Bumping Your Wipers

I posted this in another thread but I think some of you could use this handy hack:

In cold, snowy and icy weather, your wiper blades are gonna freeze on the wrong shape and leave big unwiped areas. To prevent this, you need to execute a little known move called the wiper bump. What is the wiper bump You ask?

It is a deft flick of the finger that "bumps" your wiper stalk. If preformed correctly, it will move your wiper arm up around an inch and stop, positioning your wiper blade directly over the defroster vent for the windshield. It just takes a flick or a bump in the upwards direction of the stalk. If you do it incorrectly, your wiper will cycle once and park in its normal place.

This helps keep your wipers ready and unfrozen for intermittent operation. The bad side is, once you use the wiper and turn them off, you have to bump the stalk again to position the wiper in the optimal location.

Good luck!

 

I liked the turbo on my '86 300ZXT

A little idle warm up cleared the glass and 1/2 the hood. No heater required.

However it was wise to leave the headlights flipped open overnight.

 

Drive through heavy snow for a few hours and you will be searching for this post haha!

 

We are expecting some snow tonight, and your thread reminded me to go back outside and lift the wiper arms off the glass, so they are now about 90 degrees in the air.

We don't have too many snowstorms per season, and this method allows me to clean the windshield and wiper "trough" tomorrow morning, and move the wipers back on the windshield.

I have just read on TW that this is not a good practice, so I posted this to add it to the discussion.

Always open to changing, as long as I understand the reason behind it.

Thanks.

 

What's a bad practice?

 

That was in heavy snow. In Lurray Va.

Ive been in sleet, snow, ice in the Smokies and other places upon occasion. I've spun, I've stayed put, I've been exhausted from driving all puckered up when I had little choice.

Just enough to make me grateful l never had to live in it!

I will admit I'd like to try it in a vehicle shod with actual winter tires (like Nokians).

And ice racing too, given my SCCA experience. Just for giggles.

 

Lifting the wiper arms off the glass. I read something about this stretching the tensioner springs of the wiper arms.

Lifting the wipers off the glass before a snowstorm is common practice in these parts.

Open to changing, but my current method works well for me.

 

If you had heavy sleet wouldn't they freeze that way?

 

No. Springs are designed to be extended as long as you don't pass the elastic limits. You can lift your wipers with no worries.

 

...my method is designed to be used while driving, not overnight.

 

Lol.

I was not sure where you stood on the whole "warming up your vehicle in cold weather" discussion, but I thought you were in the warm-up is bad camp.

So where does defrosting the wipers in place fit into this equation?

Really is a wealth of good information here, constantly learning good things.

 

So, in other words, you're changing the park position of the wipers.

 

Our VW TDI would move the wiper blades a couple of millimeters every time you shut the car off so that they were never in the same position and the rubber would be 'flexed'. To this day, that is the best car we have ever owned, Dieselgate or not.

 

Yeah, not understanding the wiper bump at all......

But on the bright side, having a thick skull means that once the information penetrates, it usually stays locked inside.

Subbed for the duration.

 

I always lift my wipers, for many years now with no problems- so much better than scraping ice and frozen wipers off the windshield.

Wiper “bumping” is a good idea, I noticed that the area right above them where the defrost hits does melt first.

 

I use one of those thermal blankets to prevent the window from getting all iced up . The wipers are used to hold the blanket in position and it works very well . The blanket takes all the ( crap ) ice and snow .
After a 12 hour shift , the last thing you feel like doing is scraping the front window for 10 minutes .
Simply pull the blanket off the window and you are good to go .
Yah , it takes 2 minutes to set up the blanket and wipers before your shift , but your going to thank yourself on the way home as you leave the parking lot watching everybody else scrape and curse

 

Have a link, this sounds good for ice!

 

an example
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/COVERKING-CU...ash=item41b760ca53:g:fXkAAOSwKOJYIn49&vxp=mtr

 

Alright... If you go outside and look at your wipers, they are "parked" low on the windshield in their natural resting position. That position is below where the defrost hits the windshied by about an inch or so.
When you start the truck, wipers off, you can push up on the wiper control stalk and get one wipe of the wipers. If you just "bump" the stalk, like a tap, in the upward direction, the wipers will move an inch or so and stop there. This positions the wipers directly over the defrost vent and allows them to stay warm enough to not freeze while driving so when you need them, they are not froze.

 

Hehe, gots a Sport 6MT 4x4, live in Canada, equipped with Nokians...its a blast!