Caution using Trico 67-361 (36”) Replacement Wiper Blades

[flyboy013]

18 months ago I replaced my 900mm (36”) Wiper Technologies OEM wiper blades (WT900V) with Trico 67-361 wiper blades. Shortly thereafter, while using the wipers on a cross county trip, the wipers started to hit each other. Eventually one wiper blade got stuck under the other and stripped the joint where the driver’s side wiper blade attached to the pivot shaft. While removing the nut that holds the arm to the pivot shaft I realized that the shaft that the nut attaches to was stripped. Also the wipers would no longer park at the bottom of the windshield when turned off.

When I got home I took everything apart. I found that the gasket between the wiper motor body and its cover wasn’t installed correctly, leaving a gap and allowing water to enter the motor housing which corroded one of the contacts that enables the park feature.

I purchased a replacement pivot shaft, two wiper arms, and a 850mm (34”) wiper blade so as to avoid the wipers hitting each other again. Wiper Technologies also gave me a used wiper motor cover to resolve the wiper park capability.

All was fine until recently when the metal splines on the 850mm wiper blade started to come out. I tried to order a replacement, but they are discontinued. I figured since the coach was designed to have two of the WT900V wiper blades, I would give them another try.

I installed the wiper blades today and in the process did a comparison between the WT900V wiper blade and the Trico 67-361 wiper blade. What I found was that while the rubber portion of both wiper blades were the exact same length, the frame of the Trico 67-361 blade was 5mm (0.2”) longer on each end. This resulted in the two wiper blades being 10mm (0.4”) closer to one another in the parked position. Enough that the wiper blades would hit each other when they are near the parked position. Below is a picture showing the difference in how the two blades are constructed.

Bottom line, use caution if deciding to use the Trico blades.

[Ray,IN]

A solution is to buy/use 34" wipers.

[flyboy013]

I tried that. Wiper Technologies has discontinued the 850mm (34”) wiper blade and Trico doesn’t make a 34” blade in the 67 series. And the 67 series 32” blade has a smaller width saddle mount and a smaller mounting screw hole than the 36” blade from the same series.

[Clemson]

Originally Posted by flyboy013

18 months ago I replaced my 900mm (36”) Wiper Technologies OEM wiper blades (WT900V) with Trico 67-361 wiper blades. Shortly thereafter, while using the wipers on a cross county trip, the wipers started to hit each other. Eventually one wiper blade got stuck under the other and stripped the joint where the driver’s side wiper blade attached to the pivot shaft. While removing the nut that holds the arm to the pivot shaft I realized that the shaft that the nut attaches to was stripped. Also the wipers would no longer park at the bottom of the windshield when turned off.

When I got home I took everything apart. I found that the gasket between the wiper motor body and its cover wasn’t installed correctly, leaving a gap and allowing water to enter the motor housing which corroded one of the contacts that enables the park feature.

I purchased a replacement pivot shaft, two wiper arms, and a 850mm (34”) wiper blade so as to avoid the wipers hitting each other again. Wiper Technologies also gave me a used wiper motor cover to resolve the wiper park capability.

All was fine until recently when the metal splines on the 850mm wiper blade started to come out. I tried to order a replacement, but they are discontinued. I figured since the coach was designed to have two of the WT900V wiper blades, I would give them another try.

I installed the wiper blades today and in the process did a comparison between the WT900V wiper blade and the Trico 67-361 wiper blade. What I found was that while the rubber portion of both wiper blades were the exact same length, the frame of the Trico 67-361 blade was 5mm (0.2”) longer on each end. This resulted in the two wiper blades being 10mm (0.4”) closer to one another in the parked position. Enough that the wiper blades would hit each other when they are near the parked position. Below is a picture showing the difference in how the two blades are constructed.

Bottom line, use caution if deciding to use the Trico blades.

Attachment 385751

What torque value did you use on the wiper posts?.

[flyboy013]

Per Newmar/Wiper Technologies specs, the arms are torqued at 65 ft lbs.

[DeWat]

Originally Posted by flyboy013

18 months ago I replaced my 900mm (36”) Wiper Technologies OEM wiper blades (WT900V) with Trico 67-361 wiper blades. Shortly thereafter, while using the wipers on a cross county trip, the wipers started to hit each other. Eventually one wiper blade got stuck under the other and stripped the joint where the driver’s side wiper blade attached to the pivot shaft. While removing the nut that holds the arm to the pivot shaft I realized that the shaft that the nut attaches to was stripped. Also the wipers would no longer park at the bottom of the windshield when turned off.


...

I can't speak for Newmar, but I can say that Entegra and Tiffin use a similar wiper system involving hard shafts with splines while the wiper arms are made of a soft metal. If the wiper arms are not torqued down properly, the soft metal wiper arms start to spin on the hard metal shafts causing problem like you've described. Since you replaced your shafts, you've already fixed the problem. However, if you find that you have to remove the wiper arms in the future, you may want to look closer at the shafts. It is very possible that a good wire brush cleaning of the shaft of the embedded soft metal stripped from the wiper arms may save you some time and money on replacing otherwise good shafts.

[flyboy013]

I used a dental pick to clean the soft metal out of the splines, but what I was referring to as being stripped was the shaft itself that the nut screws onto. I can only surmise that when the wiper arms were originally attached to the pivot shaft that the nut was over torqued and stripped the threads on the pivot shaft but it was secure enough to hold the wiper arm in place.

[Nadge]

I've been down that road "THREE " many times now.

[Dutch Star Don]

I put on the Trico 32" blades last month and so far, I'm happy with them. Drilled the hole out and added a spacer. Fits just like the 36".

[flyboy013]

DSD - Glad to here that the Trico 32” blade works with only some minor modifications.

To reiterate, the Trico 36” blade is designed differently from the Wiper Technologies 36” blade. The longer length of the Trico wiper blade may cause the two blades to hit each other causing them to fail at the worse possible time (middle of a rain storm).

Others have recommend using the Trico 36” blade, which is why I had originally installed them. I believe it’s fair to say that they are not a good option for a Newmar DP.