Ever get hit with a rock..........

Dayummmm!!!!

I've taken a few rocks but luckily replaced very few windshields.

The weirdest thing I ever had happen was cruising along in a Miata I had once on a pretty day when I start to feel, what? little shards of glass hitting me. The car just ahead and to the left of me hit a bump and their passenger door mirror, which was probably cracked already, came to pieces and started pelting me with pieces of glass. I thought about running them down but figured it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

 

A few years ago, my son in law was with me and looking at me talking, he only looked forward when he saw the look on my face. A rooster pheasant had set it's wings and was coming in for a high speed landing.
It hit his windshield low enough to get the windshield wiper, he turned back to me holding his chest and his face peppered with glass. he ask what had happenned and I told him, he then ask what had hit him in the chest and I had no clue, but we had both heard something bounce off the walls in the sleeper several times.
he then noticed that the bottom of the windshield was out of the rubber and several inches of his cell phone cord was flapping in the breeze on the outside of the truck. lol
he then knew what had hit him, he went back in the sleeper and found his flip phone, a 1/4 in thick sliver of glass had went completely through his phone battery and all. lol

 

that just happened to me a couple years ago. scared the livin sheet outta me, sounded like a gunshot. dunno if it was a rock, must have been, I had just met a one ton pickup on the highway when it happened. not fun at -30C, had to tape a piece of plastic in the hole until I got back to the shop. tough to see the mirror like that

 

Had a rock on 78 westbound west of Allentown in the Narrows before frystown. Bouncing along with me.

I realized that if I stayed where i was it's coming through the glass, it's almost as big as my head was. That last bounce I horsed the tractor trailer savagely.

Nope. Got a BOOOM off my steel drivers door checked the window no cracks. checked all my gauges, no apparent distress. (87 COE pre-computer anything.)

DM Bowman Safety boss saw that huge dent in my door, busted the paint clear down to bare metal and flaked the hell out of the rest.

WTH HAPPENED TO YOU!? Oh that I explained it. He told me I was fortunate tripmaster did not at that time record what we call critical events today, excessive braking, maneuvering etc. (I would never. have a computer tattle on me if I managed to avoid a family killing wreck as I have done before while abusing the big truck)

The rocks I worry about are hail. Not normal hail but green skies tornado hail kind. The last time I had trouble with that was in east of Garden City KS we had a particularly SEVERE line that day rolling east at 30. I spent 100 miles doing 8 with a group of us that included a fire department pickup clearly tasked with weather reporting to the towns. It was a strange convoy. We drive a mile then stop and wait a bit. Then drive through town with a foot of hail in everything. Busted glass all over.

But my ultimate terror was with Ronnie Dowdy in Batesville. We had a tractor trailer governed at 72 ish but otherwise redlinable at 2300. Im rolling coal in central Missouri westbound one stormy day. Rough with tornado spotted here and there. I laughed at them. Tearing up fields and not tearing us up. Such hubris and trash talking.

I popped over a small hilltop and found myself on pure ice. 6 inches of wet smooth ice for a mile ahead. She started dancing at 72.

Then tried the electric slide. I started fussing with it. Then the trailer came around at a angle and stayed there due to slope of the road and Im still at 60. WTF? I slowed to 40 and managed to get trailer back into line. Other drivers started trash talking me. I gave back as I got. Boy was that old truck fussy on that ice.

Took me a pack of smokes and a hour to stop those shakes I hate so much. I don't mind being scared and solving problems like that but the knees knocking and the rest of the bones making noise is not welcome. But as far as I know I did not hit anyone with that thing. And did not hear any complaints thereof. (Thats really important in those days. Big old 800 number snitch call in on the back...)

 

It's a conspiracy plot from the windshield guys,, more rocks, more business,,,there's always a sinking feeling when a windshield gets cracked, you feel stupid, as if you could have done something to prevent it, like getting bit by a dog. If you are a trucker, you cracked many a windscreen. Just part of driving and the windshield guys are making a killing.

 

I watched a guy drop a toilet off an overpass on 285 in ATL once.

How he missed everything is beyond me.

Now they mostly have screens up to prevent such activity, but where there is a will... there is a way.

 

Replaced 2 windshields in a 3 yr period. I have 2 chips in current windshield, prevented them from cracking using repair kit from autozone.

 

I've lost a bunch of windshields, 2 or 3 from rocks, 2 from owls, 2 from a chunks of ice and 2 from the local Cat dealer who did $15,000 damage to the truck when it was in for engine work, started it in gear with the cab jacked up and another when someone took a shot at the truck with a pellet gun or a .22 in Alberta.