Mick Bajcar Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 This may seem a silly question but, here goes. My Chausson Welcome 76 on a Fiat Ducato 2009 has windscreen wipers that both operate the same way. My Wife is tall and when I operate the windscreen wipers they clean more or less on her eye-line meaning that she is looking through a patch that is unswept by the wipers. This is very distracting for her. The seat is in its lowest position (before anyone suggests that). I know that many vehicles have wipers that work opposite ways to each other, a pretty simple design feature but I wondered if anyone who had experienced the same issue/problem had found a solution to it. Mick Bajcar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 Swap seats with her then! Just joking :D :D :D Keith. Edit to add: Or could you fit a longer blade without it fouling? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 Mick Bajcar - 2017-10-02 2:53 PM This may seem a silly question but, here goes. My Chausson Welcome 76 on a Fiat Ducato 2009 has windscreen wipers that both operate the same way. My Wife is tall and when I operate the windscreen wipers they clean more or less on her eye-line meaning that she is looking through a patch that is unswept by the wipers. This is very distracting for her. The seat is in its lowest position (before anyone suggests that). I know that many vehicles have wipers that work opposite ways to each other, a pretty simple design feature but I wondered if anyone who had experienced the same issue/problem had found a solution to it. Mick Bajcar You might find that a judicious increase in the wiper blade length/s would sweep a greater area. However, you'll need to check carefully that they won't snag each other in operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 You could remove the swivel from the passenger-seat, but your wife might not be too keen on that idea... Modern vehicles tend (unsurprisingly) to have a windscreen-wiper pattern that is optimised for the driver, with the passenger’s vision through the windscreen being considered less critical. 2006-onwards Ducatos have a 26” wiper-blade for the driver-side and a 22” blade for the passenger-side, with a ‘push-button’ attachment to the wiper-arm (examples here) https://www.wiperblades.co.uk/fiat-ducato-years-2006-to-2017-wiper-blades/ My 2015 Ducato is LHD, so the wiper-blades differ from RHD blades (which I assume your Chausson has) and the wiper-arm spindles are in a different position to those on RHD Ducatos. However, I did look at the pattern my Ducato’s wipers produce and I could see that a tall passenger’s forwards line of sight was likely to be through an unswept section of the windscreen. (Interestingly, my tall wife - who is not slow to complain - has never mentioned this and I’m certainly not going to ask her about it!). There did seem to be the possibility to fit a 24” blade on the passenger side (as suggested above). It would come right to the edge of the screen by the screen-pillar, but looked like it would not ‘clash’ with the other wiper and MIGHT not reach the top of the screen. But without trying a blade I could not be sure. A 24” blade would give you an extra 1” of upwards wipe, which should help. I believe the ends of the wiper-arms used with push-button blades come in two widths, so you’d need to get the correct one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-MZ97ET4Pw but otherwise the blades will have a reasonable degree of universality. So a blade like this http://www.currentcare.co.uk/Products/wiper-blades--accessories/jointless-aero-wiper-blades/24-exact-fit-jointless-aero-wiper-blade-push-button-ef6-24.html has a fair chance of fitting OK. Other than fitting a longer blade (which I’ve done in the past, though not on a Ducato) I can’t think what else you can realistically do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billggski Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 ....just wondering if the wiper arms are different lengths. I could check, but it's raining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 3, 2017 Share Posted October 3, 2017 The wiper-arms of my LHD Ducato X290 both measure around 28” in length. However, the arms are not interchangeable as the driver-side arm is straight, whereas the passenger-side arm is ‘kinked' to allow its wiper-blade to be correctly positioned on the windscreen. The attached photo shows that the wiper-arms of a RHD Ducato X250 are the same - driver-side one straight, passenger-side one kinked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Bajcar Posted October 3, 2017 Author Share Posted October 3, 2017 Thanks for the suggestions. The blade on the nearside is shorter on the nearside, 22", which I had never noticed before and I might just get away with a slightly longer blade on that as suggested by Derek. An extra couple of inches might just do the trick (on the blade too) :-) I occasionally drive a Merc van for a friend and that has wipers that go opposite ways thus obviating the problem and I had wondered if Fiat might have done something like that on other models. But then, Fiat Merc, Merc, Fiat......probably silly of me. Failing that I might just have to get a shorter Wife ! Mick Bajcar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 3, 2017 Share Posted October 3, 2017 Mercedes has a history of fitting ‘unusual’ windscreen-wiper systems and their A-class models’s wipers both swept to the screen pillars. This did not make them problem-free though, as this link mentions http://www.aclassinfo.co.uk/mypage.42.htm Before trying a longer passenger-side blade, check how close the present blade comes to the top of the windscreen. I think a 24” blade may slightly overlap the glass on the left screen-pillar side, but that should be OK. However, if the longer blade extends past the top of the screen and contacts the vehicle’s bodywork, that will matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.