e-man

These salt trucks are freakin' menaces around here. The salt the highway roads in a staggered formation and there's almost no way to get around them. As I'm driving home today, I'm stuck going 40-45 mph about 20 cars behind the formation, and the salt is just flying everywhere, as are the sparks as the plows are literally carving up the concrete. I was stuck and getting pummeled.

So I was just thinking, is salt heavy or sharp enough to scratch a windshield? Next time this happens, would I be better off just pulling over and letting the trucks get a few miles up the road? What do you guys think?

e-man

Nevermind. I just came back inside from the garage.

MrG4Life

iTrader: (14)

I had to pull over to the side one morning driving on the highway after passing a salt spreader. It was a two lane highway with no shoulders so I couldn't really go around it without getting hit. It literally sounded like someone through a handful of pebbles at my car. All was OK but I really thought I was going to find a few chips on the side of my car.

chuckb

please don't tell me your windshield is cracked again.......

e-man

No, CB, thankfully, it's not cracked.

Clearly I've got some kind of OCD. I spent about a half hour in the garage trying to clean it. With flashlight in hand, as best I could tell, there's a small nick on the right side and maybe another small one on the left. It's about 40 degrees in my garage, and the humidity is like -50%, so after wiping it down for 20 minutes, the static electricity basically transformed the windshield into a lint trap, and, as only I can do, I spent the next 10 minutes chasing specks of lint all over the windshield.

I realize that windshields will get nicked up over time, but these f-ing salt trucks are ridiculous. Cars don't stand a chance. In hindsight, I should have just pulled over for a few minutes to let them get several miles ahead of me.

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

There is usually more than just salt mixed in those trucks. Probably a mix of sand, small rocks, and salt. Salt is the most expensive ingredient while sand/rocks are the cheapest. Guess which is used more in the mix ratio? I always keep a good distance behind those guys and also a good distance behind any other car on the highway. The other cars will kick up those rocks so you have to watch out for that too!

e-man

The problem was that I was keeping a safe distance behind the car in front of me (maybe 20 car lengths), but cars were passing me on each side and kicking up salt/stones/sand as they went by. After about 10 minutes of that, I figured that I may as well get ahead of everyone, including the trucks. Just my luck. Had I gotten on the expressway 1-2 minutes earlier, I would have been ahead of this mess.

LEXUS_KID

iTrader: (4)

Man E-Man you have no luck

e-man

I just spent another 15 minutes in the garage. Yeah, they got me good. There are a bunch of little specks all over the windshield (where I can feel them with my fingernail). I guess there's nothing you can do. To be honest, I can't even say for sure that they all happened tonight. I mean, the windshield is only 6 months old, so there's a good chance that many of them happened tonight, but what the hell can you do. I could have pulled over, but I didn't and that's the end of that. Next time I will. Good night.