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Old 09-21-2017, 11:03 PM   #1
hcf
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Replacing outer window only on HEHR double-panes.

Our 19' Escape was only a week old when I hooked the front passenger window on the yard gate latch bringing it out for a weekend.

Fortunately, only the outer window broke, leaving the inner pane intact. So we could just duct tape around the outer edge, and it held up fine in highway traffic, and we could still go camping.

Raece was extremely helpful, and sourced a replacement window for us on short order (from his own stock!), and got it to us lickity split. The basic idea he had was to try to avoid a frame swap, to simplify the window replacement process.

Now HEHR contracts out the work to build the window frames, and they have two contractors. One uses rivets to hold everything together. Another uses screws. This would've been a heck of a lot easier with the screw type - ours is riveted.

The old hinge came right off - just lift it to 90 degrees, and lift it vertically off the hinge.

The windows are held on by that hinge on the top, and the landing legs on the bottom. Two rivets in the window-side of the hinge sit in slots in the frame-side, and keep the window from sliding forward or back. It has to be lifted to 90 degrees to come up off the hinge.

So Raece helped us carefully measure the distance between the rivets (and therefore slots) to ensure they match another window. When we received the new window, we compared side by side to ensure the rivets line up - they didn't, as it turns out. Ours are about 1/8" off to one side. Basically, the outer glass pane is glued onto the hinge and stuck onto the frame holding the inner glass pane, so those two can be out of alignment on different windows. This hinge is to the left of the frame, that one to the right...depends on the guy gluing the set together. If you get a window where the hinge and frame are way out of alignment, the window won't mate inside the frame properly, it'll stick.

At any rate, here's the process;

Step 1: Remove the knob on the old window, it just screws out and the knob pulls straight out.

Step 2: On the knob mounting bracket of the OLD WINDOW, drill off the heads of the rivets left and right. We do this on the old window first, because if we mess up, we have the whole new window we can do a full frame swap in. We used a 3/16" bit (matching the rivet diameter) and used the slowest drill speed, just barely digging metal off the rivets until the head turned. Lift the rivet head off, then open the landing legs (put the knob back on if it's helpful) and remove the old inner window pane, frame, legs, bracket, and all. You'll have to lift up and deflect the bracket over the lip of the old window frame to clear.

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Once the rivet heads are drilled off, push the rivets forward through the frame, being careful to avoid bending the frame. We used a brass punch and a wooden block supporting the frame. Note that the rivet may be distorted, and won't fit perfectly back through the frame; I found a few squeezes with pliers, or encouragement with the brass punch sideways made it fit a lot better.

Step 3: Repeat the process on the new window.

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Step 4: Strip off the caulk that lays above the hinge on the old frame. This caulk makes it impossible to seat the new window onto the old frame's hinge; it pushes too hard. Later, we'll replace this with standard clear (matching) silicone caulk. To save yourself some effort, just clear the area behind the hinge so the new window can fit back there.

Step 5: Place the top hinge of the new window into the slot of the mating hinge on the old frame - lining up the two locator rivets on the hinge. Then close. You have to lift up on the landing legs and deflect them a little to get the mounting bracket to go over the frame.

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That's as far as we've gotten right now. Ostensibly now all we have to do is put new rivets through the old frame and new mounting bracket. However, our duct taping appears to have put some rips in the outer weather stripping, and I think the inner weather stripping may have gotten crushed by the impact with the garden gate latch. So while it opens and closes fine, the weather seals don't seem to mate up perfect. So we're gong to try and source some weather stripping, and make a final call before putting new rivets in and sealing the deal.

Best scenario, we fix the weather stripping how we like, put the new rivets into the frame, put some touch up black paint on the new rivets (or source black rivets), and clean up our duct tape stickum, and we're done.

Worst case, we can put the new window back on the new frame and put rivets back in, and do a full frame swap instead. We're pretty close tho, and it's looking promising. It's hard to find matching weather stripping tho.

Anyway, if HEHR would just formalize this process, it seems like this would be one heck of an easier way to replace broken windows!
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Old 09-22-2017, 07:11 AM   #2
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Sorry to hear of the broken window, but stuff happens.

I would have been inclined to just do a full replacement myself, having done so with other RV windows. Not sure what would be involved with these windows though, would it have been that tough?
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Old 09-22-2017, 09:31 AM   #3
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I've always thought of Hehr windows as being the industry standard, the very best. Try buying one from them and their prices will convince you that must be true.
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Old 09-22-2017, 11:37 AM   #4
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Consider yourself lucky to have the hinged window that's still replaceable. We got our rear passenger side window broken on our 2011 19 last year. Reace sent us a replacement which was the last one he had in stock AND Hehr is no longer making that style of window. Also, the new style of window is a different size. So, if another one goes, we're hooped.

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Old 09-22-2017, 04:05 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by NuthatchBC View Post
Consider yourself lucky to have the hinged window that's still replaceable. We got our rear passenger side window broken on our 2011 19 last year. Reace sent us a replacement which was the last one he had in stock AND Hehr is no longer making that style of window. Also, the new style of window is a different size. So, if another one goes, we're hooped.

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Maybe not Doug, this may be a viable option: RV Replacement Windows Instant Pricing!
I am looking into replacing the rear window in my 2015 17B with an opening window, waiting to hear back from ETI before investigating other options.
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Old 09-24-2017, 01:04 PM   #6
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Well, on closer inspection, the 1/8" offset on the hinge rivets was more of a problem than we initially realized. When closing the window, one edge was hanging outside the frame, and the rest of the window was bending as the window closes ... not good.

After some analysis, and despite Raece not recommending this course, we decided to try dremeling down the slots in the old frame, to give them more space in the direction we needed. This was more attractive than trying to modify the hinge, which would eliminate our option of falling back to a full frame swap.

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The concern is that these slots and rivets are closely matched to avoid having the window shift left or right. After taking off about 1mm of material in the direction we needed for slack from both slots, I put the window back on to test fit. Initially it would move left or right just about that 1mm of slack we'd added. However, when the hinge is closed to 60 degrees or so, it does not move left or right anymore; it feels real solid, and it closes without issue.

My thinking is the friction along the hinge surface when it's taught from closure keeps it from moving.

At any rate, we're just about to put on new weather stripping where we'd torn it taking off the duct tape, and we should be all be done today.

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Originally Posted by Jim Bennett View Post
Sorry to hear of the broken window, but stuff happens.

I would have been inclined to just do a full replacement myself, having done so with other RV windows. Not sure what would be involved with these windows though, would it have been that tough?
I'm not 100% on these windows, I think Raece was trying to see if he could spare us the effort of dong a frame swap, and so far it's worked out.

For one thing, I'm not sure if these windows use double sided tape or putty, or if I'd be able to remove the frame myself without damaging the gelcoat or fiberglass.

For another, I'm not sure how the inside portion of the frame comes together (the holes mating the two frame pieces are pre-drilled on one but not the other), and there's an awful lot of extra bits to remove (the blinds and all) and get put back on right.

At any point here, we can always fall back to a full frame swap, but I'd probably look for a shop to do that for me.
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Old 09-24-2017, 02:11 PM   #7
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For one thing, I'm not sure if these windows use double sided tape or putty, or if I'd be able to remove the frame myself without damaging the gelcoat or fiberglass.

.
We had the rear window replaced on ours due to it leaking. I opted to let someone else do it who knew what they were doing rather than me futz it up.
The window had no caulk strips along the sides when he installed it, instead it had a rubber strip with adhesive on one side. Which is what the original also had. And he ran proflex along the top similar to the original installation.
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Old 09-24-2017, 02:19 PM   #8
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The lack of sealant on these new style windows as well as no exterior frame seem to have eliminated those dreaded black streaks we always had with the conventional windows.
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Old 09-24-2017, 06:37 PM   #9
hcf
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Well, it's all squared away. My better part is going to run a water test, but we got the damaged weather stripping removed and replaced. Rather than put in replacement rivets like Raece suggested, I just went to the hardware store and put together a couple of machine nuts and bolts, they seem to do the job.

The hex nut clears the landing legs.

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The nylon lock nut doesn't look too bad. I tried finding some little plastic caps to push over the top of them, but the ones I found pop off. Maybe I'll find something later to dress them up.

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Looks like new.

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Old 09-24-2017, 07:16 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by hcf View Post
Well, it's all squared away. My better part is going to run a water test, but we got the damaged weather stripping removed and replaced. Rather than put in replacement rivets like Raece suggested, I just went to the hardware store and put together a couple of machine nuts and bolts, they seem to do the job.

The hex nut clears the landing legs.

Attachment 27294

The nylon lock nut doesn't look too bad. I tried finding some little plastic caps to push over the top of them, but the ones I found pop off. Maybe I'll find something later to dress them up.

Attachment 27295

Looks like new.

Attachment 27296
I would just look in the hobby shop for a little bottle of paint that comes close to matching and paint them.
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Old 09-24-2017, 08:18 PM   #11
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The nylon lock nut doesn't look too bad. I tried finding some little plastic caps to push over the top of them, but the ones I found pop off. Maybe I'll find something later to dress them up.
A dab of clear silicone under the cap will usually holds things like this on quite well, and allows removal if needed.
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