Anyone ever lost a WIndow on a trip?

2015rlrl

Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2022
Messages
13
Location
Oklahoma City
Just asking if this had happened in others travels. Driving home Sunday afternoon after great weekend in Eastern Oklahoma- getting ready to put 2015 27rl away and my wife says the bedroom exit window is gone. Lets say it was all gone as in no glass- no latch, no hinge, only the frame remained. Feel bad I littered on the road and who knows if someone had to serve to miss it. Ordered another one from Recpro this morning. Scratching my head on this one, I mean I know things break. I just never would have imagined that happening. Drive home was normal etc.
 
Just asking if this had happened in others travels. Driving home Sunday afternoon after great weekend in Eastern Oklahoma- getting ready to put 2015 27rl away and my wife says the bedroom exit window is gone. Lets say it was all gone as in no glass- no latch, no hinge, only the frame remained. Feel bad I littered on the road and who knows if someone had to serve to miss it. Ordered another one from Recpro this morning. Scratching my head on this one, I mean I know things break. I just never would have imagined that happening. Drive home was normal etc.

Can't say I ever lost a window, I did once lose the screen to the emergency exit window. Actually lost it twice. I went back once and found it. Second time could not find it. This was nearly 20 years ago. On our current rig w have a hair-tie on the emergency exit handle to keep that window from popping out because the window has opened on us a few times while driving. Seems the design hasn't improved in all that time. I understand it is an 'emergency' exit but you'd think that in the last couple of decades that someone would have made a better mouse trap!
 
Can't say I ever lost a window, I did once lose the screen to the emergency exit window. Actually lost it twice. I went back once and found it. Second time could not find it. This was nearly 20 years ago. On our current rig w have a hair-tie on the emergency exit handle to keep that window from popping out because the window has opened on us a few times while driving. Seems the design hasn't improved in all that time. I understand it is an 'emergency' exit but you'd think that in the last couple of decades that someone would have made a better mouse trap!

I really wish the "emergency window" we have in our rig was really an emergency DOOR. In an emergency, there's really no way that I can get out that window.
 
Did not lose it on the road but in our driveway. Last winter, we tried to take off in January with lots of snow in our drive. 5er hit a rock buried in the snow which pushed the 5er into the overhang on our garage. Tore the dinning room window off and caused other damage. About $11,000 dollars damage to the 5er and about $2,500 damage to the garage. Dealer had it for 4/5 months and did a great job fixing everything. We are now ready to head to SoCal for the season.
 
I have read on other forums of people losing the bedroom escape window. Seemed to be not as uncommon as one would think.
 
Ours is a PITA to open... Would think it would be hard to open (on its own) and fall out without something hitting it or forcing it open. However, our bedroom slider can occassionaly pop open due to the flimsy latch catch system... but wouldnt expect it to ever fall out either? Maybe a really rough road maybe... like a jeep trail? LOL!
 
I have read on other forums of people losing the bedroom escape window. Seemed to be not as uncommon as one would think.

It's quite possible to not actually close that window all the way. If it's not, it can flap open/closed because the escape part of the window is the support bar that just pulls out of the slot at the bottom of the window. If the window flips all the way up, it slips out of the hinge. I'm not surprised it can easily be lost.
 
Our window popped out but luckily a passing motorist flagged me down. The window may not have been closed all of the way when I left that day. Anyway, I found an easy hack on YouTube. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/j7c4vQb3qP4?feature=share

I had to glue a popsicle stick to 1/2 of a clothespin to get it to work for my set up as a wedge, and I shortened the clothespin so that we could walk by it without knocking it out.
 
Lost window

Just asking if this had happened in others travels. Driving home Sunday afternoon after great weekend in Eastern Oklahoma- getting ready to put 2015 27rl away and my wife says the bedroom exit window is gone. Lets say it was all gone as in no glass- no latch, no hinge, only the frame remained. Feel bad I littered on the road and who knows if someone had to serve to miss it. Ordered another one from Recpro this morning. Scratching my head on this one, I mean I know things break. I just never would have imagined that happening. Drive home was normal etc.

Last year we were on I90 between Souix Falls and Rapid City SD in our Solitude 346FLS with a very strong wind out of the NW (approx 50-60mph) when I something flying in the air caught my eye in the rear view mirror. I pulled over and found my front living room window sucked out. Everything gone. Only thing we can figure is that we had not closed the window good from the night before and it got enough suction on the unit and sucked out the window. I will add that this window the type of window that the glass is on the outside, hinged at the top and twist knob at the bottom to open and close it.
 
We had this exact thing happen to us once before. It was on a previous rig non GD but i am guessing they all likely work the same. It was a "frameless" variety and i had opened it to see how it had worked, it appears part of the mechanism snapped when i opened it I had felt a little resistance and heard a small snap as i opened it but thought nothing of it at the time and the window seemed secure while the rig was stationary. I think it was a small rivet (read below) that held the whole thing in at the top in the middle of the hinge mechanism.

After we left our spot the next morning we went around a corner and I saw it flapping in the sideview. I pulled over and it basically fell off in my hands. I could get it back in the frame but the window would not stay secured.

Luckily we were near an rv dealer when i noticed it and pulled in. It was early morning and they had yet to start work for the day so took a look immediately. They were able to re seat the window and secure it in less than half an hour. We were back on the road quickly.

While i was not able to observe them fix it I was able to examine it after the fact and I could see a shiny new rivet on the top hinge they had installed to hold it in place. I even carefully re opened the window to check for resistance noticing it would only open a few degrees then encountered resistance, i didn't force/break it again and never had another issue with it from that day forward.

I guess the rivet may have been a safety feature to allow the window to be pushed completely off from inside in case of emergency? I dunno.

Either way if i had not seen it in the mirror it would have fallen off for sure as we drove.

Mike
 
Just asking if this had happened in others travels. Driving home Sunday afternoon after great weekend in Eastern Oklahoma- getting ready to put 2015 27rl away and my wife says the bedroom exit window is gone. Lets say it was all gone as in no glass- no latch, no hinge, only the frame remained. Feel bad I littered on the road and who knows if someone had to serve to miss it. Ordered another one from Recpro this morning. Scratching my head on this one, I mean I know things break. I just never would have imagined that happening. Drive home was normal etc.

I've lost two. First one with my fw toyhauler, the other with my Imagine. Neither were the escape windows. The toyhauler window was the frameless type, the Imagine was the framed type. I believe rocks got them both.
 
I've lost two. First one with my fw toyhauler, the other with my Imagine. Neither were the escape windows. The toyhauler window was the frameless type, the Imagine was the framed type. I believe rocks got them both.
Did they physically fall out/off, or just got broken? I have heard before about the frameless windows falling off, but they seem to have addressed the problem.
 
We had this exact thing happen to us once before. It was on a previous rig non GD but i am guessing they all likely work the same. It was a "frameless" variety and i had opened it to see how it had worked, it appears part of the mechanism snapped when i opened it I had felt a little resistance and heard a small snap as i opened it but thought nothing of it at the time and the window seemed secure while the rig was stationary. I think it was a small rivet (read below) that held the whole thing in at the top in the middle of the hinge mechanism.

After we left our spot the next morning we went around a corner and I saw it flapping in the sideview. I pulled over and it basically fell off in my hands. I could get it back in the frame but the window would not stay secured.

Luckily we were near an rv dealer when i noticed it and pulled in. It was early morning and they had yet to start work for the day so took a look immediately. They were able to re seat the window and secure it in less than half an hour. We were back on the road quickly.

While i was not able to observe them fix it I was able to examine it after the fact and I could see a shiny new rivet on the top hinge they had installed to hold it in place. I even carefully re opened the window to check for resistance noticing it would only open a few degrees then encountered resistance, i didn't force/break it again and never had another issue with it from that day forward.

I guess the rivet may have been a safety feature to allow the window to be pushed completely off from inside in case of emergency? I dunno.

Either way if i had not seen it in the mirror it would have fallen off for sure as we drove.

Mike




Thanks for all the info everyone- new window installed Sunday. nice to hear I wasn't alone. Take care.
 
Did they physically fall out/off, or just got broken? I have heard before about the frameless windows falling off, but they seem to have addressed the problem.
just got broken. Toyhauler incident was going thru Montana, pretty windy, stop at rest stop and guy pulled in behind and told me he saw my window blow out. It was the framless type. Possible rock hit it on the edge from passing truck. Second incident was in my GD going to Arkansas, Stoped at gas station and noticed big hole in window. Saw some scrape marks on anothe window, so I think it was just a rock got thrown up and got it.
 
It happened to us in our old Montana. Didn’t notice anything until we got to our site and setup. I had washed and wax the outside before the trip and the wife did the inside. After setting up I made the comment “you sure did a great job cleaning that bedroom window “and went back outside. She came out behind me laughing. She said the window is gone. I thought, no way. I told her a window just doesn’t blow out. I had to go back inside and check it out. Sure enough, only part left was the frame.lol. Guess it was not latched. Clear plastic and gorilla tape worked well.
 
Our last 5th wheel had emergency exit windows everywhere. Had the one on the door side in the master open when camping. However when the door would slam shut the vibration would cause the window to close since it is just an awning style that sits on the red handle. Thought it was closed and was camping at a Resort 20 minutes from home. When I got home no more window. Drove the route with the quad down the ditch and found it on the way back as the sun was going down and reflected of the window in the tall grass. Window and metal frame was scratched, not broken. Brought it home, painted the frame, put some new rivets in it and put the window back in. No issues till the day I traded it in. I have one exit window in the 31MB in the bunk that I worry about since it is easy for the mattress to unlatch it. In the spring I think I will tie it with a bread tie........
 

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