"Margard" as one of them is called is very pricey! But my Cat-426 keeps cracking windshields (3 in 20 years, the first one due to a rollover) so this time I'm thinking abandoning glass. Does new equipment ever use anything other than glass? Any wisdom, experience or warnings in the ranks? TIA. -- Artificial-Stupidity will never be competitive.
Welcome to HEF, Towbar ! I doubt any new equipment would have it due to safety issues. It can't be broken in an emergency like tempered glass. I didn't try Margard, but I had dismal results with Lexan. I would guess that the "special" coating on it will wear away from repeated cleanings. 2 new glass windshields in 20 years isn't too bad. Perhaps the glass wasn't cut to the correct size.
Lexan has been used in the logging industry for many years. Cat has used polycarbonate front windows in excavators for more than twenty years. Broken glass is just part of owning and operating equipment. It happens whether through accident or vandalism.
I have a polycarbonate for use with my brush cutter, I dont run the wiper much as I don't typically work in the rain but I've not seen any issues with it at all. There is a back door in most skid steers to make a quick exit these days.
Thanks everyone. The first time much glass broke to pieces when my son rolled the rig. The second time it cracked in the middle vertically for no apparent reason. What was broke was always replaced on site by a jobber who cut safety glass to fit (he's since closed shop). The windshield broke again for no apparent reason. I suspect that the repairs might have been measured too tight and/or the frame is flexing. If you eyeball that cross-bar carefully it seems a lot like an engineering afterthought. After the last crack I just left it cracked for like 8 years, maybe if I had replaced it again it would cracked again and who knows how many times. I do use the wiper when blowing snow and also when grading the road as the best time for that is in rain with a soft gravel/dirt mixture. Anyone from Cat or Deere with ideas? Maybe special wiper blades? The coating is not a film as I understand it but a semi-solid layer added in liquid form during casting?
We have a plastic lexan whatever they call it windshield in the cat skid steer from factory its nice that it doesn't break and protects the operator very well but it is also a replacement item after a couple years it is to scratched and beat up to see out of on a backhoe I would stick to glass it will be so much clearer
Thicker safety glass maybe?
Meguiars Plastx fixes them if used regularly.
There are essentially 3 kinds of optical quality plastics. First and oldest is acrylic the plexiglass TM of old which scratches but can be buffed and polished but also breaks almost as easily as glass. Then there's polycarbonate which doesn't scratch as easily and is for all intent and purpose unbreakable, a little less stiff I think, and NOT polishable whatever McGuire says. The new kid on the block is abrasion-resistant-polycarbonate (of which Margard is one TM variety) which you will see on very expensive greenhouses, etc. I'll stand corrected if it ain't so. Bobcats, other skidsteers and some timberjacks more exposed to flying objects often use scratchable or scratch-nixing polycarb with a grill the purpose of which is to protect the driver and not he plastic (a large piece of unbreakable 1/4" polycarb windshield is VERY dangerous if pushd in complete by a tree branch for example). -- War is the school of peace
I had thought of thicker safety glass too but eyeballing it the perimeter H seal only allows about 3/16". I may yet have to do this but there'd be some framing distortions to fix first.
We have never had any luck replacing windshields in equipment with cut safety glass, they always crack. OEM windows are the only thing that will last
I've found no difference in durability of OEM to cut at a glass shop windows. Some OEM windows are cheaper then what a place can cut them or so close it makes sense, others OEM is insane. I've thought about other options or guards but in general I find I break at most 1 window a year between 3 pieces of equipment and I do quite a bit of demos, I find it's just the cost of doing business.
My purpose built mulchers come with Marguard polycarbonate windows. 1/2" minimum on most and some are 1" thick. Novus 3 step plastic polish will do a decent job of eliminating some minor scratches and do a great cleaning job if you put in enough labor. It won't take out heavy pitting or severe scratches. My excavator based cutters still have tempered safety glass behind brush cages. I've blown out several over the years due to flying rock mostly, but I did have a metal hook on the end of a rope that got sucked into a head fly into the cab between my legs and take out the lower glass one time. It happened too fast to poo my pants. I always wear safety glasses and a hard hat when operating mulchers on the hoes for a good reason. I've been looking into impact resistant glass films to add to the Menzi glass. I figure if it adds any impact resistance that it will likely pay for itself. https://www.cwfilmco.com/impact-resistant-film is one of the many films out there that make safety glass stronger and more resistant to impacts. If anyone out there tries one of these films I would like to hear results.
Thanks treemuncher. After having found no enthusiastic encouragment in favor of a Margard windshield I had one cut from 1/4" safety glass (not tempered but plastic layer sandwich like cars) which is already installed. I'm having a friend cut and bend 2 one-piece quarter windows from Margard, and I'm keeping the doors rotten as they are for lack of reasonably priced like-new used ones ('new' is priced out of this world). Virtually everyone here advised against polycarbonate-AR (of which Margard is one) so I owe you all a thanks, it certainly made the decision easier, and I will ask the bartender to say a mass for you souls! About flying missiles. I was trying to pull a tree out of a ravine cut-bottom first. The place was inaccessible so I used 80' of 1-1/2" rope (HUGE mistake, always use chain they told me). The rope was chokered about 2 feet from the thick end so it couldn't slip off. The hoe boom was raised behind me THANK GOD. I noticed some resistance followed by a surge and as I looked back this 40 footer went FLYING by me about 8 feet in the air to a point maybe 40 feet in front. It had snagged a stump, stretched the rope, then jumped the stump. I didn't have time for much philosophy either, or there'd be no buttuns left on the seat cushion .... or as one brave driver once replied when I asked him about the buttons: "what cushion?"
When I have tried polycarbonate it scratches terribly. If you wipe the dust off with a rag dry the dust etches right in. There might be better poly out there,this was whatever the local glass shop gave me. I went back to glass.
Same here. I replaced the right door glass once with regular polycarb. Within a year it was so full of micro-scratces that in the sunlight I couldn't see out at all (ended up replacing the poly with regular acrylic). THAT's why Polycarbonate-AR, or scratch resistant is the only thing to use if not glass. Margard is one of several trade names around.