Hail Guards; Any Advances

[Tony Gilbert]

Hi sorry for any duplicate posting!

Sadly, pretty much written off (for insurance purposes) two cars with hail since 2000 when I first started chasing in the US. The most recent damage was in 2011 with smaller (say 1") almost horizontal hail on strong surface winds. The car looked like hammered steel, almost pickled like!
This aside, regarding big hail avoidance; Its not as easy as some UK to USA chasers tend to argue! A good example was 29th May 2001 just north of the Whitedeer tornado cell. We got hammered with moderate hail falling off the northern sector of the anvil. In fact we were several miles north at the time (not the best of positions). I concluded here that the hail was maybe being lifted into the overshooting top and then blown forwards several miles on the jet stream. In short, there was no storm above us just elevated anvil scud at high altitude. So maybe the point is that we are all at risk of big hail no matter how much experience we have?

I avoid big hail at every opportunity, but big hail can find 'you' even if u have many years experience. If I lived in the USA I would build me a nice cage to drive in but us Brits are stuck with rental cars and don't have this choice.
PS. I prefer to sit up close and personal just to the east of the updraft so risking the odd meeting with big hail as these storm occlude is pretty much unavoidable!
Still waiting for someone to invent me a portable mag-mounted hail guard which I can pull out of a case and unfold?

 

[Greg Ansel]

The main issue is always fit. I have equiped both of my chase vehicles with hailguards primarily for window protection, but I am thinking of completely rhinoshielding the body of my vehicle also, mostly for the reason that large hail or spikey hail has not only dented the hood and roof, but also chipped the paint exposing the metal and causing rust to occur (not really planning on trading or selling until the truck is worth almost nothing anyway). If you are coming from another country, you would need to know what vehicle you were renting and have hailguards made for that, which is difficult at best.

 

[Tony Gilbert]

Hi Greg,
the other issue when using a rental car might be for the risk of damage to the bodywork when fitting these hail guards!...and maybe by adding the hail guard we render the insurance invalid breaking the conditions of use? I mentioned 'mag-mounted' as I wondered if anyone had considered constructing one? Some of these super magnetised plates are almost impossible to pull off the metal. But would they hold up to storm force winds around the RFD? If not then we might be creating an accident waiting to happen with airborne hailguards flying down the highway!

PS. The commercial reward for constructing and retailing such a product that is roadworthy could surely become a lucrative enterprise!

 

[Greg Ansel]

I have mag mounts for my new Toyota FJ cruiser and yes, the stronger magnets will leave a ring of destruction on the paint job (my magnets are 90 lbs pull per mag and I have 4 for each hailguard on the side and back windows). I am pretty sure they would nullify any insurance, and you would most likely have to pay for the damage they would do to the paint job. My advice is to do what others have done and just rent until they blacklist you, just say you have bad luck with hail for some reason.

I am also waiting for the day they make soft yet powerful magnets. It's a dream I have.

Another option I am working on involves welding small nuts around the edges of the windows that the hailguards would bolt on to. Again the vehicle would be altered (I would paint match the nuts to the vehicle color), but this would allow the hailguards to be removed when not chasing and would reduce the chance of them falling or blowing off during strong RFDs. It would take a few minutes more to attach, but when you're sitting in Grand Island or Dodge City waiting for initiation, there's plenty of time to do it.

 

[Tony Gilbert]

Sounds like there is some friction or movement with your magnets under strong winds. Sadly, any protective coating added to the magnet face would reduce magnetism. What is the diameter of your roof mag mounts?
I see the UK EBAY do 7" anti scratch mag mounts for £3.00/ $4.00 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Replaceme...ommunication_Radio_Mounts&hash=item3cb25ba624 Though would they actually be 'Anti Scratch Proofed'? In addition to this they would need adapting to carry a centred bolt!

 

[Dan Robinson]

In my experience with strong magnets, I found that a couple layers of saran wrap under the magnets greatly reduced (but didn't eliminate) the scratching. The saran wrap didn't reduce the adhesion (resistance to sliding) of the magnets at all. I'd bet there is some material out there that would solve the scratch problem. It would have to be slightly thicker than saran wrap and skid-resistant. Maybe a balloon or rubber glove? Possibly even 4 layers of saran wrap might work. When I had gear on my roof, I tended to not care about minor scratches (since it was my own vehicle), so I didn't have the motivation to perfect the setup. I think it can be done, though.

 

[Tony Gilbert]

Hi Dan,
interesting; we call that 'Cling Film' over here!...TBH I am surprised that the mere presence of 'saran wrap' might allow the mag mounted pads to in fact slide along the bodywork under extreme winds? Have you tested this under strong winds? I do wonder that whilst protecting the body from scratches could this ultimately still increase the risk of you losing your hail guard?
Ultimately, for most UK/USA chasers if we are using a hire car we probably do not have too many options available. Though this aside if I lived in the USA and had only one vehicle I probably would not want to carry the hail guard 24/7. So the ease of quick release mechanism would seem a more preferential choice for for me!
PS. I've always been rather keen on the meshed flat bedded overhead frame design. Surely this must be better than cutting a mesh frame to each individual side window?...Fairly much understood that small hail can travel horizontally but most of the large hail I have experienced tends to fall pretty much vertically! (Any strong surface winds seem irrelivent to this conclusion)

 

[MesoHead]

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Discovery Channel's Storm Chaser's Dominator vehicles, but but they use Lexan over the glass and steel coated with LINE-X. The vehicle below USED to be a Chevy Tahoe.

 

[Dan Robinson]

You can simulate the effect of high winds on lateral adhesion by simply pushing the rig sideways to see if it slides. I didn't see any effect from the saran wrap. I'd think a thin rubber material would be even more skid resistant than the bare magnet-on-metal interface.

I've considered building hail guards, but I really need to figure out how bad they will affect gas mileage and how the added fuel costs and materials expenses stack up to replacing a couple of windows. I've never cracked or broken a windshield from hail in 20 years, though I'm sure it's going to happen eventually. A windshield is $300. Side and back windows might be more worth protecting.

With spray-on bedliner, I'm not sure I see the benefit. All it's doing is helping to reduce dents, but if you don't mind permanently coating a car with bedliner, why would you care about dents? I'm not criticizing it, I just wonder what the purpose is. Dents affect a car's resale value, but I'd imagine coating it with bedliner doesn't do a while lot for its value either! It's also known that the extra weight and drag from bedlining noticeably impacts gas mileage. Personally, I'd rather just accept the dents, but to each their own.

 

[James Hilger]

I didn't notice any loss in mileage with the lining but I lost 4 mpg with my guard. My vehicle is somewhat underpowered to begin with though. Even with metal straps and braces I have had it move about an inch in the past when encountering over 100 mph winds. It's not going anywhere but definitely don't underestimate the power if wind.

 

[Justin Teague]

I've been tempted to buy a hood from a salvage yard, cover half of it with several layers of Plasti Dip, and then hit golf-balls and baseballs at it to see if the Plasti Dip offers any level of protection from the impact. The best thing about Plasti Dip is that you can literally peel it off, making it a potential option for anybody that wants some protection without a permanent solution.

 

[MesoHead]

Plastidip is fun to play with and it's cheap, but I don't think it would help much. You're talking about maybe 6 mils of a fairly weak product compared to 125 mils of a really strong product (professional spray product).

 

[Justin Teague]

It definitely wouldn't compare to something like Rhino Liner, but it might be worth testing, on the outside chance that it could offer some protection from anything up to golfball sized hail. I have my doubts, but I would like to test it out, just to see if it would work (at all).

 

[TJKLECKNER]

Yeah, this guy has a pretty neat setup:
http://www.aerostorms.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/IMG_2394-600x450.jpg

lol

Hes not very well known around here! jk