RGV --- Rock Pecking Windshield on Freeway

I never follow too close to anything, especially a truck hauling sand, rock or dirt. What do you think that agent of your is going to say when you cancel your insurance and go with someone that treats you with a little respect??

B.O.

When we had our Saturn SC2 tow car we sat very close to the ground. I learned real fast to keep an eye out for un-tarped trucks, trucks without mud flaps, trailers without fenders, and decked out cars with wider tires then wheel wells. The last one seemed everywhere and was easy to miss.

I think a big factor is that many of the secondary roads and streets are gravel and that the vehicles carry rocks in their tires out to the freeway. Suddenly, they are going 70 and throwing them everywhere. I do not see a lot of untarped gravel trucks like we do in some other parts of the country.

TomG2 wrote:

John&Joey wrote:
Just count the number of crack windshields (with Texas plates) in the upper RGV. I think you'll see it's about 3 out of every 4 cars.

I am not sure of your point, but it might indicate how many vehicles down here do not have insurance?

I guess my point was that cracked windshields is a way of life down here, just like those windshield repair, one person pop up tents are along the road. I've never seen that before other then in the RGV.

The lower your vehicle sits to the ground the more likely you might get a rock hit. If you have a big pulling truck sitting high, then your odds will be greatly reduced.

Hey, PawPaw, how high is your deductible and does it really save you lots of money? Not to get personal, if you don't want to share, but I have been thinking along these lines.

I've also been thinking of dropping anything but liability insurance as we are driving two very old vehicles. If I totaled them, I guess they would just pay me the depreciated value of the vehicles.

Texas Safety Inspection standards only require replacement of a cracked windshield if the driver's view is obstructed. So many folks never replace a cracked windshield.

As far as insurance - the # of vehicles which do not repair cracked windshields is only a reflection of the number of vehicles without full coverage insurance, not required liability insurance.

Or as in my case - a high deductible. I've had one chip repaired in 2011, and recently replaced my TV windshield after it cracked clear across in the recent ice storm. Neither repair came close to meeting my deductible.

We have that problem here. I always say they sand the roads with 3/4 minus. I only get a new windshield when the crack is in my line of sight and have changed as many as 3 in a year. I just pay for them as they are cheap.

No it is not an indication of vehicles with no insurance????? It is a fact of life here in Texas. A lot of our roads are tar and chip constructed so there is an abundance of small gravel loose on the highways. Texas has always been this way and there are lots of cars with cracked windshields, just a fact of life here.

John&Joey wrote:
Just count the number of crack windshields (with Texas plates) in the upper RGV. I think you'll see it's about 3 out of every 4 cars.

We actually made a game of counting cracked windshields, it was unreal. Seems to me it is an issue of poor highway maintenance and enforcement of laws that deal with covering the loads in dump trucks. We are done with the RGV, do not plan on ever returning. The RV parks and snowbirds are nice, but that' just about it.

John&Joey wrote:
Just count the number of crack windshields (with Texas plates) in the upper RGV. I think you'll see it's about 3 out of every 4 cars.

I am not sure of your point, but it might indicate how many vehicles down here do not have insurance?