2020 GMC 1500 AT4

Greg B · February 1, 2021

Yesterday was my first time driving my truck in snow and my wiper blades froze to the windshield. It wasn't snowing real hard, and it's garage kept, so I started with a clean windshield. The whole defroster and wiper design is terrible. The defroster vent sits high on the dashboard, so it misses the lower few inches. But then the wipers sit so low on the windshield that it is actually below where the windshield and dashboard meet. So even if the defroster did blow lower, the dashboard still blocks the air from getting down there. There is no way I see to heat that part of the windshield or the wipers. You can see it in the pic. Luckily I was close to home, but I would think on a longer trip the only way to take care of it would be to pull over and spray de-icer on it or clear it by hand. But even when it did come free, the wipers worked for crap because they were frozen solid.

The only other thing I can think of is installing some kind of defogger strips like the rear windows have, but I don't see anything like that online. I felt it was such a safety issue I filed a complaint with NHTSA. Anyone else have any experience with this and any fixes. My first oil change is coming up so I will be seeing what the dealer says, but I don't see anything they'd be able to do, it the design of the truck that sucks.

Edited February 1, 2021 by Greg B

Jonboko · February 1, 2021

Has never been an issue for me

blckblt · February 2, 2021

I didn't have that issue all last winter and this year (Maine). I usually run my defrost on a fairly high setting (temp and fan). I did get the occasion ice build up on the wipers and the where the wipers stop (on both ends of the range of motion).

I always use rain x de-icer washer fluid so that helps to break up the ice with a spray. With any truck I have had to sometimes remove the ice if it impacted the wiping ability.

Never had the wiper blades freeze to windshield. I do let the truck warm up before using them (in the garage or outside).

KMJohnson · February 21, 2022

Yes! Horrible design! For the price of the truck you'd think they could have done some better planning. Even my '03 outback had a wiper defrost system. The defrost on high for over an hour did nothing in our big storm. I'm not lazy, I scrape, dig out all the snow I can, and the wiper blades and where they sit are still iced up. It's not just you and your truck. Our is sometimes garaged but also not. We're currently out of town without garage access and have iced up wipers. It sucks. Driving with that problem is a little scary. I have a four hours drive to get home through rural MT, the last thing I want to have to deal with in encountering crap weather is my vehicle not working right. If you come up with a solution please post again. Our dealership said yep, it's a problem but had no solutions.

silveradosid · February 25, 2022

our 2021 3500 gmc has done this 3 times this winter driving down the road, it sucks when you want to use your wipers and cant. the only solution is to install heated wiper blades. i installed these https://crystalclearblades.com/products/automatic-heated-wiper-blade-system-1?year=2020&make=G M C&model=SIERRA 3500