Fall and winter are coming to many in the northern hemisphere, bringing rain, snow, mud and slush. The messy concoction creates some of the most dangerous driving conditions, making roads slippery and windshields filthy. The Garage 54 team has a solution to quickly combat dirty windows: ultra-fast windshield wipers.
The hardware running it all is pretty straightforward. The wipers are attached to a Bosch cordless drill attached to the engine compartment fender wall with zip ties. It’s basic, but it works, allowing Garage 54 to set an appropriate wiper speed and operate the modified blades from inside the vehicle.
Garage 54 subjects the accelerated wipers to a series of tests. The former spray water on the windshield as the blades whip back and forth across the glass. It’s a bit of a poor test, not really demonstrating the wipers’ capabilities.
The second series of tests is much more rigorous and consists of throwing a bucket of dirty water on the windshield. It simulates a passing vehicle hitting a puddle and splashing water on the Lada’s window, and the windshield wipers work superbly. The blades whip fiercely back and forth, quickly clearing the windshield and improving visibility. No wiper setup is perfect, but when you’re traveling down the road, a few seconds can translate to traveling tens or hundreds of feet without adequate visibility, and that’s dangerous.
There is, however, a downside to modified blades. They can’t rock back and forth too quickly because they start to leave the surface of the windshield if they do. The force of the back-and-forth motion pushes the blade away from the windshield, defeating the purpose of high-speed wipers.
The windshield wipers fitted to modern cars are perfect for handling whatever Mother Nature throws at them. Cars can now sense when their windshields are wet and activate the wipers on their own, with enough variable speeds to remove any dirt.
With winter fast approaching, it’s probably a good time to check your windshield wipers and replace them if needed while topping up your windshield washer fluid. Or you can take inspiration from Garage 54 and add super-fast windshield wipers to your car.
