Heated wipers for trucks

I agree. We can send a man to the moon, we can build laser weapons, and we can attempt to make the California EPA happy with ever-cleaner engines, but we can't keep our windshields and wipers ice-free

 

My moms 05 Subaru has heated element installed in factory windshield and heats up lower windshield/area where blades sit so no ice/snow forms there.
Now only if they'd have something like that on this $130K Kenworth...

 

I was looking at a company that makes custom window heater elements, pricey, not sure it'd be worth it, not something you would be installing on a company truck.

 

Its built into windshield, just like on rear glass heater element.

 

I'm thinking a fella could get the same thing by fixing a set of electric handle bar heaters to the windshield.

 

I agree. I'm in a company Volvo and it also has the heater elements on the sides and lower portion of the windshield. Works great when used with the rubber wrapped wiper blades. Still hate the Volvo though.

 

Actually, the elements for your heated rear window are not typically built into the glass, it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. If you search online, you can buy repair kits for them. Only on the front windshield is it built into the glass. Land Rover/Range Rover have had heated "windscreens" for years, I recall looking at one back in 2000 that had it, if you looked out the window, depending on the light, you could see squiggly lines in the glass. IIRC, the heated windshields were triple the price of non-heated.

THis is the company I was looking at recently

http://www.frostfighter.com/index.htm

 

Heating the windshield is not going to help much. The ice is still going to form on top of the blades and cause them to stop conforming to the windshield curvature. Heating the entire blade is problematic to say the least. Seems like some means of "beating" the arm to dislodge the ice might be just as practical.

On the Freightliners, I've found the reach-around technique to knock the ice off [while driving] to be "less then ideal" but sometimes you just have to slow down and do it because the option of doing nothing or trying to find a place to stop is even more dangerous.