| Author |
Message |
califbob
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, October 30, 2005 - 11:52 pm: | |
Is there any reson I can't use electric wipers from a car on my Prevost? They want somewhere around $500.00 for a set. |
David Dulmage (Daved)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 31, 2005 - 8:43 am: | |
I expect that car wiper motor and drive assemblies will not be strong enough in terms of torque, as well as construction features for use on a bus.
FWIW
DaveD |
Ron Walker (Prevost82)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 31, 2005 - 11:18 am: | |
I used the motor assembly out of a Kenworth highway truck
Ron |
Tim Strommen (Tim_strommen)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 31, 2005 - 1:14 pm: | |
Hey Bob,
Marinco makes 12 and 24 volt motors that range from 45Deg to 110 Deg, and will take up tp a 22" wiper arm and 22" wiper blade. New about $250 Each. That's just for the motor though (Find it here).
I doubt that a "car" wiper motor will stand up to what you're doing, unless you get one of those nice Mercedes wipers from the E Class that does the whole windscreen with one blade in an eliptical pattern (about 22-26 inches long). otherwise, you may strip the reduction gears (usually plastic/nylon in a car), or burn out the motor with a very long wiper arm. This also depends on how big a windscreen you are clearing and how much rain, mud, and snow you are trying to clear.
Cheers!
-Tim
P.S. Especially with a large window, and using anything but the original wiper arm and blade combo - ensure that you properly wire and fuse the motor and select a high enough amperage switch or relay to power the device - it's better to over build something that directly affects your vision on the road, plus you don't want to burn down your rig because it was raining too hard... (there's some irony for you...) -Tim |
Rich International Bus & Parts
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 02, 2005 - 12:50 pm: | |
We have a kit made specifically for your coach. We did all of the engineering, research & development, hard work so bus owner operators would not have to "Rig" something up. 12& 24v kits that will just drop in.
Rich
800-468-5287 |
Buswarrior (Buswarrior)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2005 - 9:07 pm: | |
Hello.
I don't know nuthin' 'bout nuthin', so I'm wondering...
A car wiper motor has to run TWO wipers through that convoluted set of arms under the dash.
If you've ever tried moving all that while changing a wiper motor, you'll know it isn't the lightest load.
In the bus, the motor will only run ONE wiper.
Maybe not that hard a job?
I'm a chicken and will be seeing Rich if I decide to go electric!
happy coaching!
buswarrior |
Stan
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2005 - 8:22 am: | |
buswarrior: Maybe the fact that you had to change the car windshield wiper motor indicated that it was not strong enough for the car. If you get caught in the high country when it is snowing, at a rate of feet per hour, the wiper load becomes very high. On one trip with my MC-5 it pulled a brazed joint apart on a wiper arm.
If you replace air wipers with electric you can adapt most truck motors to work. Just replace the air motor with the electric motor on the original hardware. Adjust the length of the arm on the motor shaft to get the sweep angle required. |
Chuck Lott (Chuckmc8)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2005 - 8:22 am: | |
I'll add my personal experience on this one....first off, neither of my air wipers worked in my 1977 MCI MC8.
I was at a truck salvage yard, and the "boys" there were about to remove a big block chevy from a class a motorhome that had a fire in the rear of the camper.
Using their usual mode of removing the fiberglass camper front end, the guy took the giant Kawasaki loader and kinda "pruned" off the headlights, grille, etc.
As I was watching , when the loader went past with a mouth full of fiberglass, both windshield wiper motors were dangling ,just from their wires.
I stepped in and cut the wires.
So, I had 2 complete wiper assemblies, motors, arms and wiper blades. The guy didnt charge me for them.
(I bought about $500 in other parts on this same visit)
When I got home with them, I made a test fit, and had to drill either one or two holes to make each side fit. I used the arms and blades that came with the electric assemblies, So there was no confusion of improper loading, ect.
I did, however, have to buy 2 wiper switches from a Bluebird school bus. These cost me $10 for the pair.
These work great. Was one of the easiest things I did on my bus. I checked one of the aftermarket bus conversion to electric kits, and it had the same mfg as the ones from the Class A camper.
In my opinion,there is no reason to buy one of the high priced kits to do this.......Truck salvage yards that have salvaged campers will have these wipers. As the demand for these would be exteremely low, I would expect to pay in the $50 range for the complete pair. Anyone needing more info on this, drop me an email.
here's a link to see my setup
http://groups.msn.com/July2004Busphotos/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=125
Chuck Lott, Douglasville Ga. |
FAST FRED
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2005 - 4:48 pm: | |
Good DC electric motors with a cont. rating at variable speeds costs about $100 to $125 each .
These are low cost (but nice) Chinese stuff , made for boats.
So the pieces are at least $300 before the markup as a specific kit.
The replacement air motor for the std system will cost about the same.
Busses run many hours in line service , and except for 35 year air motor replacements and 10 years apart squirts of oil , the air seems a safer bet to me.
Any truck junk yard can provide an intermittant air controll switch , if you travel lots in mist.
FAST FRED |
Johnny
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 9:42 pm: | |
Chuck: We have several class-A-looking buses at work...I'd expect they'd use a similar setup. They should work nicely on a coach, & most even have a built-in variable intermittent feature. Watch out for Goshens, though: both of ours use a single motor & a large linkage.
I loathe the air wipers on out TDH-5300...to the point I refuse to drive it in rain. |
Eagle 10
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 23, 2005 - 2:05 pm: | |
I put two electric wipers on my Eagle 10 from a burned Blue Bird coach. The bus nut I bought them from planned to put them on his MCI but sold it before doing so. Converting them over was quite a job but the price was right. $100 I used my arms but had to cut and adjust the linkage on the back of the motors for the correct swing. They are two speed without washers so I used the original air washer system from the Eagle. I also bought an intermittent switch from JC Whitey for $20 that works great. I used them today with our first snow and they worked fine. They have worked great for the past year so I can only hope for the best. |