#*+@&( day night shades

Ed Manifold wrote:
We have had our Phaeton since new and what I found with my shades is that the stringes were not breaking but the spools that my strings were attached too were either coming loose from the valance or the the spool was breaking where the strings were attached. What I did was reverse the spools to the unbroken edge and then thrubolt the spools to the valance. I then removed the bottom of the shade and retrieved the stringes that retracted back inside the bottom channel of the shade when the spools broke and released the stringes. The only trick is to stretch the stringes back thru the channel end caps and refasten to the spools. The reason that I wanted to respond to this topic is I wonder if the stringes really break or is the spools coming loose or breaking and causing the problem.

Ed,
Yes Sir, on all of mine, the strings were definitely broken. Part of them was inside the cross though sections and part was in my hand. They all did the same thing. So, yes Sir, they break, at least on mine they did. I think it's kind of amazing how they work in the first place. But, many folks have issues with them. One thing's for certain though, the tension has to be just right for both sections to work correctly and, stay in the position you either raised them to or lowered them to.
Scott

We have had our Phaeton since new and what I found with my shades is that the stringes were not breaking but the spools that my strings were attached too were either coming loose from the valance or the the spool was breaking where the strings were attached. What I did was reverse the spools to the unbroken edge and then thrubolt the spools to the valance. I then removed the bottom of the shade and retrieved the stringes that retracted back inside the bottom channel of the shade when the spools broke and released the stringes. The only trick is to stretch the stringes back thru the channel end caps and refasten to the spools. The reason that I wanted to respond to this topic is I wonder if the stringes really break or is the spools coming loose or breaking and causing the problem.

Well,
While I'm not a fan of Day-night shades, I've learned to live with them. They were a step up in life after what we had in our last coach. Now, that being said, We've broken our share of strings in them. In fact, I'd say we've broken the strings in at least 50-60% of the windows in our '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD. It took me a while to get the hang of re-stringing them but, I eventually got it.

Two things that are kind of a pain, one, removing and re-installing them up under the valances. That's a pain. Second, it seems that many of the "Re-string Kits" either didn't have enough string or, the wrong kind of eyelets for protection of the string pivot points.

So, since we don't have any intentions real soon of changing them out, I went on ebay and bought 3,000' of the exact same cord the factory uses, 1.4mm nylon cord for a whopping $9.00 and $4.00 for shipping. Now, I can re-string all of mine, 10 times over if I ever had to.

But, I too really like the MCD units, especially the remote that moves them all at the same time. That's way cool. But, I'd have to sell my first born, the dog, the DW and more to afford that setup. So, for now, we'll have to suffer with proper working Day night units.
Scott

Been thinking about going the venetian blind route due to the fact that our cat loves to see out and the day/nite shades won't stay up while on the road.

I have the MCD shades with remote also. Love them!!! With those and changeover to residential refrigerator, life is good!!!!

I love my mcd shades....... I feel like I own a Prevost every time I hit the remote and all the shades go up and down at the same time.....

I'm sick of mine too. In the process of remodeling my coach. I plan to have the cornices with the dusty fabric taken down, lose the day/night shades - for same reason the strings keep breaking - and after having wood cornices installed, I will install faux Roman shades with black out material on back (window) side.

I am also getting MCD shades installed into the front window and left and right windows. I am looking forward to being able to have the shade pulled down some to keep the sun out of my eyes when I drive, especially near sundown.

Now that you know how to install it. ................ Wanna do mine? ... :B

Take pics so we can see what they look like.

MM.