Dont leave home without the contact and duct tape
Submitted: Friday, Aug 03, 2012 at 09:52
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Member - Geoff B (WA)
Whilst traveling the
Birdsville Track, a stone bounced of our trailer and completely shattered the back window of our cruiser. As soon as it happened we covered the window with a roll of clear contact and duct taped around the edges. Forty two days and 10,600kms later which included thumping and bumping over the QAA line (where our companions broke a sway bar on their trailer) and
Hay River Track, lots of shaking and bouncing over corrigations on the Binns track,
Savannah Way,
Kakadu,
Cape Leveque Rd, to name a few, we arrived
home with the window still in place!
Reply By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Friday, Aug 03, 2012 at 10:15
Friday, Aug 03, 2012 at 10:15
Hi Geoff
That was a real pity that you had that trouble.
Even though you were prepared, it is general knowledge that with any trip towing on dirt roads, a piece of cardboard over the back window will stop this happening. You will be surprised the number of vehicles we have come across over the years and had not taken any precautions and suffered the same fate as you.
All the best and you would have had a great trip.
Cheers
Stephen
AnswerID:
492149
Follow Up By: Member - Joe n Mel n kids (FNQ - Friday, Aug 03, 2012 at 12:15
Friday, Aug 03, 2012 at 12:15
we lost count of the amount of cars we saw with broken back windows and that was just in the 1 trip, it was an eye opener for us, at one stage it was probally every 3-4th vehicle that was smashed, most were in and "around"
Birdsville for the races ................
Cheers
Joe
FollowupID:
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Reply By: J.T. - Friday, Aug 03, 2012 at 15:41
Friday, Aug 03, 2012 at 15:41
Driving through near
Gascoyne junction we had a large
rock bounce off the trailer and actually sconed the dog in the melon, who was sitting in the back of the Prado.
We'd driven about 300kms off road, had a cup of tea then drove off and the wife said, Do you reckon we should tape the.... Bloody big bang.
Had half a roll of insulation tape and a big green rubbish bag and limped into
Carnarvon.
Insurance covered the rear screen luckily because it was $1,100. We've learned our lesson!
AnswerID:
492168
Reply By: The Bantam - Saturday, Aug 04, 2012 at 12:30
Saturday, Aug 04, 2012 at 12:30
One thing that seems to have gone out of fashon with laminated screens is stone guards......they seem to have gone the way of the sunvisor.
Back in the 60's my old man made a roll up stone guard form fly screen for the morris oxford that strapped between the sunvisor and the vent grill and arround the pillar.
Remember in the 60's and 70's a simple picnic outing ment driving on dirt roads for significant distances and at speed...hell some of our major highways where unsealed.
Not so long ago it was common to see mesh stone guards on the front of cars up the country and on the fronts of caravan rigs.
I even remember a friend of ours having a moulded perspex stone guard for his mini that stuck on with suction cups
Perhaps thay are not such a bad idea.
A laminated screen may not smash from a simgle
rock like the old zone tuffened screens, but a decent sized
rock will still cost you a replacement
One thing that might be worth investigating for the rear screen is security film.
I sold a bit of this stuff back in the 90's.
It is appied to the inside of the glass and is like realy heavy window tint.
I sold a product called "profelon" but 3M had a similar product.
The heavier profelon stuff was very impressive, it made ordinary window glass almost unsmachable......if ya took to it with a pick, it would poke a hole in it but the remaining payne would stay in tact.
It made even ordinary glass very much stronger and very much harder to damage......
It came in clear and tints.
cheers
AnswerID:
492225
Follow Up By: Member - Gordon T (NSW) - Saturday, Aug 04, 2012 at 16:37
Saturday, Aug 04, 2012 at 16:37
Don't bet on modern laminated screens being immune to small stones. I have done front screens on a sealed highway from small blue metal stones no larger than a 5c piece round. My current vehicle has numerous chips from conventional highway travel and the problem is if these are not attended to they can become cracks right across the screen.
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