Windshield popping out

[gwheel]

I recently purchased a 3790 Residency by MHC. When I leveled the unit with the levelers the right hand or passenger side upper right hand corner of the windshield popped out, did not notice until I was leaving the campground, but was able to get home ok. I called safelite, and a fellow stopped to take a look at it, and said he would not touch it, and that I should take it to a large rv dealer with a body shop. I noticed the rubber seal was not glued in and I asked him about this, and he said that, the style with the bead lock, which is what this is did not require glue. I asked him to show me the bead lock tool that he had, and he did. I ordered one on Amazon, and decided to tackle this myself. The tool came and I slipped everything back into place. I started to play with the levelers again and same thing happened, so thought about this for a couple of days, and decided to make DIY, clamp, out of a 1 inch wide piece of steel, available at lowes or HD. I cut this to about 4 in long, and ground some teeth into one end, then about 1/2 inch from the toothed end I bent it nearly double. I then drilled a 3/16 in hole in the other end. I then bent and formed this to catch the rubber in the very upper right side (this is inside the MH). Push this toothed end into the rubber, and drill a hole thru the body and place a 3/18 screw, and nut and washer such, with a little sealant under the head of the screw, and fender washer, tighten, and make sure that the clamp teeth are somewhat embedded into the rubber seal. Now I know if you have a brand new MH, or one that has a large value, you might not want to do this, but in my case, the unit is about 12 yrs old, and this was a quick and dirty fix, that worked well, and you can barely see the head of the screw, just above the windshield on the pass side. I painted the screw head, and it is hard to see. The bead lock tool was about 13 bucks shipped. Inside you cannot see this clamp, it is completely hidden by the molding/trim. George

[gwheel]

I certainly agree that the longer the coach the more leverage that these levelers can apply to the opposite end of things, and these fiberglass front ends will give before the steel frames. In my case I am not so sure that had I had some good cement or glue and applied just in the corner (upper right hand corner between the rubber seal and fiberglass body), it might have accomplished the same results as this clip I fabricated. It has now been 2 months and lots of setups, with good results so far, I'm hoping it holds together, with no further difficulties. Thanks to everyones ideas, and posts. Geo

[Retired_JSO]

I recently contacted a curb with the right front tire while turning into a lot. I was barley moving at the time but the sudden shift made the right side windshield move. I have had it reset temporarily but after next trip, will have the entire gasket/seal replaced. Never a problem when leveling.

[Gjac]

There have been a lot of posts on windshield popping out or cracking when being leveled. I saw my friends windshield crack in his driveway on a 38 ft Dutch Star DP when his wife leveled it unevenly. My thought is that longer and heavier MH's like DP's are more apt to twist the frame because the distance between the jacks and more weight(load) being applied. The glass is a lot stiffer than the FG front cap.

[3sacrwd]

I have had my Right side windshield pop out before. Once I had it reset, it is better, but will pop out again if not leveled very carefully.

[Mike_Hohnstein]

The solution:

STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY!

[J-Rooster]

I visited Novus a few months ago to have my windshield resealed. While I was there 3 other Class A's were in there with windshield popping out issues. I told Novus that I didn't know that it was that big of a problem. Novus told me that a lot of RV manufactures in the past didn't glue there windshields in place, and that the more curve that is in a windshield the more the chance that it has not staying in place. In fact Novus was working on a late 90's early 2000 Pace Arrow and the tech told me they were not going to work on them anymore, just to much trouble he said trying to keep the windshield in place.

[Roadpilot]

I've had 3 MH's. And I know lots of folks that have MH's. They flex enough when jacked to either pop out a window or break it. Monaco solved the problem by using three jacks. One up front and two in the back. There's no way to twist the frame with 3 jacks. Other's use 4 jacks and you can twist the frame enough to pop out or break the front window. With 4 jacks you have to be very careful how you operate the jacks. I always used the auto leveling feature and never lost the front window. I did lose it once however when just driving along. The window cutout had been done incorrectly so the glass wasn't sitting in rubber. It hit the fiberglass.

[buchanan]

Executive wrote:
So, now when you level the coach, instead of the windshield popping out, it'll simply break...

IMHO, your 'fix' is only temporary. Something's wrong with how you're leveling. Stabilizing your coach should not cause the frame to flex that much....Dennis

people that don't know should not post!/ALL big coaches especially diesel rigs and the longer the worse it gets flex.Thats why one should always deploy all 4 jacks to level properly and evenly as possible.When a windshield pops out its usually a combo of front cap flex(poor factory construction) and wrong sized opening(too large)
My 2008 Allegro bus poped out and its because the opening is wrong size(too large)and leveling simply increases the chances of it poping because ALL chassis flex when leveling
My windshield rubber was held in place by screws(from the factory)
The glass guys had to screw the new one in place and also seco flex the whole windshield in the rubber to keep it from poping out in the upper corner.it was 5 years old and Tiffin paid the labour bill of $600

[chastho]

leveling is not your problem, the only reason windshields pop out is the cut out is too big letting the gasket pop out. The only way to fix it is to pull the windshield and fiberglass the cutout to the proper size. I know this because I had the same problem and watched the tech at tiffin fix it. If the cutout is the proper size and leveling is a problem it will break the windshield.

[MickeyBrennan]

Apparently there are two correct ways to level your coach.

The procedure for vehicles with four leveling jacks, jacks down then slides out.
The procedure for vehicles with three jacks, slides out, then level.

Read you manual to determine the manufacturers recommendation. One side effect of not following the proper order can be a loose windshield. Another is the possibility of large leaky cracks on the front and rear caps.

[gwheel]

Thanks Dennis, I certainly hope it don't break, time will tell. The clamp just catches the rubber seal midway of the corner, and does not touch the glass in any way. There most certainly is some flex, but I guess with 38 ft its has to have some. I actually did this in June, and it does seem to be working better than I thought. I use the levelers in manual, and a bit more carefully. Never had a unit with levelers before. As long as it continues to work I will be happy. Also like I posted originally this is not for everybody, but does seem to work for me. The Best, Geo

[Busskipper]

Executive wrote:
So, now when you level the coach, instead of the windshield popping out, it'll simply break...

IMHO, your 'fix' is only temporary. Something's wrong with how you're leveling. Stabilizing your coach should not cause the frame to flex that much....Dennis

I think Dennis nailed it -- the issue is the fact that the Coach is not being leveled evenly, thus causing the flex in the chassis and pushing the window out. The fix will last until the window breaks. So while the $5.00 fix is a good TEMPORARY fix, until you correct the leveling issue, you will continue to have problems/stress. The next fix will be $500+ to replace the broken window.

Travel Supreme had this problem and there fix was a $3,500 number of welded cross members as, the leveling system would over flex on extremely un-level sites.

JMHO,

[Executive45]

So, now when you level the coach, instead of the windshield popping out, it'll simply break...

IMHO, your 'fix' is only temporary. Something's wrong with how you're leveling. Stabilizing your coach should not cause the frame to flex that much....Dennis

[ed6713]

One I had years ago would flex enough under some leveling situations, to prevent the entry door from opening easily.