RV Blinds

We had the metal blinds in our first trailer. They swung and bent themselves pretty easily. I put up curtains, but there wasn't a good way to attach them so I ended up with rods/curtains that had to be put up every time.
Our new trailer has one miniblind setup (kitchen) which bent the first time out. So I have to travel with them open. Don't like that. The pulldown shades work OK, but as noted you have to raise them above the window latch to open the window at all. That is not optimal.
I'd pay modestly more for good, functional blinds.

Our first Travel Trailer had the metal mini blinds. They were terrible. They bent, made a lot of noise and were junk. In our 5th Wheel, we have pull down shades. Pieces of you know what. They don't catch and stay down easily, they retract too slow and they aren't easy to adjust. Curtains are the answer and like others have said, some company needs to make decent ones to buy at an affordable price. Not everyone is good at making them.

CLHEJ wrote:
What I am finding out is that most manufactures are looking simply at price. Most of the current products are maid in China and are plastic and very inexpensive.

Is there a price threshold that would keep all of you from buying product that was built NOT to break or fall apart? Currently I represent a company that produces HIGH quality blinds, window treatments, but the RV industry through OEMs cannot justify the cost of higher quality blinds.

Thanks for all the input, keep them coming!!!!

What's the difference in price? Another $25 - $35 per window? $250.00± more on a $20K unit is not a deal breaker. If you're talking about window treatments that cost more than $25.00 - $35.00 per window (over and above the current blinds) they better be pretty special.

While we preferred the woven wood blinds in our 1990 Bounder, the Day/Night pleated type are not too bad. In our case, once the tension was adjusted to our satisfaction, we've had no problems with the shades themselves.

On the other side of the coin they suck because the trim that the mfg's place around them makes operating the shades and the sliders impossible.

The Venetian blinds in the kitchen and bathroom are just a pain in every way imaginable and they are dirt catchers and they are noisy.

Now, is it possible to build a really great RV window shade? I don't think so, there are too many designers of RV's and too many shapes and positions of windows to make one shade that will serve every interior designer, manufacturer and owner.

In my opinion there are no quick fixes.

What I am finding out is that most manufactures are looking simply at price. Most of the current products are maid in China and are plastic and very inexpensive.

Is there a price threshold that would keep all of you from buying product that was built NOT to break or fall apart? Currently I represent a company that produces HIGH quality blinds, window treatments, but the RV industry through OEMs cannot justify the cost of higher quality blinds.

Thanks for all the input, keep them coming!!!!

We don't mind blinds but would like to see blackout/room darkening blinds in the bedrooms. In every RV we have owned we have put up the reflective sunshields behind the blinds to keep the area dark in the mornings. This works fine unless you want sunlight in that area when not sleeping because you have to open the blind take down the sunshield and then store the sunshield somewhere.

X2, Grandpa.

Rockwood has some mini-blinds that I really like. The first pull gets you shear tranluscent shades that let in some light. The second pull shuts out the light.

The aluminum Venetian blinds are okay but the plastic holders at the bottom are cheap and always break with use.

The problems I have is with the slat type horizontal blinds. The slats bend and disform, the cheap plastic holders at the bottom break, and the turn handle thingy breaks off. I am replacing two of them right now with small curtains.

I am making the curtains myself but I would rather buy them if someone made small curtains on a simple rod held close to the wall so the current valances would still work.

We prefer curtains to valances and mini blinds.