Broken Burro Window

[Byron Kinnaman]

I can believe that this varies by jurisdiction, but it may also be possible that the term "RV" is the problem. In a motorhome, which is occupied while being driven, tempered glass is a reasonable safety requirement. In a trailer (which is an RV, but maybe not the kind they were thinking), I can't think of any good reason. Of course, good reasons and laws are not closely related.

I don't think tempered glass and the safety glass required for a motor vehicle are the same thing.

If my understanding is correct vehicle safety glass is lamainted glass, which is required in all passenger carrying vehicles. Tempered glass is processed to be stronger than normal glass. If you have patio doors, they would have to be tempered glass. The extra size would need the extra strength. I would want tempered glass in my trailer since it's likely to take some road debris hits.

[David Joseph]

When I took a broken piece into the glass shop so they could match the tint, they could tell just looking at the shard that it wasn't tempered. In addition to being stronger, I believe tempered glass doesn't shatter into tiny bits. I wasn't objecting to the extra cost of tempered (I agree with Don, it's safer), it just takes longer because, normally, the order has to be sent out to a supplier.

[Brian B-P]

As David explained, it is tempered glass which is tougher; however, it does break into safer granules, which is safer than jagged shards. Laminated safety glass (two layers of glass with a plastic layer between them) is intended to hold together, instead of shattering into any size; that is another way to keep people from being injured by the broken glass, and it also makes the window better able to protect them from whatever nasty stuff might be hitting the vehicle.

Normally, laminated is used for windshields, and tempered for other automotive windows.

Tempered glass is used for safety in sliding doors in buildings, because people tend to walk or fall into them occasionally.

I agree that tempered automotive glass might help the durability of the trailer's windows (for the reasons which Don and Byron mentioned), and it would be nice to have; however, with no risk of people walking into them, and no one in the trailer (in contrast to self-propelled RVs) during a potential collision, I don't see a need to require this more expensive product. For security, laminated glass would be even better.

I don't know what the glass shop put in my Boler window, but my guess is that it is neither tempered nor laminated.

[Frederick L. Simson]

Laminated safety glass (two layers of glass with a plastic layer between them) is intended to hold together, instead of shattering into any size; that is another way to keep people from being injured by the broken glass, and it also makes the window better able to protect them from whatever nasty stuff might be hitting the vehicle.

I took the [b]Bathroom window out, and took it frame and all to an automotive glass shop, after my regular glass guy said he did not have glass that was both Laminated and Obscured in stock, nor could he justify buying a full sheet to do my little window. The automotive guy said that the best he could do was darkly tinted laminated glass, and I let him do the job.




I then went to Home Depot and got Texture Film to apply to the inside surface.