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ArenaBlanca View Drop Down
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Posts: 158 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Broken Front Window???
    Posted: 14 Oct 2020 at 10:02am
Many of the new camper models have these front windows so I suspect this problem will not be uncommon. Has anyone found a way to prevent this from happening?  They make "bras" for cars to prevent rocks from chipping the paint and bugs from staining it.  Do they make something similar for R-Pods and how would you secure it?  

I had a Trailmanor camper once that had an aluminum cover over the front window.  But the window had an internal wooden frame that was more secure than the sandwich material used to make the new R-Pods.
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Oct 2020 at 9:15am
I agree that a polymer for that application would be much better. 

If someone wanted to take on that challenge then polycarbonate (Lexan is a brand name of polycarbonate just like Plexiglas is a brand name of acrylic) would be the better choice. Stronger, less brittle, and you can heat form it with a heat gun if you are careful. The problem is going to be to get the shape right and get it glazed in so it doesn't leak. Getting a leak in that area could be a much worse disaster than a broken window. 

Another thing that could help would be to cover the tempered glass with a clear vinyl layer. Get as thick vinyl as you can, the purpose would be to stop small rock chips from reaching the glass surface. If you ever get a big rock strike it would still break but that should be a rare event unless you're towing to Alaska or something. 

You'd need to experiment a bit with clear adhesives to stick it on there, and you'd want to be able to replace it after a couple of years when the vinyl gets weathered. Or stick it on with magnets. 
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podwerkz View Drop Down
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Posts: 966 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Oct 2020 at 8:51am
I would make an attempt to find a plastic alternative. (lexan, acrylic, polycarbonate, etc)

Using a tempered piece up there, when the entire automotive world does not, seems inappropriate on the part of Forest River.

But, it does not surprise me especially in these days of increased demands, rapid production, inflated margins, long wait times, poor engineering, lack of quality control, and the overall apathy from the major players in the RV industry. 

But, having said that, I do like the Camping World YouTube Concert Series on Tuesday Nights,,,so there IS that.

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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Oct 2020 at 6:29pm
Yep, sure is tempered glass. Most likely a rock hit it, cut the surface layer and broke it. When FR says that it is like your car windshield they are misrepresenting, windshields are not made of tempered glass. They are laminated glass so they don't turn into shrapnel when a rock hits them. Your car's side windows are tempered glass, but those aren't subject to rocks striking them. 

If you can't get FR or your insurance company to help then you will unfortunately will need to pay to have the window replaced yourself. Then cover it with something while driving, it will just keep happening otherwise. Maybe glue magnets to the glass to hold the cover?
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FLiPisHoLLyWooD View Drop Down
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Posts: 3 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Oct 2020 at 6:12pm
Originally posted by mjlrpod

This is becoming a quite common complaint on the facebook V2 r-pod site. I actually hate the front window idea all together. If r-pods continue to put them on pods, I will move to a different model next time I buy. I hope within a few years when I'm looking, they will have stopped putting the front windows on. 


I may need to get on the facebook group if there’s a V2 forum for owners.
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FLiPisHoLLyWooD View Drop Down
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Posts: 3 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Oct 2020 at 6:11pm
couldn’t get the photo to upload, so here is a link to see the broken window. it’s definitely tempered glass from what i can tell. Pic of broken rpod window
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Posts: 1214 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Oct 2020 at 4:41pm
This is becoming a quite common complaint on the facebook V2 r-pod site. I actually hate the front window idea all together. If r-pods continue to put them on pods, I will move to a different model next time I buy. I hope within a few years when I'm looking, they will have stopped putting the front windows on. 
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offgrid View Drop Down
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Oct 2020 at 3:15pm
Originally posted by furpod

 

I suspect the piece flying off is part of the plastic frame, not part of the window itself.

Good point. So we are needing Flipishollywood to let us know if the window he has is glass or plastic....If glass then it should be tempered and should have broken into a bazilion pieces. If plastic, its probably acrylic, polycarbonate/lexan is very difficult to break, at least not until it has been UV damaged, which takes awhile. 
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Oct 2020 at 12:36pm
Originally posted by podwerkz

Originally posted by offgrid

Tempered glass will flex like that too. 

I've NEVER seen automotive tempered glass flex like that.

Tempered glass is extremely hard but also extremely brittle. (not talking about phones and tablets here) 

If you know this to be true, that large curved sheets of tempered glass can flex like a trampoline, you have managed one factoid that has eluded me for my entire life.
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Tempered glass has >10.000 psi surface compression, you have to either exceed that figure or scratch through the surface layer before it will break. It is incredibly strong, but when you compromise the compression layer all that energy gets released instantly and the glass sheet turns into a bunch of tiny pieces. If you go to the tempering furnace in a glass factory that's how the manufacturing engineers know how much surface compression they are putting in the glass. They take a piece of hacksaw blade and scratch an edge, then measure the size of the pieces. 

Solar module superstrates are 1/8 inch tempered glass. I designed and tested them for a living. In our front loading tests they had to support 113 lbs/ft2 combined wind and snow load. That is over 2400 lbs on a 1 x 2 meter standard solar module.  To put that in perspective its about 2 feet of water over the whole glass sheet. They flex well over a foot in that test and still wouldn't break unless they popped out of the frame first. 

We had a marketing manager who used to go to trade shows and jump up and down on the modules to demonstrate how strong they were. He was about 6'4" and weighed over 300 lbs, a lot more than the guy in the FR video. We finally got him to quit doing that after one of our customers installed a big solar array on a tar and gravel roof. His installation crew was walking all over the modules and broke dozens of them, not because of their weight but because they picked up sharp gravel on their work boots and scratched through the compression layer. 
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Posts: 6128 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Oct 2020 at 11:18am
Originally posted by offgrid

Tempered glass will flex like that too. But you're probably right, if you look close you can see what appears to be a piece fly off right at the end of the video. 

So not tempered glass and not laminated windshield glass. So that window has nothing in common with automotive glazing which is either one or the other. 


I suspect the piece flying off is part of the plastic frame, not part of the window itself.
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