Arb Canopies

[DobieMum]

I was travelling to a dog show yesterday, luckily with the dogs in the dog trailer behind me. I had my gear in the back of the ute. Suddenly I see going over the trailer, what looks like a black snow storm. When I pulled up and checked, somehow I had shattered my rear window on the canopy. There was glass everywhere. When I got to the show, I got out my grooming box (completely sealed) but that was it, I couldn't risk the glass. When I got back home, I took it to the local ARB place and they told me, probably a rock had hit my trailer and hit the glass. When i questioned the shattering everywhere, they said they were built like that and it was one of their biggest repairs. I questioned why it shattered and not held together like a windscreen? There's no laminate in these as that would up the cost emensly. When not travelling somewhere (eg. a show) I used to throw the dogs in the back of the ute, cause they were safe and contained or so I thought. The amount of glass that came inwards, would have cut my dogs up REALLY badly. When the new window gets replaced, we're going to put one of those mesh stickers on it (the kind you can see out of, not into - if anyone knows any good places around Brissy let me know), hopefully if this was to happen again, it would hold it.

Thought I'd put the warning out there.

Edited for spelling

Edited February 10, 2013 by DobieMum

[luvmybulldog]

If you are anywhere near Redcliffe you can come into where I work - We do Rear One Way Vision's all the time - Otherwise any Sign shop would be able to help. If you get one put on make sure you have it overlaminated as well, as when it rains sometimes the water can pool into the holes making visibility difficult. If you PM me I will send you the address etc.

[Greytmate]

It isnt laminated glass but it is safety glass so unlikely to cause serious injury.

[DobieMum]

I got plenty of cuts cleaning it up, and the speed it shattered would have thrown a force behind it.

[Greytmate]

Safety glass shatters into tiny cubes of glass. No dangerous shards. Although it is quite scary when safety glass breaks all over you, its not especially dangerous.

[yarracully]

Had something similar happen to my fathers station wagon when I was a teenager. Stone flicked up by back wheels on car, hit the front of the trailer and shot forward and smashed the tailgate window of the wagon. Mind you this was on a dirt road from town out to the sheep station( about 200k's). Drove that road thousands of times and it only happened once. So not something unique to ARB canopies.

You will find that on nearly every car made only the windscreen is ever laminated so it stays in almost one piece when smashed. All the side windows and rear windows are only safety glass so they go into little cubes and not slivers. But they are not laminated and so do not stay in a sheet when smashed.

Mind you, you could probably drive another million kilometres and never have this happen again. Good old fashioned mudflaps were good at stopping this. I was always worried about the dual wheels on our motorhome flicking stones up but we have now got big mudflaps from a truck on it and no worries now.

Another thing some 4WDers do is to put loose fitting shadecloth across the front of the trailer on an angle so any stones are deflected downwards

[DobieMum]

Thanks

[Mystiqview]

I know of many rear windows in cars and utes that get shattered from trailers.

Next time you see a camper trailer - have a look a the stone shield that is often attached to the draw bar to deflect stones down.

Same as you will often see stone flaps attached to the rear of the towing vehicle and another is a shade cloth type screen that attaches to both the towing vehicle and trailer for the same purpose.

I have smashed the rear window in my ARB Canopy - that is because a tree jumped out behind me at Durack.

I think also the side windows and rear window in the car is also safety glass and not laminate..... same thing will happen if a rock is thrown up against those.