Damon Astoria Windshield Wipers
We own a 2008 Damon Astoria and in general we love it, but there are a few issues, and one of the worst is the windshield wipers. (Not a problem most of the time since most of the time it’s not raining.) The wipers are just straight-arm wipers similar to what’s found on most automobiles, but heavier and larger (and much more expensive blades). That’s not the problem.
When off, the wiper blades rest at the bottom of the windshield pointing to the right side of the vehicle. When we turn them on in slow traffic, they work fine. However, if we’re going 60 to 65 mph, there is a very bad problem. The driver’s side wiper gets caught in the rush of air trying to find its way around the motorhome, and when it reaches vertical position it gets pushed clear off the windshield. When it comes back onto the windshield, the best case is that it bounces pretty badly, but often it doesn’t have the energy to keep going against the air currents and it just hangs up in that vertical position on the left side of the driver’s area. Suddenly, no wipers. Rain-x helps, but it’s not a solution for the real problem.
We thought about rotating the wiper arm on the post so it would go down farther and not go as far to the left, but that causes the wiper blade (did I say very expensive?) to beat against the seal around the windshield in a way that is likely to destroy both the seal and the blade. The more I look at this, the more it looks like a bad design that didn’t take those air currents into consideration. Here are some things I’ve thought about:
1. Replace the present wipers with individually driven wipers that can be adjusted for the amount of swing. (I don’t know if such wipers exist, and I don’t know how much it would take to mount the replacements securely in our front cap and run the controls.)
2. Move the existing wipers to the right a few inches. (This would definitely require plugging the existing holes and making new ones, and I’m not sure how much trouble it would be to mount the drive motor in its new location.)
Does anyone have a suggestion for a fix that would work in this unit? I'm finding this is a common problem for owners of the 2008 Damon Astoria units. This should be a safety recall.
When off, the wiper blades rest at the bottom of the windshield pointing to the right side of the vehicle. When we turn them on in slow traffic, they work fine. However, if we’re going 60 to 65 mph, there is a very bad problem. The driver’s side wiper gets caught in the rush of air trying to find its way around the motorhome, and when it reaches vertical position it gets pushed clear off the windshield. When it comes back onto the windshield, the best case is that it bounces pretty badly, but often it doesn’t have the energy to keep going against the air currents and it just hangs up in that vertical position on the left side of the driver’s area. Suddenly, no wipers. Rain-x helps, but it’s not a solution for the real problem.
We thought about rotating the wiper arm on the post so it would go down farther and not go as far to the left, but that causes the wiper blade (did I say very expensive?) to beat against the seal around the windshield in a way that is likely to destroy both the seal and the blade. The more I look at this, the more it looks like a bad design that didn’t take those air currents into consideration. Here are some things I’ve thought about:
1. Replace the present wipers with individually driven wipers that can be adjusted for the amount of swing. (I don’t know if such wipers exist, and I don’t know how much it would take to mount the replacements securely in our front cap and run the controls.)
2. Move the existing wipers to the right a few inches. (This would definitely require plugging the existing holes and making new ones, and I’m not sure how much trouble it would be to mount the drive motor in its new location.)
Does anyone have a suggestion for a fix that would work in this unit? I'm finding this is a common problem for owners of the 2008 Damon Astoria units. This should be a safety recall.
