Cheap wiper blade inserts - a warning

[Haddo]

I just made a couple of picks from what I assume was a truck wiper insert since it was about two feet long. Way to big for a car. They make great picks but need to be thinned a bit. The width is perfect.

[Ortin468]

Older Dodge Caravan's have 28 inch blades on each side. I have never done wipers on a big rig, so I would be lost on a size. Been looking at the "frameless" wipers lately, but they tend to have a natural bend in them, so I don't know what to do with them..

[dusty3180]

I just wanted to alert other members of my recent bad purchase so they wouldn't do the same. I recently ordered a few sets of "Unifide" (misspelled intentionally?) 17" wiper blade refills off of Ebay because they were super cheap - BIG MISTAKE. The stiffeners seem to be made out of some kind of soft, completely unusable metal instead of the spring steel to which I'm accustomed to finding. Looks like I'm out $10!!!

just go to auto zone and look in the trash.

[funkalicious]

Older Dodge Caravan's have 28 inch blades on each side. I have never done wipers on a big rig, so I would be lost on a size. Been looking at the "frameless" wipers lately, but they tend to have a natural bend in them, so I don't know what to do with them..

Modern cars with a more swept back windshield tend to have longer wipers. 19" plus isn't uncommon even on a 2 door car.

In regards to the frameless wipers, I've used them, you do have to take the natural bend out but they worked fine. On the pair I recycled, there was also a slightly thicker piece of metal as well that the whole wiper was built on. I plan to make some thicker tension wrenches out of that piece.

[dll932]

I would suggest buying flat spring steel stock from locksmith suppliers. You can also make rigid picks out of old dental tools-ask your dentist for broken ones (very good steel).