I used one on a truck quite a while ago and it worked, to some extent, by deflecting the wind and bugs over the windshield. I didn't like it because I used the Rain-X treatment, which needs wind to work. Now that I am towing an Airstream, I wonder where those bugs would end up as they fly over the windshield.
I've always had one installed on my F250, and although I can't say whether or not it deflects any bugs off my window, it does protect a small section across the front edge of the hood and for that reason alone it's worth it to me.
I drive across the country every summer, and although I do get plenty of bugs on my truck's windshield, they've never seemed to be really bad, and I'm careful to get them off whenever we stop for gas, and at any overnight stopovers.
I keep my Airsteam WELL waxed, especially the front, and the bugs that we do get wash off very easily.
I've also been toying with the idea of getting a nice stainless steel Turbowing air deflector that I'd mount toward the back of my truck bed, above my truck cap. I have a removable aluminum ladder rack that goes over the truck cap, and I could bolt the Turbowing onto the crossbars of the ladder rack. That would really keep the bugs off the trailer! Only thing is, they cost about $1,000. And that's a lot of bugs!
I used one on my last truck,a Dodge Dakota. Sometimes, if you watched closely you could see the bugs following the air flow up and over the windshield. I'd say that it reduced the amount of bugs on the windshield,but at 60 mph + it would buffet my rear view mirrors. Very annoying to me.
I took the bug deflector off of my '95 Chevy PU because ice from the hood would get between the deflector and the hood and chip the paint off the hood. Probably a good idea to simply remove the deflector in the winter (---no bug) season.
thanks for the answers. The sense I get is vaguely negative. I think I'll save the $100+.
As usual, this forum is a fountain of wisdom!
A good choice. Spend your money on some Rejex instead. That stuff REALLY works. I use it on the front of the A/S and all of the surfaces of the van with a double coating on the forward facing surfaces...including the windows. I found it when I had a 40' diesel MoHo, and you know what bug magnets they are!!
In these days of steep gas prices, it can't help to have what amounts to a large, inefficient spoiler across the front of your vehicle. The way those things work is by detaching the laminar airflow over the front of your vehicle, and inducing turbulence. Thus the noise and buffeting some of the other posters noted. I don't know what the numbers might be, but that has to burn up a whole bunch of extra gas.
On the other hand, If you were towing a 34' Limited at max weight, with a 1-ton pickup at 70mph, you'd be burning so much gas anyway that it might not make much of a difference. Not sure what kind of Airstream you have, but the best I do with a 3/4 ton truck and a 28' CCD at 55mph is around 13mpg, which is not exactly what you'd call miserly.
Which gets me to wondering what would happen if someone designed a vehicle specifically to tow a travel trailer. Considering that most of us get no better mileage towing our Airstreams than the average 18 wheeler does, it makes you think.
I removed one from my class B van because it trapped leaves and other debris. Before removing it I also informally surveyed vehicles with them and noticed that the volume of bug hits was about the same with and without.
I have a rock guard/bug deflector on my 95 Ford and while it does a great job at keep the rock chips off the hood, it does a mediocre job of deflecting bugs from the windshield. At the best, they don't hit the entire windshield just the top half. I'll be leaving it on just for the rock chip protection. Last week I drove a tractor trailer back from Dallas, TX. that had a bug deflector on it. Same results, bugs on the top half of the windshield. Check my blog, you can see how good it works.
Before the smoked plexiglass molded deflectors came on the market, there were universal deflectors that stood straight up and were attatched with 5 "L" brackets screwed to the underside of the hood lip. These deflectors worked and cost $29.95 at Pep Boys! You can still see something similar on big rigs.
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