Any advise for tinting - especially the moonroof?

[TheBigBezo]

Yeah, I’m about to uses this as the rough draft for mine. NW Tennesse sounds the same climate wise.
Did you do your whole windshield? I’ve seen a couple ICE’s with tenting on the entire window.

I did the entire windshield. It's not legal and could get you a ticket but it's very hard to tell and I've never had an issue with it in interactions with police in Florida. It helps it's an F-150 so not exactly attention grabbing. The extra UV and IR blocking makes a huge difference in the heat.

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[Jim Lewis]

I think something to keep in mind is not just first-passthrough IR rejection but an overall figure commonly referred to as Total Solar Energy Rejection (TSER). Although marketing materials may show, Wow!, 5% tint rejects 95% of IR, it never ends up being that good. The rejected IR, rather than being reflected back into space, likely ends up heating up the window tint film. The film gets hot and reradiates much of the absorbed IR into the cabin. Visible light can also be absorbed and heat the tint film or pass through and heat materials it strikes inside your vehicle. See the 3M Ceramic table below, where the last column represents the total effective IR rejection and the next to last, essentially initial IR rejection. Total Solar Energy Rejected is shown in a middle column:

Source: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b5005118130/ (see page for heading definitions, too).

3M Crystalline properties by comparison (2x as expensive as ceramic - almost no 3M dealer in San Antonio sells it):

Source: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b00016683/

I wanted to be ~legal in Texas (law says no tinting of windshield) so I went with 3M crystalline, which is available in 90% VLT. I used that on the windshield and moonroof. Had 50% 3M crystalline put on the front side windows and 25% 3M crystalline (available at the time) on the rear side and rear windows. I figured the rear windows and moonroof were already heavily tinted in the visible spectrum and didn't need much more tint in the visible. For side window use, I didn't want to reduce front side window visibility too much, nor max out the visibility reduction on the rear windows, either. I was willing to sacrifice a little bit more heating for better visibility in dim, dusk light situations, etc. I'm pretty happy with the results. A lot of heat still gets radiated through the moonroof shade. Ford did a crummy job of insulating that. My 2007 Honda had a moonroof that wasn't tinted with a window film, and nowhere near as much heat came through that with its shade closed.

If you have the opportunity, you can reduce heating a lot by how you park relative to the sun. End-on is best (narrow profile). Broadside to the sun is just a bigger absorption profile and also more of an opportunity for the sun to heat more of the pavement under your truck from the side.

 

[HaroldCal]

If you have the opportunity, you can reduce heating a lot by how you park relative to the sun. End-on is best (narrow profile). Broadside to the sun is just a bigger absorption profile and also more of an opportunity for the sun to heat more of the pavement under your truck from the side.

This, so much. Taking into account the time of day, and when you expect to be getting back in the truck. I will typically park with the tailgate facing the sun, or facing where the sun will be when I am leaving.

Also, if available, strategically parking where the vehicle will be in shade later in the day is the real win.

It's amazing how much of a difference it makes. I explained this to my kids as I was teaching them to drive.

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