Guns_N_Rosaries
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2021
- Threads
- 7
- Messages
- 156
- Reaction score
- 459
- Location
- Fort Worth, TX
- Vehicle(s)
- 2021 Jeep Gladiator Willys Edition
- Thread starter
- #1
I see a lot of posts about the thousands of dollars of accessories people are getting on their Gladiators, but I want to make sure everyone knows that the most important accessory you can get is to spend a couple of hundred dollars on a good dash cam. I was going through some threads the other day, and I saw a bunch of posts about getting cracked and chipped windshields due to trucks kicking rocks.
While I didn't work for the DOT, I worked with the DOT for about 10 years a while back, and one of the things they told me is that if you're hauling anything, you are 100% responsible for your load. Every speck of dust, every grain of sand. Those stickers the truckers put on the back of their trailers that say "Not responsible for broken windshields" are as valid as me putting a sticker on the back of my truck that says, "If you read this, you must pay me $100."
My family has had 3 windshields replaced paid for by trucking companies because they didn't tarp their gravel or cover a load. My dad had a bolt that, I kid you not, was the size of flashlight fly out of the back of a metal recycle truck and smash into his windshield. It imbedded into the windshield. He took some pics of the truck company and all related numbers, and after a week of calling around and internet research we finally found them (they try to make it hard to find out a contact number). They tried to pull that "not responsible" crap until we sent them a picture of the bolt still in the windshield and told them the DOT would be really interested to see that, and the next day a mobile windshield van pulled up and replaced the windshield.
A dash cam will save you the hassle and headache of them denying it. Just send them the video if they argue with you, and tell them you'd be happy to send it to the DOT as well, and they can mediate if needed.
Sorry for the soapbox, but I just had the experience yesterday of a guy hauling an empty trailer he must have used for transporting yellow iron, and it was full of rocks and gravel that must have fallen off whatever he had on before. The guy flies past me, pulls in front of me, hits a bump, and unloads a sandbox of rocks all over my 3 month old, 1,000 miles on the odometer Gladiator. I was fuming, but I had my dash cam, and caught his license plate and company name. THANKFULLY, somehow there wasn't even a scratch or chip.
Be careful out there, and DO NOT let lazy haulers who refuse to cover their loads, or clean and brush out their flatbeds get away with destroying your property.
Edit: I just wanted to make sure that I didn't come off as anti-trucker. I think they're some of the hardest working people out there, but there are definitely some unsavory ones that take shortcuts and just don't care (just like with any field).
While I didn't work for the DOT, I worked with the DOT for about 10 years a while back, and one of the things they told me is that if you're hauling anything, you are 100% responsible for your load. Every speck of dust, every grain of sand. Those stickers the truckers put on the back of their trailers that say "Not responsible for broken windshields" are as valid as me putting a sticker on the back of my truck that says, "If you read this, you must pay me $100."
My family has had 3 windshields replaced paid for by trucking companies because they didn't tarp their gravel or cover a load. My dad had a bolt that, I kid you not, was the size of flashlight fly out of the back of a metal recycle truck and smash into his windshield. It imbedded into the windshield. He took some pics of the truck company and all related numbers, and after a week of calling around and internet research we finally found them (they try to make it hard to find out a contact number). They tried to pull that "not responsible" crap until we sent them a picture of the bolt still in the windshield and told them the DOT would be really interested to see that, and the next day a mobile windshield van pulled up and replaced the windshield.
A dash cam will save you the hassle and headache of them denying it. Just send them the video if they argue with you, and tell them you'd be happy to send it to the DOT as well, and they can mediate if needed.
Sorry for the soapbox, but I just had the experience yesterday of a guy hauling an empty trailer he must have used for transporting yellow iron, and it was full of rocks and gravel that must have fallen off whatever he had on before. The guy flies past me, pulls in front of me, hits a bump, and unloads a sandbox of rocks all over my 3 month old, 1,000 miles on the odometer Gladiator. I was fuming, but I had my dash cam, and caught his license plate and company name. THANKFULLY, somehow there wasn't even a scratch or chip.
Be careful out there, and DO NOT let lazy haulers who refuse to cover their loads, or clean and brush out their flatbeds get away with destroying your property.
Edit: I just wanted to make sure that I didn't come off as anti-trucker. I think they're some of the hardest working people out there, but there are definitely some unsavory ones that take shortcuts and just don't care (just like with any field).
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