I've had no less than 4 windshields replace, all right here in the driveway. 2 on my wife's van, one on my puddle jumper and one on her Suburban all from stones coming off the back of Michigan gravel haulers, mostly break up doubles.
Getting smacked with a gravel stone at speed is pretty scary in itself and we don't ever get close to ANY gravel hauler on the e-way but we have still been impacted.
If the drivers just exhibited some common sense and swept the tailgate lip off before going down the road, that would really mitigate the issue but most don't. so when motoring along and hitting one of the numerous potholes in Michigan roads (and that in itself is another subject for a different forum because it's political), the trailer jumps and off comes the stuff on the tailgate lip and that is where cracked windshields come from.
Back when I trucked, though I mostly hauled steel, we had a couple dumps and occasionally I ran one and hauled gravel or slag and the last thing I always did after locking the tailgate clamps was take my gloved hand and sweep of the lip of the box. Only takes a second and can save a motorist a lot of grief.
I see a lot of Michigan gravel haulers with the tailgate clamps not engaged as well. They are depending entirely on the air operated tailgate latches to hold the tailgate shut and that in itself is nothing but a lazy practice. If the air cylinder fails, the tailgate opens. The screw clamps are there for a reason and that reason is a second line of defense against the tailgate opening if the air cylinder fails.
Only takes maybe 45 seconds to unscrew them when dumping.
If I was a DOT officer and saw that, I'd be pulling them over and writing them up for an unsafe load. Probably get the portables out too as most of them are over gross in the first place.
