I went out to the van this morning and discovered a broken window. It's the fixed pane on a 42" x 15" slider.

My guess is that it is weather related. Normally I would suspect heat but it has actually been quite cool and rainy here in Denver for a couple of days. There were no big swings in temperature but there may have been a big swing in barometric pressure. It does not look like it was caused by impact. The entire window was cracked but there was no sign anything having hit it.

Is this common? Is this type and size of window more prone to this kind of incident than say awnings or smaller sliders? I will say that I have been happy with the window otherwise. One quirky reason that I say that is that I have found it works great in mosquito country. You can hand stuff in and out through the window a la food truck and then quickly close the screen to shut out the bugs.

Was it preventable? I had the whole van shut up tight but didn't really need to. Would it have been less likely to happen with windows opened up a bit or anything else like that?

I won't be doing the repair myself. Who would be better, an auto glass specialist or an RV specialist?

Is this an opportunity to do any sort of upgrade in glass quality from what was originally installed?

__________________
2013 E-350 6.8L 2WD EB Penthouse

Hmmm, that's weird. I've seen that happen to windows that have had tinting film applied, where the film and the glass expand/contract at different rates, causing the glass to shatter. Are they factory tinted (i.e., the glass itself is smoked) or do they have film?

Yeah, I thought that it was weird too.

They are factory-tinted. I've done no modifications to them since I bought the van new from SMB North last year. I'll probably end up talking to SMB North at some point but thought that I would gather info here first.

__________________
2013 E-350 6.8L 2WD EB Penthouse

^^^ ive never heard or seen this happen before. is it common where you live?

could have been vandalism even though there wasnt evidence of assholery.

[youtube:2x7ysrml]

__________________
"understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of your car, oversteer is when you hit the wall with the rear of your car, horsepower is how hard your car hits the wall, and torque is how far your car moves the wall."

I do not suspect vandalism. I say that because the pane was spider-web shattered throughout but there was no hole in it. A very light finger touch by me created the first hole. If it had been done by a vandal I am sure that they would have left some sort of hole.

__________________
2013 E-350 6.8L 2WD EB Penthouse

not necessarily. a good hard object (spark plug ceramic) and a quick tap will shatter the window without a hole. but who knows.

are the videos i posted not showing??

__________________
"understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of your car, oversteer is when you hit the wall with the rear of your car, horsepower is how hard your car hits the wall, and torque is how far your car moves the wall."

woops, not on work computer. but watched on phone. first one is interesting, never seen that. I'm, gonna try it out. maybe on my neighbors car.

ok, good, just wanted to make sure. I dont use the embeded youtube tags often. thought maybe i did it wong.

^^^ that got a good laugh outta me, thanks

ive been meaning to try it too. havent been out to a pick and pull for a while though. too damn hot here.

__________________
"understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of your car, oversteer is when you hit the wall with the rear of your car, horsepower is how hard your car hits the wall, and torque is how far your car moves the wall."

Thanks for the cool videos. One of the first thoughts that I had when I saw my window this morning was, "Wow, these things are pretty vulnerable!".

There's obviously no stopping a vandal but I hope we can learn something from my experience and figure out how to prevent/fix/improve this non-vandal situation. However, I'll be very glad if the consensus comes out that this is just some freak event that can't be prevented and is pretty easily fixed.

__________________
2013 E-350 6.8L 2WD EB Penthouse