Hail Shield Build Help

[Robert Forry]

This is the last season for the Jeep so I'm saving the Hail Guard expense for the next vehicle (either a Trailblaizer, Avalanche or Traverse). I love with Scott McPartland and his crew have done with his Exterra and what Adam Lucio has done with his Expedition, though if I go with a crossover or SUV I'll for sure build one for the back window (Adam's Wayne chase from a the October before last taught me that). Lowes and THD have Lexan, and I've already begin to purchase the magnets for the doors. I'll try to stay out of the big hail this spring and will concentrate on building these in the fall..

 

[Dan Robinson]

Here's a initial rough-in of the main support beams and front windshield guards.

 

[Todd Rector]

Just out of wild curiosity, have you take a few golfballs/baseballs and thrown them against your guard to see how well they stand up?

 

[Dan Robinson]

I have a 12-pound piece of railroad rail that I dropped on one section. It holds up just fine

 

[Todd Rector]

okay, cool - Just curious!
I also can't help but wonder how small a particle can be and still have a reasonable chance of breaking a window. I got sandblasted at Beaver Crossing NE last year, with pretty large dirt-clods and rocks flying horizontally. I got two windshield spiders on that trip that weren't from hail. Have you considered an underlying mesh/netting to augment protection?

 

[Dan Robinson]

Todd, yes, absolutely, that's definitely a valid concern. I'm planning on attaching a layer of wire screen to the top side of all of the guards.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I finished building the rig yesterday. I have done some beta-testing on the roads, including an MPG evaluation. With the rig mounted, the car gets ~30MPG highway (my car averages 38-40MPG highway). So, this will definitely be dismantled and transported inside the car during trips to and from the Plains. It can be mounted in about 15 minutes. Though it is not as obtrusive as I'd feared, I'm planning on painting it flat black to help it blend in as much as possible.

Some further changes to the design that were necessary:

• To improve visibility, 1" spacers were added to the two front roof mounts to raise the height of the front windshield guard. The guard is not visible at all in my front dashcam's 120-degree view.
• The front windshield guard cantilever was a little 'bouncy', so I added two 1/4" vertical support rods that attach at the base of the windshield.
• The stage 1 side window guards provide better coverage than I'd anticipated. As a result, I'm evaluating the stage 2 guard idea. It may be feasible to protect only the passenger side windows with stage 2 guards, and just orient the car in a storm so that the passenger side faces the wind.

 

[Dan Robinson]

A couple of safety issues to mention regarding this project (if anyone is still reading this thread).

Structural redundancy: The rig is held together with bolts and fender washers. I have put 200 miles of real-world chasing on this thing during the past couple of days, and thankfully nothing has budged. All critical attachment spots are secured with at least two bolts, and most major sections are connected together with at least one bolt so they all help secure one another. I used 75lb tensile strength cable ties to add a redundant support to of the critical attachment points. So, if by some worst-case luck two of the bolts come loose at the same time, the affected piece will not fall off.

Head-bumping hazard: The stage 1 side window guards are very easy to forget about, especially in the dark and particularly when leaning in to grab items out of the back seat. I added some foam cushioning to the problem spots to make these inevitable incidents less painful.

Also, I have discovered that the RustOleum black spray paint I used did not hold up to the copious pea-sized hail I encountered today. Most of the paint on front-facing surfaces was chipped off.

 

[James Hammett]

The thing keeping me from building a hail guard is the MPG hit. At some point it'd be cheaper to replace your windows periodically than pay for the extra fuel over time. I've heard polycarb has less wind resistance than the metal grilles but I suspect where and how it's mounted would greatly impact that. I drive a sedan so my rear window is at greatest risk...I might start there and see what happens.

 

[Dan Robinson]

James, MPG's definitely a valid concern, especially since the reason I drive a small car is precisely for the MPG. I calculated the extra fuel cost per 400 miles with the guards on to be $8, or 2 cents extra per mile with gas at $2.50/gallon. I built the rig to be removable and stored inside the car. All of the guard panels will fit in the back seat area, and the long box beams will fit with one rear seat folded flat and having them pass through into the trunk. My plan is to transport the rig inside the car for the long trips to/from the Plains, as well as any long repositioning days while on a chase trip. I'll mount them in the morning of the first in a series of chase days, and remove them again at the end. Mounting/removal takes about 15-20 minutes by myself. At home, the guards can be removed and carried inside my apartment in two pieces.

Even if I chose to leave them on full-time on a trip, I figured the extra fuel cost for a round-trip to Elkhart, Kansas from here (1,400 miles total) would only run an additional $29. If I only mount them on tornado chase days, I'm looking at most an extra $8 per day on average. I expect to have them mounted maybe 10-15 days a year, for a total additional fuel cost of $150 or so annually. I look at it as a self-insurance premium against a catastrophic window loss, all while opening up more positioning and escape route possibilities around storms.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I posted some images of the final product:

https://stormtrack.org/media/albums/hail-shields-completed.40/

 

[Drew Terril]

Nice work Dan.

 

[Justin Wilcox]

Looks great Dan. I need to do something like this.

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

Dan - One thing to consider, if you're transporting this rig inside during the chase commute, please be sure to secure the components safely. As we all know, most storm chasing accidents occur during the ride to or from the storms, so making sure these components are stowed and secured safely will help prevent and collateral damage to occupants should you have an accident.

Personally, I keep all my gear in a big locked plastic bin in the rear of my car which is then secured to tie points in the hatch area. When I'm stopped, the straps come off and easy access to chase supplies.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Another update. I decided to start doing some MPG experiments with various parts of the rig installed. My first tests have been with the two main support beams, which are the longest of all the pieces and the hardest to carry inside of the car (they have to pass through from the trunk nearly all the way to the front dash, with one rear seat back laying flat). With these mounted by themselves, I was pleased to discover no detectable degradation in MPG, and therefore they can stay mounted on a chase trip full-time. Eventually I'll determine the maximum amount of parts that can be left mounted versus what needs to be transported inside. I'm hoping the bulk of the frame can be left mounted, with only the shelving panels carried inside during non-chase mode.

Marc, thankfully the pieces are a pretty tight fit when they're all inside, and don't have anywhere to move. They take up the bulk of the back seat area. I'll try to get some pictures of everything stowed.