2025 Lariat Windshield Tougher than I expected

[Dave O]

I was cruising in Southwest Florida yesterday down highway 41 when a large white crane flew into my windshield when I was doing about 40 mph. He made full contact dead center about rearview mirror high, it really was a hard impact fortunately he was thrown over the cab and landed on the road with no traffic behind me - I slowed and pulled over and saw that he survived and seemed to have recovered without any major injuries and actually shook off the impact off and walked away thankfully.

After seeing he was fine I cleaned the bird crap off my windshield and inspected it and found no damage i fully expected this window to crack being it was such a big impact fortunately for both of us the beautiful bird and the windshield is okay - scary moment though…

Dave

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[Dave O]

glad you and the crane are safe. I wonder if the Lariat windshield is tougher than the xl and xlt. I don't want to test it to find out

Thank you - I definitely didn’t want to be the one to test it either but it couldn’t be avoided - with all the crack windshield stories here I was also wondering if the Lariat Soundscreen windshield is a bit stronger I haven’t done any research but happy it heldup up as well as this bird.

 

[wb5oxq]

glad you and the crane are safe. I wonder if the Lariat windshield is tougher than the xl and xlt. I don't want to test it to find out

My Lariat has the "Soundscreen" windshield. Do all models have that? maybe it is thicker?

 

[William Buckman]

The Lariat windshield is thicker to reduce road noise and more tolerable to impacts. If you have to replace the windshield, request the thicker glass.

 

[tciotti2003]

Man, a crane? That's a hellva big bird..Wow good story..

 

[Milwrdfan]

Had a pretty significant rock hit this weekend in my '25 Lariat (65mph highway). I didn't see it hit, but it sure was loud and startling when it impacted. At first thought for sure the windshield would have a huge chip in it, if not a crack as well. Ended up just a tiny nick in the glass surface with no cracking or other damage. I was surprised and impressed, as previous vehicles have gotten significant chips from a lot less.

 

[Suzukiridr14]

I was cruising in Southwest Florida yesterday down highway 41 when a large white crane flew into my windshield when I was doing about 40 mph. He made full contact dead center about rearview mirror high, it really was a hard impact fortunately he was thrown over the cab and landed on the road with no traffic behind me - I slowed and pulled over and saw that he survived and seemed to have recovered without any major injuries and actually shook off the impact off and walked away thankfully.

After seeing he was fine I cleaned the bird crap off my windshield and inspected it and found no damage i fully expected this window to crack being it was such a big impact fortunately for both of us the beautiful bird and the windshield is okay - scary moment though…

Dave

Be glad it wasn't a sand crane!

 

[Backdoctor]

I would argue that the soft belly of the bird distributed the force well and reduced the risk of breaking. I’ve had a windshield replaced on my 2023 LARIAT after a crack appeared at the bottom on the drivers side (related to the windshield heater, as there were no chips in that area) and within 1 week of having my new 2025 Lariat, I got a major chip in the lower drivers side corner. I filled it before it spread and saved the windshield for now. But they crack very easily!

 

[dochawk]

Be glad it wasn't a sand crane!

let alone a construction crane . . .

 

[Blue316]

Happy to hear your windshield survived.
Thank you for caring for the poor crane!

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