clean window

Very respectfully and friendly: A lot sooner than that depending on where you run. It gets "sandblasted" (tiny, sand grain size pits ALL over) and at night it diffuses the hell out of headlights, street lights, LED traffic lights and billboards (there ought to be a LAW about how bright they can make those things) and it makes a terrible glare. Makes seeing at night very challenging. Ten times worse when rain is a factor as the rain and wet roads tend to diffuse light anyway and when that light passes though a sandblasted windshield it makes you want to turn into a solar powered rig as the sandblasting effect isn't all that noticeable in daylight unless it's real bad. Problem is most companies won't replace a windshield for it just being sandblasted.

Hence the "road debris" crack that makes it irreparable and out of DOT compliance for a crack so many of us have done. Over the years it's been amazing how many times a rock bucket passed me and let loose with some big rocks. To a truck, they were always very fast runners too and I couldn't get the name of the company or their truck numbers. "Sorry, but it was a blue Pete [or whatever] day cab but that's all I could get. Dude was booking it. No way in heck I could even come close to catching him. You know how them rock and coal buckets run. They haul tail like the Indy 500. I can make it to a terminal or outsource repair shop but if DOT see this he's gonna write me a ticket and put me outta service and we'll have a road call at a scale or wherever before he'll let me roll."

 

I'm running in a brand new Cascadia (less than 13,000 miles on it). We ran the I-10 last week through some serious dust storms (before that big wreck happened) and now our windshield and driver's door window are sand blasted.

So I would concur that glass replacement is a function of where you drive. If you are in areas where dust storms happen, then you will need to replace your glass regularly.

 

Just incase somebody was thinking about using any type of scrubbing pad. DO NOT USE ANY TYPE OF SCRUBBING PAD. It will leave tiny scratches that will cause all kinds of problems from oncoming headlights when you drive at night.
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.If you need something cheap while out on the road, stop at Dollar Tree and buy a spray bottle of Glass and Multi-Surface Cleaner that is on the shelf with the cleaning and laundry products. General purpose glass cleaners, like Windex, seem to be to light duty for vehicles. Multi-surface cleaners are a more substancial cleaner for the stuff we get on windshields.
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.Of the widely available products designed for vehicles, Invisible Glass is the best I have used. Rain-X glass cleaner and Armor All glass cleaner are a close second.

 

Yeah, but the roads everywhere wear, too. If you pull off on the shoulder anywhere you'll find "sand" and small rocks. That stuff didn't fall in place from space, and it's all over the roads, but of course tends to collect between lanes until it makes it to the shoulder.

So, everyone is getting sandblasted. That's why many if not most states require insurers to cover the entire cost of replacing windshields that are damaged, but not broken.

 

Originally Posted by gpsman
Windshield glass is a "wear item" and routinely needs replacement, regardless of breakage. Carrier maintenance should/probably does have them in stock, and if they don't it shouldn't take more than an hour to get it.

144,000 x 10 = 1.44M miles. x 15 = 2.16M miles...

Maybe you misunderstood. "Routinely needs replacement" does imply any particular truck routinely needs a new windshield... but I was referring to carriers with "lots of" trucks.

Replacement of damaged but unbroken windshields is routine, for them.

 

I agree that there is sand and dust everywhere. However, that's a far cry from being in the middle of a sandstorm with 60 mph winds. There's a reason why they use sandblasting in manufacturing to strip paint or otherwise polish metal. If you stand outside in a sandstorm with any exposed skin be prepared for a "total body abrasion", as a friend of mine put it.

 

All windshields get sandblasted. It will get bad a lot sooner if you drive a lot out west, but it happens to all of them because it is true that sand and debris are everywhere.

Some very large carriers may keep windshields in stock but it has been my experience they outsource that and each terminals shop has a preferred local vendor like "Auto Glass" that comes out and they will repair a chip or replace a cracked on with one they bring out with them. So many of the megas run diverse fleets with their power units and run their shops as a separate business. For example Werner's shop is actually Graygar, Inc., and they will perform work on non-Werner trucks, like their owner ops, too and they tend to keep shop inventory down to just what they need for business reasons (taxes and such).

 

I didn't mean equate the two.

Yeah, I used to be a sandblaster/painter. I blasted and painted hundreds of roll-off boxes and trailers.

When people asked me what I painted, I answered "red". I started off wearing protective clothing head-to-toe. I graduated to just nylon running shorts, tenny shoes, and an air-supplied helmet in summer due to the threat of heatstroke, and sand and paint being easier to wash off skin than clothing.

It is amazing what you can get used to. At first that bouncing sand stung like bees, after a while it was nothing. Of course you don't want to hit bare skin with that nozzle at close range, that will do some damage.

At the end of the day I'd be covered in red paint, looked like I'd been stabbed 100 times.

I wandered into the office one day and startled one company owner's son; He's like "What the hell happened to you?!" I came back with "Well, gynecology isn't always pretty".

For years afterward I'd run into him at parties and he'd grab me and lead me around introducing me to young single women as his friend the gynecologist.

 

I like to use rain-x and a sponge, its cleans it very well. If the window just wont get clean due to whatever it may be...like lots of rock chips and your company will not replace it unless its actually broken, get a rock and finish the job, or lightly tap on the window with a hammer until its cracks, then they have to replace it.

 

Do you recommend a ball peen or a sledge hammer?