Have you ever been happily rolling down the highway in your RV and heard a “crack” as a truck passed by?
You know… that awful sound a stone makes when it hits glass?
Depending on how loud it is, the next thing you hear might be the sound of your heart pounding in your ears as you scan the glass for a chip.
Hopefully, the third sound you hear won’t be expletives flying uncontrollably out of your mouth.
Even if you’re diligent about maintaining a safe following distance (we are), there are simply times when there’s no way to prevent a stone from hitting the front of your rig.
You can’t stop other vehicles from passing you on multi-lane highways, and you certainly have no control over oncoming traffic on secondary roads.
When you spend so much time on the road, you’re bound to get some nicks and chips on your windshield.
Tall bus-like windshields like ours extend further down toward the road surface. They’re more likely to take a hit near the bottom of the glass.
And of course they’re more expensive to replace if your insurance doesn’t cover it.
We’ve taken our share of hits over the years. The louder the sound when the stone strikes the glass, the more anxious the scanning that follows.
Earlier this year, a truck sailed past with a “crack” that really made us jump. It sounded as though Plymouth Rock had just fallen on a plate glass window.
We scanned the glass feverishly, sure that our windshield must be broken, but we didn’t spot a thing. Crisis averted?
About a half hour later, after having forgotten about our “Plymouth” encounter, I spotted it.
Creeping up from behind the highest part of the dash, right behind the steering wheel, there it was – a crack that had started at the very base of the windshield and was now over a foot long, reaching toward me like an shiny, angry serpent.
We don’t generally think of windshield replacement as a DIY task. But after seeing how easy the installer made it look, we’ll bet there are people out there that do it themselves.
In this case, we were content to document the process in this video. Next time (!), maybe we’ll do it ourselves after all?
We’d love to hear from anyone who’s ever replaced their own motorhome windshield. Anyone ever do a 1-piece?!
httpv://youtu.be/YobPSOucPyM
We had our glass repaired by Mike Wilkinson of Wilkinson Glass.
If you’re in the unhappy situation of having a broken or cracked RV windshield and you’re anywhere along the West Coast or the Desert Southwest, Mike Wilkinson can come right to you and install on site. He did a great job for us and we highly recommend him.
You can contact him here.
When in a car it is extremely scary when you hear the sound of a rock bouncing of the windshield. Even worse is the delayed crack of the window when it comes running slowly down your window miles down the road. Thanks for sharing.