wiper blades: why so much confusion?

[LONO100]

so i went out to find a new pair of wiper blades for my trac, and when i went to look up the size that fits our particular year (02-05), the size listed was 18". that seemed way too small but i bought a pair and when i held the, up to my current wiper blades, they were quite smaller. i measured the ones that were currently on my trac and they were 21". i thought i read the little book wrong when i was first looking up the size at the store, but when i went back, sure enough, the listed size was 18". so i returned the 18" pair i bought in exchange for a set of 21" blades. slapped them on, and they fit perfectly. my question is why is the listed size for wiper blades on our sport tracs so much smaller than what actually fit? i looked up this topic on the forum, and there is a ton of debate over this. for anyone with an 01-05 sport trac, i can say for a fact that 21" blades will fit fine on your truck no matter what the listed size is.

as for the blades i bought, i usually go with bosch brand, but i took the plunge and bought a set of rain-x latitude wiper blades. the reason i went with them is because they have that extra height to them (if that makes sense). they seem like they will do a much better job of pushing piles of snow off the my windshield when im up in the mountains. also, the one piece design seems interesting to me. they dont have any joints and i want to see how that effects how long they last. ill report back after i use them a few times. anyone else have any experience with these blades?

 

[fifthranger]

Those books are usually accurate, so it was probably a typo, however, I ran into the same situation with my Ford Edge. I didn't look in the manual first, so when I went to the store, I assumed that the book was correct. I bought both a passenger and a driver wiper, and I noticed that I, believe, the driver was about 2 inches shorter. It still fit, and I've used it for over 1 year now. Also, it looks weird since it doesn't cover the whole 1/2 side of the windshield. I'm not majorly concerned, but when I replace it soon, I will look in the manual to make sure I get the correct one. As for the brand, I've never had one brand outlast another -- they all are crap when they wear after only 6 - 8 months. So, I buy the cheapest available, and for my Ranger, I just replaced both with Valvoline that were $5.99 at Kmart.

 

[LONO100]

after i settled on the 21" blades, i looked up the size for my trac and in the book and on the little computer, they both had the size listed at 18", then i was at a walmart later on that day so i looked in their book to see what they had, and it was also 18". with my windshield i couldnt imagine using that small a blade, i just dont see how that would work.

 

[JohnnyO]

The OE size on Gen 1 Tracs is 18". If something bigger will fit, go for it. My Gen 2 takes 20's. In my experience longer blades tend to lift more and don't work as well at highway speeds.

 

[Flounder]

The OE size on Gen 1 Tracs is 18". If something bigger will fit, go for it. My Gen 2 takes 20's. In my experience longer blades tend to lift more and don't work as well at highway speeds.

This is it. 18" is OEM/recommended. 20" fits comfortably. 21" will fit barely.

I went with 20" and PIAA arms, which have spoilers built in to keep them down at highway speeds, but even then the ends tend to be hit or miss and leave water.

 

[LONO100]

on my 03 sport trac, 21" blades fit with room to spare. thats a good point about the ends possibly leaving water. i will report how the longer rain x latitudes do during our next rain storm.

 

[Joe Dirt]

The longer 20" blades do tend to miss on the edges on my '00, not sure on teh ST, but the aero qualities should be similar.

 

[JohnnyO]

I've had good success with Michelin blades, they have a spoiler sorta thing that holds them to the windshield. I was a LONG time finding something that would work on my wife's car, the driver's side blade is like 22" or 24", and it doesn't take much speed to lift it.

 

[gasman6674]

I run 19" units on my 05 with no issues

 

[LONO100]

update on the new RAIN-X LATITUDE wiper blades: drove through my first rain storm with them on, even going with blades that are 3 inches longer than recommended, they did great, no streaks and the edges were good too. the thing i noticed was that when it first started sprinkling, i didnt get those oily streaks either, they wiped clean from the jump. im interested to see how they do in the snow. ill update again.