, they are flat up for it.

I have done alot of dirt road travel, but all of the damaging hits have been on tarmac.

The last and worst hit was near the top of the screen. A cage would not have blocked it.

A merging ute with a trailer snapped a tie down, something metallic hit the tarmac, bounced up high and smashed into the windscreen. It sounded like a gunshot, I checked my torso for damage!

The impact created a small star crack in the screen, but this soon extended to a crack from top of screen to bottom. It was a huge hit, but it did not shatter the screen and I could still drive without impairment.

So my advice, get insurance that covers glass and just swap out the screen if you are unlucky enough to get a big hit.

I hate the old school stone guards with a passion.
They restrict vision, upset a cars aero, look really bad and it's doubtful they will stop the rocks that will do real damage.
Dad had one on our Jeep Wagoneer back in the seventies when travelling as the big Jeep screens weren't exactly common.
I can't remember it actually stopping any rocks or stones, but I'd have to ask mum. Admittedly traffic wasn't near as heavy but we did things like crossing the Nullarbor while it was still dirt, or more correctly exposed limestone and bulldust.

They actually did something way back as most screens were safety glass so the sudden loss of vision from a hit was pretty bad, regardless of the supposed 'zone' in the drivers view that you were supposed to be able to see through.
All screens are laminated these days, as the others above have said, just have a policy with one free replacement/year and you should be fine.

Hi,
firstly Defender windscreens are only a few hundred dollars fitted and any large glass place could cut you one anyway in an emergency, and Def screens are simple to fit. (Doubt the next Defender screen will be so easy as it will no doubt be moulded like most cars these days and hence more expensive, involved, may even have sensors in it so?).

There would be no trouble getting one in Broome for eg. Re rear door screen --cover it or loose it--we have lost some until we covered with lexan and suckers to hold it on, easy to get a plastic place to cut one for you, or can use even cardboard --just not so good if it rains--even top stone guards may not stop all stones hitting back door window.

Just slow down and give the idiots that are coming at you too fast a wide berth on the dirt and you should be fine.
I get a free windscreen with HBF and have a $100 excess with RAC, Just in case and Ladrover windscreens are pretty easilly sourced.

Fit big mudflaps.
Would sticking cling wrap to your rear window make any difference?
BTW if you see a big truck coming, slow down and move over - they are the worst danger to your windscreen.

Originally Posted by DeeJay

Thanks for the feedback, the camper I have has an extended drawbar so I hope that any rock bouncing back will have lost most momentum but this will be its maiden voyage - with me at least, so I am pretty clueless. As for the windscreen stone guard I have the same thoughts as V8Ian, but will probably make it a fold down type & use it only on gravel roads. I have full Shannons insurance but its the inconvenience I want to avoid. Defender windscreens -assuming I destroy one- would not exactly be "off the shelf"

Latest one I replaced was "off the shelf" in Dubbo, not exactly a major Landrover centre (not the dealer though - the biggest windscreen place, O'Briens).

The windscreen had several cracks from stones, and was not going to pass for a pink slip, but these cracks had accumulated over about ten years, including a a lot of gravel roads.

My experience, driving over the last sixty years is that the risk is far less than it was years ago, when, for example, Queensland had a lot of single lane bitumen roads (I lost the windscreen and both headlights on one of these despite having actually stopped and pulled right off the bitumen for the truck coming the other way, but this was not in a Series or Defender where the height and lack of streamlining helps). Also gravel used on roads these days is almost always too small to seriously damage windscreens.

I have never used one of these protectors, and would not consider it on a Landrover unless I regularly drove on a particularly bad stretch of road.