For the second time since I started driving I had to replace a windshield wiper while away from home, before I could drive anywhere.

After work and getting off the train tonight and getting back to my truck, I started to clear the windshield of a sleet accumulation. I was a bit careless and managed to hit the driver's side wiper blade with my scraper, and bent it, breaking a plastic piece. Thankfully, I had a set of spare blades in the box that I keep in the back of my Xterra. What could have been a MAJOR PITA was just a minor inconvenience.


The first time I had to change a wiper blade while away from home was about 20 years ago, during a commute to law school. I was driving during a snow and ice storm, and the driver's side wiper ripped. I had spares with me so I pulled over and changed it.


When I change my wiper blades as part of ordinary maintenance, typically what I'll do is rotate out the ones I kept as spares, then put the new blades in my truck box. That way the spares don't get too old and possibly dry rot.

Or, pull the wipers away from the glass before you scrape.

Txl

Easier said than done.  Sometimes, they have are frozen solidly to the windshield.  Trying to pry them up will just tear the blade.

That's why you lift your wipers when snow/ice is in the forecast. It's easy way to spot a yankee in the south

 
Agreed, when possible. Sometimes one has a brain fart, though.

Ice? Snowstorms? What are these things?

I keep spares too, but unless you have one of those goofy cars with a longer passenger side wiper than the driver side, you can swap them in an emergency.

I buy new ones at least once a year- I hate streaking and noisy wipers.  Keep one old one in the trunk with the spare tire just in case.

I grab a new set as soon as I notice a blade tearing or streaking horrible.  Occurs easy in my AO with all the salt and ice.  Once I place a new set on the Jeep I pick the best one of the two that I removed and put it under the cargo area with the spare tire as a spare.

No snow and ice here in Florida.  It's 82 degrees and sunny today!!  I carry extra bottles of water, no wiper blades needed.

 
I've had good luck with the Bosch wiper blades.


I like the RainX windshield wiper fluid. I've found that if I run a gallon through I can use regular wiper fluid for the next couple of refills, and the RainX treatment stays on the glass.

It is not that we don't need wiper blades, it is that we don't need to carry a spare in case of it sticking to the windshield do to ICE buildup.



 

The above, plus in my area vultures have been eating the rubber on wipers and car mouldings at boat ramps. It isn't unusual for the regulars to put towels or some type of wrapping on the blades so the birds can't get to them.

I always keep a spare set in the trunk.

They dry-rot between rains.

Again, that is Tennessee, not Florida.



I didn't have any ice on my windshield this year, not once, and I live in a pretty cold part of Florida (Upper North)--not the coldest, that is true, as I am on the ocean.  In past years? Meh, maybe once or twice a winter I get a little frost on the windshield, tops--and only the most coldest winters--a tiny bit which could be melted away in about 2 minutes of a cold heater.  Ice storms?  Not down here. We did have a little snow, but that was 16 years ago.



That was the posters point: we generally don't get iced windshields down here.  



Now we do get tropical storm rain storms that most Northerners will pull of the road during



I have never had a windshield wiper give up the ghost without warning.  I am willing to take the chance and prepare for more likely problems.  



I do keep a spare set in the garage, as I hate having to run to get something when I need it, but I don't think I need to carry a set in my car.
 

#yankeeprobz

Seriously though, once while I was in college, I had someone steal one of my windshield wipers when it was raining really hard. Would have been a good time to have had a spare.

About 20 years ago I was driving my first car (70 Mustang) from one small town to another. A big thunderstorm had just begun and it was pouring so hard I could barely see. And right then,  on the highway and 15 miles from either town, the driver's windshield wiper blade broke completely off, and left the metal arm scraping against the windshield!

It taught me that it is always a good idea to have a spare wiper in the car

Probably not Yankee problems.  Up here, you deal with the ice and snow as soon as you get your learners permit.

Personally, I've gotten away from buying "the best" wipers. I just buy two sets of the cheapest name brand wipers and swap them out when they go bad. Back in the day, I used to keep a pair of wiper arms with new blade in the truck stuck under the package tray. Way quicker than swapping blades, and a spare blade does you no good when the whole arm bends.

Also have a spare gallon of washer fluid in the vehicle when it's bad.

I carry a gallon year round. Obviously its usually only an issue during the winter, but I would forget if I didn't always have it in the trunk. Good wipers are useless if your windshield is covered in salt spray.

I reckon I was born a yank but now I live near tj so maybe I am learning.  



My tj and all the other vehicles in work's parking lot taught me a lot, and reinforced some things as well.



I sat in my tj for over 10 minutes while it warmed up and worked on defrosting itself.  First time ever I actually needed to use the defrost only setting.  Usually I can let it also keep my feet warm.



I did not lift my wiper arms.  Never do.  I guess depending on design I might.



Anyway, everyone else is using credit cards on up to actual ice scrapers, and everything in between, to work on scraping their vehicles.  Oh yeah, I had to bump the door several times to crack the ice shell around the jeep before I could get in it and sit in it while it warmed up.  Some vehicles have crappy door handles for this, lots of folks used the corner of the door in this case and I reckon if I look around some might have been tweaked a bit.



Anyway, I got back out once I saw lots of water between the ice and windsheild.  I had no ice scraper, ok I was too lazy to find it in the back of the jeep.  Waiting this long had given me some thin spots in the ice I could work through and then using hands I worked off big chunks of ice.  Everything around the wiper blades was free but the wiper arms were encased in ice.  Since the arms move, I moved em and cracked the ice off and made sure there was no ice in the spring in the wiper arm.



More than a few folks had ice in the springs of the wiper arm itself and until it thawed out you have no downward pressure to keep the blade against the windsheild.  



I don't know if the defroster is enough to thaw this out, I would guess so, but lots of folks were impatient.  This was also more ice than this area gets for an entire winter.  



Hood and the air vents for defroster were under 4+ inches of frozen snow/slush that had solidified.  Soft top acted like a hard top for days since it had the same thing on it.



I just drove on home once I got my side windows clear to be able to see out the driver's side and passenger's side door.  Defroster did it, I sat in tj and listened to radio while it did the work.  



Defroster worked fine at full blast for me.  I was going home around 10:30pm or so.



Went back out around 5am to refrozen vehicle and thawed it out and went back to work.  Windows even rolled down for drivethru at hardees since I figured I was going to be at work 16 to 24 hours at the minimum.



Again, defroster worked at full speed.



Somewhere one day I got to go home at 2pm.  Almost at home defroster lost airflow.  I went on home.  Due to sun, temps, heat of hood, my luck, my laziness, and everything else that big lump of ice/snow/slush on the hood and over the defroster vents was finally messing with my airflow.



Many other people had to clear their air vents the first night.  I don't know why I did not but I don't mess with what works if it works decently.



Due to all the above the big chunk of stuff on the hood broke up by hand with a bit of shock force to make it pieces that were easily handled.  Just bump it and get it to crack and away it went.



Once done, defroster back to full speed and nothing was seen under the little defroster vents.  On the tj they don't go across the whole front of the vehicle.  They are in the center of the back of the hood area, not in the hood but right under the windsheild.



Apparently I was lucky, lots of folks had figured this out long before me because their defroster had sucked and had issues before mine did so.



I think I read about someone's vehicle that got ice into the channel for the windsheild wiper linkage and it broke something in the linkage.  On the jeep apparently it can not do so.



I fully agree on keeping a spare set of wipers in the vehicle, had em tear in a decent rainstorm before.  



I learned early on that I can sit scraping ice or I can go out early and sit in the vehicle and let it warm up and do most of the work.  I drive stickshifts so no I won't be getting a remote start setup.



My tj has the big old headlight where you replace the whole thing.  Turning them on gave off enough heat to melt the ice off them, entire vehicle was below freezing temp when this hit as rain and rain got everywhere.  Those who don't lube door gaskets and take care of stuff learned a lot.



Some folks had spiffy aftermarket covers and stuff and some of those don't heat up enough or whatever so lots of messing with headlights for some folks.  Reminded me of some town that put in led stoplights and then the next winter had problems with ice buildup on them because the led runs so cool due to being efficient.



A garage at home and at work would have been awesome, but I have never really had a garage so no biggy.



Can someone tell me more about how their wipers do after being pulled up for an ice storm and then being lowered?



Some I recall seeing have an exposed spring.  Don't know if any enclose that spring or not.