Break in windshield

[mollyellie]

Ventana 2020 4369. Break in windshield upper corner on driver side. Happened on an expressway and did not see a rock or anything that could have broken the glass. Could it have been due to stress? Anyone with a similar experience?

[ptw]

Try putting a piece of white paper behind it and look for any chips in the crack. Also mentioned before on this forum is the pen test discussed below in this information found on thewindshielddoctor.net website.

"Stress Crack: A crack that occurs without anything hitting the windshield, typically due to a large variation in the temperature (such as when the car is sitting in the sun, and then you start it and use the air conditioning). It almost always starts at the edge of the windshield. Stress cracks will normally be a straight (or slightly bending) line, and will not have any sign of impact. A "pen test" is often used to determine if there is a stress crack -- a ballpoint pen is run along the crack, and if it dips anywhere, it is not a stress crack. That is because with a stress crack, no glass actually comes off the windshield."

If you are looking to have it replaced, we had our windshield repaired at our dealer, Midway in Grand Rapids. They bring someone in to do it but they say that they have never had a problem with them. Midway took care of everything with my insurance company. Midway also used a "Newmar" labeled windshield. Not everyone does that.

[Kahoona]

It is not unusual for stress to crack RV windshields. It sometimes comes from not using the jacks in the right order. May be more prevalent in older models. Comes from flexing of the body. Heat and or cold can do it too.

[wildtoad]

Could happen due to a whole host of seemingly insignificant situations. I had mine crack when I pressed Retract All on the levelers. Hopefully you live in a state that requires glass claims to have no deductible.

[Earl II]

Yes, I would suggest a thorough inspection of the area to see if something struck it. Now in our case, driving on the I-10 freeway, there were "empty" dirt hauling trucks far forward and to the right of us. Heard what sounded like a bullet hitting the front of the rig. The projectile almost went all the way through the glass and produced a large chip with a starburst larger than a silver dollar in the lower left section of the windshield. No doubt what happened to our 2019. It is in the shop waiting for a new windshield.

[Kahoona]

Just seems to be a lot of that going around. Last year we had 3 chips fixed and we recently picked up another 2. Fortunately we are insured in Florida so windshield repairs are covered without penalty.

[MD-Keith]

I've had two impact cracks right at the bottom of my windshield, and never heard or saw either of them at the time they happened. It apparently doesn't take much of a rock to crack a windshield.

[Bushy]

Sorry to hear about your windshield crack.
I've had several similar experiences over the last ten years - two on motorhomes and one on our toad. The last motorhome experience was like yours in that there was no apparent rock chip to start it. It appears to have been started by me driving into a gas station that involved a sharp turn and a dip involving only one tire. The resulting "torquing" of the RV led to an audible "pop" and the start of a crack that crawled in fits and starts across the windshield over the next two days.
I had a similar event with our toad - a Jeep Wrangler. During the summer, I picked up a very small chip right at the bottom of the windshield that didn't appear to result in any further damage. However, when winter set in and I first turned on the defroster, the damage set it. My theory is that the temperature contrast triggered the cracking first "seeded" by the chip. It was painful to watch the crack progress slowly across my entire windshield over the next two days. It may have helped if I had had the original chip treated when it originally happened but - out of sight; out of mind.
I share your pain!
RB

[Qwert66]

X2 on the guys at Midway RV, in Michigan. They fixed ours and all is good. After replacement you should plan to not move the rig for a minimum of 12 hrs for the glue to cure. Longer is better.