Sonja to the rescue - another Hehr window

[Bill]

In a campground recently, someone shot out the rear left sidewall window of our TM with a pellet gun. The glass (tempered glass, I believe) shattered into a million tiny pieces, but fortunately it stayed in the frame. We stopped by the local hardware store, bought a roll of Gorilla tape, and put a layer of tape over the broken glass, extending the tape out onto the sidewall of the camper. The tape, being black, didn’t look great, but it held well and would have been water proof for the rest of the trip if it had rained.

The window is made by a company called Hehr. They don’t appear to deal at the retail level, so I called one of their distributors, Pelland Enterprises. I learned from the helpful lady at Pelland that Hehr builds to order, and has little stock on hand. Worse for us TMers, Hehr may not be making white windows any more - black and silver are the colors of choice now. And new windows are incredibly expensive when you order only one. I was quoted $457 for the window, plus $40 for packing, plus $50 for shipping, plus tax. Wow! What’s a guy to do? I considered replacing the pane with plexiglass, but worried about toughness and scratch resistance. I was about to look for a glass shop that might work with laminated glass, but wasn’t looking forward to the anticipated cost.

Sonja to the rescue! For those who don’t know, Sonja is parts manager (among other things) at TM. She knows every part that the company has on hand, where it is located, and a price for it. She offered to examine the inventory for me and see if they had a replacement window. Success! She was able to find exactly what I need, for 1/5 of the price of going to Hehr and ordering a single unit.

Sonja is a sweetheart - we’ve met her in person a couple times - and a pleasure to deal with. I often recommend that folks who need parts go directly to the manufacturer of the part - Hehr in this case - but sometimes TM’s volume buying makes the factory a better choice. And Sonja will know.

One other thing re windows. I would beware of buying from eBay. Hehr supplies most of the RV industry, so they make an enormous number of different windows. Minor differences can cause major problems. For example, the 31-digit part number on my shattered window showed it to be from Hehr’s 3500-series. According to the Pelland lady, Hehr also makes a 5900-series window that looks identical, and has the same dimensions, but won’t fit because the corner radius is different. Unless the eBay seller gives you the part number, the result could be trouble.

Bill