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[Lesopc]

The way i myself interpret the law is that shorter wiper blades will shrink the all important sweep area leaving more mm's depth to apply a strip but obviously not even 1/4 depth of whole screen. I am thinking of just like my profile pic sunstrip (Goodyear). I also assume that one across the top of rear screen (Opel i Line in similar depth) has no major rules as such.

Yep...hence an MOT pass....dont go to small though as it will affect field of view.

I suspect you only need 20-30mm to fit a sun strip though

Sounds about right to me.

[2woody]

there are four important points here....

One - for the vehicle as designed, vision through the screen must meet the requirements of Directive 77/649/EC, which you could actually probably do with a sun visor fitted

Two - the law requires that the driver has a clear view of the road ahead OR that the screen meets the Directive.

Three - the law requires that the screen is kept unobstructed

Four- the MOT test requires that there are no screen defects or obstructions within the sweep arc of the wipers.

as you can see, the four don't entirely match. What I can say, however, is that :-

fitting shorter wipers is probably not legal

fitting a single wiper is probably not legal

fitting a sun visor strip may be legal as long as it's outside the swept area, but you might have to ultimately go to court to establish case-law on this point.

cheaper than a Lawyer, aren't I ?

[Lesopc]

there are four important points here....

One - for the vehicle as designed, vision through the screen must meet the requirements of Directive 77/649/EC, which you could actually probably do with a sun visor fitted

Two - the law requires that the driver has a clear view of the road ahead OR that the screen meets the Directive.

Three - the law requires that the screen is kept unobstructed

Four- the MOT test requires that there are no screen defects or obstructions within the sweep arc of the wipers.

as you can see, the four don't entirely match. What I can say, however, is that :-

fitting shorter wipers is probably not legal

fitting a single wiper is probably not legal

fitting a sun visor strip may be legal as long as it's outside the swept area, but you might have to ultimately go to court to establish case-law on this point.

cheaper than a Lawyer, aren't I ?

So to recap on your 4 points:
1. Sounds like you are saying that a miggies screen may be a bit larger than required under directives.
2. The view AHEAD would be unobstructed as it would be at very top of eyeline.
3.Again the screen is not actually obstructed per say.
4.This must mean a sunstrip is an obstruction as it would (as standard) fall within sweep area. unless it were only about 30mm deep or less as i have not measured clearance above blade tip (no depth at all).around 50-60mm-ish i think would be better for this purpose.

I have not heard of any law stipulating wiper length and when i say shorter i do not mean 6ins long but around 1in-1.5in less than standard.
Again i can see no real reason for dismissing a single wiper as some Mercedes models are so fitted as standard (to my best knowledge).

[Lizzie_Zoom]

there are four important points here....

One - for the vehicle as designed, vision through the screen must meet the requirements of Directive 77/649/EC, which you could actually probably do with a sun visor fitted

Two - the law requires that the driver has a clear view of the road ahead OR that the screen meets the Directive.

Three - the law requires that the screen is kept unobstructed

Four- the MOT test requires that there are no screen defects or obstructions within the sweep arc of the wipers.

as you can see, the four don't entirely match. What I can say, however, is that :-

fitting shorter wipers is probably not legal

fitting a single wiper is probably not legal

fitting a sun visor strip may be legal as long as it's outside the swept area, but you might have to ultimately go to court to establish case-law on this point.

cheaper than a Lawyer, aren't I ?

So to recap on your 4 points:
1. Sounds like you are saying that a miggies screen may be a bit larger than required under directives.
2. The view AHEAD would be unobstructed as it would be at very top of eyeline.
3.Again the screen is not actually obstructed per say.
4.This must mean a sunstrip is an obstruction as it would (as standard) fall within sweep area. unless it were only about 30mm deep or less as i have not measured clearance above blade tip (no depth at all).around 50-60mm-ish i think would be better for this purpose.

I have not heard of any law stipulating wiper length and when i say shorter i do not mean 6ins long but around 1in-1.5in less than standard.
Again i can see no real reason for dismissing a single wiper as some Mercedes models are so fitted as standard (to my best knowledge).

Be careful of that one as a Merc uni-wiper actually extendes its sweep across the whole part of the screen required to meet legal and practical driving considerations   In fact it is an extremely clever and fascinating design. 8-) 8-) 8-)

[Lesopc]

Ah ha, i never knew that but will still try and source info on the law of single wipers as this will be required on my project if it is to be authentic.
Maybe someone here has more info?

[2woody]

all the law is as I gave above.

what it boils down to is that if you remove twin wipers and fit something else which doesn't clear the same amount of screen, then you're probably going to have breached the Construction & Use Regs on the count that you won't have a clear view of the road.

there is no further law on this - for instance there isn't an item saying that you can't replace twins with one. In English law, this kind of stuff is established in case-law - so to gat a definitive say, you must do the mod, get prosecuted and end up in crown court.

[Chimpchoker]

Just to add the catch all of modifying your car and not telling the insurance company.

I've never had any problems with non declaring etc as I'm shit scared of my own shadow now but it's worth the general reminder.

Sad as I am I carry a bottle of autoglyn window cleaner in the boot.....


I was going to ask oppinions of advance driving here but that will probably hijack the thread so I'll ask the question in a new post.