Shield drop made easy.

T

tharb5111

New member
Adding the Rockhard 4x4 sport cage and dropping the windshield is a breeze. Easy up, easy down without having to remove your entire front sport cage which is just silly as it is a mpita.


Zero leaks before. Zero leaks after. Makes driving Willy like riding a boat on the lake. Wind blast in the face takes it to an entirely new level. A rush really.
 

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About 16 screws and the windshield is down. 20 minutes down. 20 minutes to bolt back up.

Without the cage installed this would be a total nightmare as you would need to remove the sport cage. Plus I think it looks way more legit with the cage in.
 
Definitely sucks putting the windshield down with the standard roll cage. It was awesome but won't do it again. I'd just buy a YJ or CJ if I really wanted to put it down regularly though.
 
Driving around windshield down
 

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Drove about a week this way until rain forced me to transform back to boring mode. Sucked but I don't like being soaked and looking crazy unless I'm with a herd of crazy Jeepers doing the same. Lol. As for worrying about the police I did, but it just made it feel more righteous. More free. Especially after passing a few of the law on the road. But they never seemed to care. including my kids campus officer who camps out in front of the school daily. Waived at him a few times and he didn't seem to notice the windshield down or maybe he didn't care. After a week I really stopped caring. btw, Highway at 65mph was fun as hell. Wore my Oakley shooting eyewear to help protect the eyes. Highly recommend the experience. Had a biker roar up next to me and we exchanged grins and giggles. He gave me a big thumbs up and roared off. Man I love stripping the Jeep down to bare sport cage. Taking the rear bumper and tailgate off next just for fun. Transforming the Jeep is half the fun for me. Got it almost a year ago and I am constantly dropping top, stripping off doors, but when I go full on jeep mode and drop windshield it takes the ride to a whole new level. Try it if you haven't. Watch the expression of other jeepers you pass on the road. :) especially the ones trapped inside their hardtops. Nothing against hardtops, I love all my fellow Jeeper brothers and sisters equally. I just love riding in my stripped down Jeep.
 
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tharb5111 said:
Drove about a week this way until rain forced me to transform back to boring mode. Sucked but I don't like being soaked and looking crazy unless I'm with a herd of crazy Jeepers doing the same. Lol. As for worrying about the police I did, but it just made it feel more righteous. More free. Especially after passing a few of the law on the road. But they never seemed to care. including my kids campus officer who camps out in front of the school daily. Waived at him a few times and he didn't seem to notice the windshield down or maybe he didn't care. After a week I really stopped caring. btw, Highway at 65mph was fun as hell. Wore my Oakley shooting eyewear to help protect the eyes. Highly recommend the experience. Had a biker roar up next to me and we exchanged grins and giggles. He gave me a big thumbs up and roared off. Man I love stripping the Jeep down to bare sport cage. Taking the rear bumper and tailgate off next just for fun. Transforming the Jeep is half the fun for me. Got it almost a year ago and I am constantly dropping top, stripping off doors, but when I go full on jeep mode and drop windshield it takes the ride to a whole new level. Try it if you haven't. Watch the expression of other jeepers you pass on the road. :) especially the ones trapped inside their hardtops. Nothing against hardtops, I love all my fellow Jeeper brothers and sisters equally. I just love riding in my stripped down Jeep.
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You can smell the freedom because you don't have a windshield.. I like it. I found a shirt you should wear while driving around with the windshield dropped. ImageUploadedByWAYALIFE1430303167.737664.jpg
 
tharb5111 said:
Drove about a week this way until rain forced me to transform back to boring mode. Sucked but I don't like being soaked and looking crazy unless I'm with a herd of crazy Jeepers doing the same. Lol. As for worrying about the police I did, but it just made it feel more righteous. More free. Especially after passing a few of the law on the road. But they never seemed to care. including my kids campus officer who camps out in front of the school daily. Waived at him a few times and he didn't seem to notice the windshield down or maybe he didn't care. After a week I really stopped caring. btw, Highway at 65mph was fun as hell. Wore my Oakley shooting eyewear to help protect the eyes. Highly recommend the experience. Had a biker roar up next to me and we exchanged grins and giggles. He gave me a big thumbs up and roared off. Man I love stripping the Jeep down to bare sport cage. Taking the rear bumper and tailgate off next just for fun. Transforming the Jeep is half the fun for me. Got it almost a year ago and I am constantly dropping top, stripping off doors, but when I go full on jeep mode and drop windshield it takes the ride to a whole new level. Try it if you haven't. Watch the expression of other jeepers you pass on the road. :) especially the ones trapped inside their hardtops. Nothing against hardtops, I love all my fellow Jeeper brothers and sisters equally. I just love riding in my stripped down Jeep.
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Wait till you take a rock to the face, that'll change your mind. Riding motorcycles for 10+ years and having numerous rocks/bugs bounce off my face shield only reminded me why I was wearing a full face helmet. Those rocks that fly up and crack peoples windshields? A pair of sunglasses isn't going to help.
 
Don't just stop with the tailgate and bumper, heck, you can remove the hood and front fenders too! Have fun but yes, watch for those flying rocks to the face but more importantly gor your kids safety.
 
JK_b/c_yolo said:
Don't just stop with the tailgate and bumper, heck, you can remove the hood and front fenders too! Have fun but yes, watch for those flying rocks to the face but more importantly gor your kids safety.
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You are right. No highway with kids for sure. And I keep it slower on surface streets with them to enjoy the ride. Besides too fast and we can't hear the music blasting.

But my wife really worries about stones and bugs to their faces too. She could care less if I eat bug, but she does worry about the kids. So I make sure they wear eye protection and buckle up, and like I said before I do cruise slow with them and stay on side streets. And if I need to take them somewhere that requires highway I throw the windshield back up quickly and go. No biggie and one of the things I love most about this thing is how easily it changes forms to meet our needs.

My wife won't ride in the Jeep when the windshield is down. She hates her hair looking like she's been riding in a Tesla coil so she demands I put the shield up for her or she followes us in her car lol.

That's what I like about shield drop. Kinda the same taste of open air freedom riding a motorcycle gives you.

Anyone here in Texas been pulled over for windshield drop?

Curious.
 
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mattfl said:
Wait till you take a rock to the face, that'll change your mind. Riding motorcycles for 10+ years and having numerous rocks/bugs bounce off my face shield only reminded me why I was wearing a full face helmet. Those rocks that fly up and crack peoples windshields? A pair of sunglasses isn't going to help.
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Yup. I'd so want to drive with the windshield down, but I wouldn't try it on the road here for exactly this reason. It's particularly bad where I live since they use gravel instead of salt in the winter. Let's just say chipped windshields from thrown stones happen so often that insurance companies won't cover it - still, better the windshield than my face.

I've heard there are some places that it's legal to drive like this, but you need to be wearing a helmet with a full face shield. I think in most places it's one of those "grey areas" that no one has thought of making a law about since only Jeeps can do this and not many of us would.

I do have to say though, the with the Rock Hard sport cage and the windshield down, the factory brackets sticking out at the top don't look nearly as bad as I would have thought. Apparently, Poison Spider designed their roll cage without any way to bolt the windshield in at the top because they thought it would "not be aesthetically pleasing with the windshield down." Makes me wonder how hard they tried to come up with something.
 
Wardell said:
Yup. I'd so want to drive with the windshield down, but I wouldn't try it on the road here for exactly this reason. It's particularly bad where I live since they use gravel instead of salt in the winter. Let's just say chipped windshields from thrown stones happen so often that insurance companies won't cover it - still, better the windshield than my face.

I've heard there are some places that it's legal to drive like this, but you need to be wearing a helmet with a full face shield. I think in most places it's one of those "grey areas" that no one has thought of making a law about since only Jeeps can do this and not many of us would.

I do have to say though, the with the Rock Hard sport cage and the windshield down, the factory brackets sticking out at the top don't look nearly as bad as I would have thought. Apparently, Poison Spider designed their roll cage without any way to bolt the windshield in at the top because they thought it would "not be aesthetically pleasing with the windshield down." Makes me wonder how hard they tried to come up with something.
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Ya I saw their cage and didn't want it for that reason. I want my windshield to be able to bolt into the cage when up. Also I heard the lack of windshield bolt in of the spider cage makes the windshield rattle and move some. Love the way the rock hard cage handles it. Zero leaks. Zero rattles. And factory strong when the windshield is bolted back into place. Maybe offers a little extra protection as well. And I agree. Windshield cage tie in brackets Don't look bad imo. Kinda rugged. My 7 year old daughter thought they made the jeep look like he had eyebrows. I actually like the look. Dune buggy feel.
 
I've heard the same about the PS cage rattling. Oddly enough, the sport cage OR-Fab used to make replaced the factory bars that ran between the A & B pillar (like Poison Spyder's does) but still had a way to bolt the windshield to the cage at the top, so it's not like they couldn't have done something similar (though I heard somewhere they might be redesigning it for this). I guess it still wasn't sturdy enough though - OR-Fab stopped making theirs, apparently for liability concerns.
 
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Wardell said:
I've heard the same about the PS cage rattling. Oddly enough, the sport cage OR-Fab used to make replaced the factory bars that ran between the A & B pillar (like Poison Spyder's does) but still had a way to bolt the windshield to the cage at the top, so it's not like they couldn't have done something similar (though I heard somewhere they might be redesigning it for this). I guess it still wasn't sturdy enough though - OR-Fab stopped making theirs, apparently for liability concerns.
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I have a Poison Spider cage, it's been in for a couple of years and mine has never squeaked at all, it's super strong and was a perfect fit and I purposely didn't want my windshield tied to the cage. Personally I don't like the look of any of the other cages, they look like there wasn't much thought put into them and using clam shell clamps for cross bar attachment just seems weak, just my opinion, your mileage may vary. Actually if someone would make a hybrid cross between the Poison Spider and the Synergy kits would be the ultimate cage.
 
So after having my windshield down all summer I can say I love it. Have passed many police and speed traps in the frisco, plano, McKinney area in Texas and all police seemed to not care.... until today.

While getting gas at quick trip in frisco, a state trooper drove up while I was pumping gas. He said "you know you can't drive around with your windshield down right?" I said I was not aware of that law and he said that he can look it up and show it to me if I want. I said I believed him. He then went on to say he loved Jeeps and was very cool about warning me. I told him how many police I had driven past with no issue and he went on to show me photos on his phone of several cars that had stones and other road debris blast through the driver side windshield. He said he wasn't trying to scare me he just wanted me to know before I get a ticket or get injured.

Really cool officer. I thanked him for his concern and time and he told me to be safe and left.

Well needless to say I came home and took a few minutes to put my windshield back up for the first time this summer.

However I researched the texas motor vehicle laws and the only thing I could find was that no windshield was required but wipers were required.

Any fellow Texans aware of specific windshield laws? At this point I am just curious and am in no way trying to challenge the officer as I appreciated his professionalism and his love of jeeps. I just want to know as I heard Texas had no law requiring windshields be up and I could find no law.
 

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I don't have an answer for you, sorry. But, what do you do with the windshield wipers while it's folded down? Sorry it's a little off topic...
 
Wipers were at home in the garage. Lol. Looked into this some more and I guess the law is if the windshield is in place there must be working wipers. The law didn't address jeeps with the ability to fold them down obviously. In that case wipers obviously wouldn't be needed. I did find on lift.com it showed texas state lift and car mod regs and it said no windshield requirement exists in Texas. But it did say working wipers are required if windshield is in place. Other than that I could not find anything in the law the officer was referring to directly.
 
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