Day/night shades

[balfre1946]

After two expensive repair jobs on our day/night pleated shades where the strings are forever breaking in our Fleetwood Fiesta 34B 2010 we are looking to replace them. We still like the concept but all those puny little strings make it too complicated. Any ideas? Does Blinds to Go work on RVs?

[mychrissy]

We purchased the MCD shades for the rv, have them in most of the windows. We are more than pleased with them.

http://www.mcdinnovations.com/

[RV_CONUS]

viajante wrote:

RV CONUS wrote:
When day/night shades break, they get replaced with custom Bali blinds ordered online from Lowe's.

2 more shades to replace.

Last custom Bali was $37.73, made to size. They work great and last year's.

One wand to open and one string needed to lift. Don't have to be in the middle to lift them. And cleaning, a breeze according to D W.

Works for us, you mileage may be different.

Pictures ?

The large Bali Blinds run about $45. They all have been with free shipping.

DW just finished recovering the last of the Valances, and reupholstered the cushions recently. She is a wiz with a needle, thread, sewing machine and material.

[balfre1946]

The stringing system in our shades is complicated beyond belief and our capabilities..we can't even figure out there it begins, where it is strung through etc etc all is hidden under a very upholstered valenance which makes the top inaccessable

[obgraham]

Another fan of restringing with fishing line. I use 70 lb test braided dacron. It's really smooth and very strong. 10 bucks at BassPro gets you enuf for dozens of blinds.

[Bill_Satellite]

We got rid of the day nights and installed cordless pleated shade from Menards. You can get blackouts for the bedroom and shear for the living areas. Still completely private but without the strings issues (so far). They do a custom cut at the store and the install consists of mounting the wall/ceiling bracket and snaping the shade in place.

[rockhillmanor]

Sometimes if they keep breaking they are attached too tight to the bottom screws. The shade should go up and down real easy with just two fingers. If it's hard to push up and down loosen the line going to the screws. Also pushing them both up or down at the same time breaks the strings.

As far as paying someone to fix them you don't have to do that anymore.
All the camping stores are now carrying a kit with string and screws to do it your self for just a couple bucks.

That all said a shower tension rod fits right up under the side valance on most RV windows. Then you just buy room darkening drapes. I did that in the front windows and do like it better than the day night shades.

[viajante]

RV CONUS wrote:
When day/night shades break, they get replaced with custom Bali blinds ordered online from Lowe's.

2 more shades to replace.

Last custom Bali was $37.73, made to size. They work great and last year's.

One wand to open and one string needed to lift. Don't have to be in the middle to lift them. And cleaning, a breeze according to D W.

Works for us, you mileage may be different.

Pictures ?

[Old-Biscuit]

Replace the strings with fishing line...10lb test.

This is what I did as the strings broke. They don't break anymore.

[RV_CONUS]

When day/night shades break, they get replaced with custom Bali blinds ordered online from Lowe's.

2 more shades to replace.

Last custom Bali was $37.73, made to size. They work great and last year's.

One wand to open and one string needed to lift. Don't have to be in the middle to lift them. And cleaning, a breeze according to D W.

Works for us, you mileage may be different.

[FIRE_UP]

balfre1946 wrote:
After two expensive repair jobs on our day/night pleated shades where the strings are forever breaking in our Fleetwood Fiesta 34B 2010 we are looking to replace them. We still like the concept but all those puny little strings make it too complicated. Any ideas? Does Blinds to Go work on RVs?

Well,
I understand your frustration with them. And, if you pay someone to re-string them, I guess it can get a bit expensive in the pocket book. But, here's a thought. We've broken a few of the strings in ours and I took on the project of restringing them. Yes, it's not one of the most fun things to do on a motor home but, it's certainly not the hardest. You can do it yourself if, you take some time and, just realize what needs to be done. There's a few "Youtube" visuals on the subject too.

And, the "kits" are on the semi-expensive side too. But here's what I did. I found out what kind and, what size of string/cord used on them. I went on to ebay and found it. Now, the last "Restring kit" I bought was around $20.00-$22.00 if I recall. But, what I found on ebay was, a THREE THOUSAND FOOT ROLL of the exact cord they use, for $9.00 and a few dollars for shipping.

I've got enough cord for about 300 motor homes. Now, to answer your question, yep, there's other blinds what will work. MCD makes replacement units for your windows. They're not cheap. You can get the powered ones or, the manual ones. Plus, you can go to Home Depot and simply give them the sizes of the windows you want to re-blind and, they'll tell you what other folks have used in their motor homes. Hope this info helps some.
Scott

[mockturtle]

I installed these mini-blinds myself to replace the day/night shades. No cords! You just push the blinds into whatever position you want and they stay put. No rattling and I think they look nicer, too.

[CloudDriver]

We like our pleated day/night shades. In 11 years I have had to restring one shade twice and the other once due to frayed strings. In all cases, the strings had frayed because one of the nylon grommets that provide a slippery surface where the strings go through the metal top, middle or bottom bars popped out. This allowed the string to wear and fray against the sharp edge of the hole in the metal bar and eventually break. A little epoxy glue to better hold the grommets in the metal bars resolved the problem.

The other reason for breaking strings is that they are tightened too much. The strings should be just tight enough to keep the shades up going down the road.

Restringing these shades is a relatively easy DIY job. After doing it once, the next one gets even easier.

How to do it here.