heat/defroster

I have been thinking of how to improve the defroster and came up with an idea. I was thinking of more or less trapping the hot air against the windshield until it reaches the top and have a limited space there for it to escape. I was thinking of putting a second piece of glass or acrylic on the inside overlapping the defroster vent and seal it off against the windshield gasket stopping it just short of the top side. I think it would allow you to run the heater and defroster at the same time but still keep the winshield clear. If anyone has tried this I'd like to know if it worked.

I really don't think you need to go to all that trouble. My FSJ heater running on high will melt ice on my windshield. The stock heater is basically the same parts. If you aren't getting much air to the defrostor, I would suggest cleaning the cowl air intake, cleaning the heater core box out and making sure the flaps are in the correct position to get the air to the defrosters.

We haven't had real ice this year. But, during one of the bad weeks a year ago, it was very thick. I drove the M715 to work one of those days. It stayed in the parking lot all day. They called off Colton's school at 1400. I left work early to go pick him up and my door was frozen shut on the M715. I wrestled the door open and got it fired up. 10 minutes later, the temp gauge moved off the stop. 5 minutes later, I turned on the defroster fan. I was driving away a few minutes later with a clean windshield. No ice scrapper was used.

If you are determinded to "fix" it. There are some things on e-bay every now and then that mount on the bottom of the windshield frame that extend the defrost channel across the entire bottom of the frame. You might want to look into that. PM Snuffy for a picture since he has a set of them.

0 degrees and up, the civvy FSJ heaters do pretty good at keeping the windshiled clear...the side windows will start to ice under 15 or so...

Below 0, civvy heaters wont cut it but the military hot water one will continue down to about -20 without much problem.

I haven't had any problems with ice this year but when in Colorado snow and ice was a problem and always felt that the slope of civvy glass helped keep heat against it as it rises compared to our verticle windshields. I have seen the "deflectors" on ebay but it looks like it only puts the heat down low instead of spreading it out across the glass. I had thought of a electric defroster in the glass but I don't know if it can be made up in any windshield or in 24 volt.