Autumn and winter have arrived for many in the Northern Hemisphere bringing rain, snow, mud and mud. Messy concoctions make for some of the most dangerous driving conditions, making roads slippery and windshields dirty. The crew at Garage 54 have a solution for quickly tackling dirty windows – super-fast windshield wipers.
The hardware that runs it all is pretty simple. The wiper attaches to a Bosch cordless drill that is fastened to the engine bay fender wall with a zipper fastener. It’s basic, but works, allowing Garage 54 to set the appropriate wiper speed and operate the modified blades from inside the vehicle.
Garage 54 performed a series of tests on the windshield wipers. The first few spray water on the windshield as the blade moves back and forth across the glass. It’s a bit of a bad test, doesn’t really show what the wipers are capable of.
The second round of testing was much more rigorous and involved dumping a bucket of dirty water on the windshield. It simulates a passing vehicle hitting a puddle and splashing water on the Lada’s windshield, and the wipers work really well. The blades moved back and forth ferociously, quickly clearing the windshield and increasing visibility. No wiper adjustment is perfect, but when walking on the highway, a few seconds can mean driving tens or hundreds of feet without proper visibility, and that’s dangerous.
However, there is one drawback to the modified blade. They can’t swing back and forth too fast because they start to leave the surface of the windshield if they do. The force of the back-and-forth whipping motion pulls the blades away from the windshield, which defeats the whole purpose of super-fast wipers.
The wipers fitted to modern cars are great at handling whatever Nature throws at them. Cars can now sense when their windshield is wet and activate the wipers themselves, with enough variable speed to remove any dirt.
With winter coming up, now might be a good time to check your wipers and replace them as necessary while refilling windshield washer fluid. Or you can take inspiration from Garage 54 and add super-fast wipers to your car.
