Exploding side window

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JoelP

JoelP

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Joined
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Location
San Jose, CA
Everyday there seems to be a new lesson to be learned about maintaining my Itasca RV.  Today while traveling West on Hwy 10 from Phoenix, AZ into California I was about .1 mile from the CA fruit inspection booths when the sliding glass side window next to my DW literally exploded. Were it not for the screen that was between my DW and this exploding glass she would have been sprayed with tiny bits of glass.  Needless to say we were both wide awake for the fruit inspection.

Have any of you Winnebago owners ever has such an occurrence?  It is difficult to imagine how this could have been caused by a flying rock.  Admittedly it was well over 100F and that could have put stress on the glass, but it is still tough for me to imagine a cause for such a spontaneous failure.

I figure I will go to my RV shop when i return home in a couple of days to order one, but is this replacement available for less on line?
 
We had a similar experience last year on I-10 in Louisiana. The out glass in a dual pane window  over the driver side couch was shattered.  It was so loud I ducked when it hit. We had a visible impact point right next to the metal frame the size of a small caliber pellet/bullet. There was no other traffic near on either side on the four lanes.  The only explanation was someone hunting in the woods nearby. Putt insurance paid for replacement of the entire window even though a good glass shop (like Fog Dr in Searcy AR) could have replaced just the glass
 
An automotive glass shop may be able to replace the glass for you. If it is Atwood, it is cheaper to order from them than from a Winnebago dealer. It was acquired by Duncan a year ago.

Easy RV Windows
easyrvwindows.com

 
Glass that's hit by a small rock will crack without it being obvious. Put stress on that crack and you get an "explosive" window when traveling at 60 mph. Since moving vehicles are constantly showered by rocks and dust at near Hurricane speeds, it's amazing that windows don't explode all the time.
 
I've had that happen twice, once was the rear window of a sedan (Pontiac?) that was parked and the second was last weekend when the left widow of the topper shattered on my 2012 Rubicon. Both were spontaneous failures, no rocks or other missiles hit them. I expect it is a heat related thing. Perhaps different coefficients of expansion between the plastic and glass.

Ernie
 
Per John Hilley's comment , I had never heard of Atwood or Duncan, but when I called the Good Sam insurance to see if I was covered they said that someone from Duncan will call me back to discuss this.

Per Ernie's comment, I was also thinking that with all of the heat in AZ that this was a coefficient of thermal expansion problem. My experience with small dings and cracks is that they generally relieve stress by propagating the crack.  I only once saw a similar shattering when I mistakenly glued a mirror onto a windshield and foolishly used glue that was not suitable for this. The CTE of the glue was mismatched, caused stress and the windshield shattered.  Here there was nothing to cause a mismatch. It was a sliding window that was unconstrained.  The only place that there was constraint was between the manufacturer's metal edge with the handle and the glass.  That edge had to be glued to hold that edge to the glass, so there could have been a mismatch there, but one would hope that Winnebago, or their supplier, would have tested those materials thoroughly.  If not, then many of you would be telling me, " Oh yes, I had the same problem with that window."
 
We had quite a few in our group with Kinro (Lippert) frameless windows on 5ers that would explode for no reason.  Most weren't even moving.  I think its heat.
 
Mile High said:
We had quite a few in our group with Kinro (Lippert) frameless windows on 5ers that would explode for no reason.  Most weren't even moving.  I think its heat.
Click to expand...
Right. Probably due to different thermal coefficients of the sidewall and the glass. Perhaps the sealant/adhesive didn't have enough elasticity to let the materials move at different rates.
 
Can it be that manufacturers of RV windows don't test their product over the range of temperatures experienced by RVs?  Automotive standards test to 85C.  Perhaps some are better than others.
 
A second problem probably is the use of glass that is designed to shatter w/o creating sharp edges (a good thing). That has to weaken the glass as compared to conventional window glass.

Ernie
 
You mean tempered safety glass?  I think it is stronger than conventional glass.  You ever tried to break a car window?
 
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