Day/Night Shades-Broken - Montana Owners Club

Les and Julie · 02-11-2005, 12:38 PM

Anyone have any advice on how to fix the day/night shades. We cannot raise the one on the back window -- strings are very tight and will not allow the shade to be raised -- actually looks like the one of the strings have frayed. Can they be restrung and if so, how?? Would appreciate your suggestions.

Thanks Julie

sgf · 02-11-2005, 02:36 PM

we had the same problem, called keystone and they had the dealer replace the bad ones at no charge to us, our unit is a 2004 and was just out of warranty at the time, no questions were asked by keystone.

Parrothead · 02-11-2005, 03:35 PM

Les and Julie
We've had problems with our dining room also. Found out some of it had moved out of the channel at the bottom. Check that and if it is, you can gently pull and push it back in place. This happens when the shade is pull up or down not level. Otherwise only one side moved. If that is not the problem, I would do as others have suggested and contact your dealer or Keystone.

Trailer Trash 2 · 02-11-2005, 04:14 PM

I think we all have had some kind of a problem with our day-night shades,

I did read on another post about putting in a small screw through the grip rails and into the end cap to keep the end cap from falling out, that will stop the shade from sliding out of its holder, I found some real small stainless steel phillips screws size #2 by 3/8" and #2 by 1/4" the #2 is the size that I will use because it is so small and being a phillips screw it will go in very easy, now all I have to do is go to the storage lot and go to work putting them in.

TT2

OH PS the bottom shade might be over the turn knob to open the window my wife has poped it over that and doesn't move when there. pop it over and be careful .

Parrothead · 02-11-2005, 04:55 PM

Trailer Trash 2 - You are right about them getting caught on the turn knob for the window. That is what happens to our dining room one.

Montana_440 · 02-11-2005, 10:51 PM

We can't raise the day/nt shade at the dining area table.It's so close to the table & one person can't get a grip on it anyway.I added curtains to all windows & it's way easier to close them, than it is to fool around with the shades.

dbrill · 02-11-2005, 11:25 PM

I would start with sgf's suggestion of contacting Keystone since you have a 2004. Now to answer your question about restringing. Yes they can be restrung but it requires a lot of patients and it helps to have the special tool the makers use to string them and the right cord. My wife works for Hunter Douglas as a sales manager so we have the tool and I once restrung one in a Conversion van we had. Personally if I had to do it again I would contact local retailer that specializes in blinds (not Home Depot or Lowes) and see if they any of them would restring it for you. Around here they charge around $20 which is well worth the hour plus it took us to do it (my wife knew how to but had only ever done it once about 10 years earlier). The hardest part if you have the tool is getting the sord tight enough to stay in place but not so tight it wont move.

sreigle · 02-12-2005, 05:30 AM

Les and Julie, if you can take out the two screws at the top of the shade you can then lay it down without the pressure on the strings. The strings will still be attached to those knobs at the bottom. I've not removed those knobs since I don't want to try to adjust them properly but do so if you feel the need. Pry off one of those end caps, the ones that sometimes come off by themselves. Inside the square tube from which you removed the endcap you will find a piece of plastic that runs the width of the shade and serves as a guide for the strings. There will be a hole on each end for where the string passes through. Look to see if that string has sawed its way out of that hole. This is what happened on one of ours. And that's how the string got frayed. At this point you can either figure out a replacement for that plastic guide, or some way to keep the string in the hole, or replace the entire shade.

I'm not positive this is what is happening on yours but it sure sounds like the way ours looked and acted. You may be able to see the string/hole problem by prying off the endcap without removing the top screws if it's on the end of the shade you can get your eye down to.

To answer your other question, yes, they can be restrung. I've not done that but have heard it's a challenging, but doable, task. I think some on this forum have restrung a shade or two.

Les and Julie · 02-12-2005, 07:04 AM

Thanks for all the suggestions -- think we will try the solution Steve & Vicki sent -- and if that does not work we will just wait until we can get back to our original dealer and see what they can do. Don't think I am up to the restringing -- sounds way too stressful for me!

Steve -- great meeting you and Vicki at the Tampa Show -- hope we can meet up again somewhere on our travels.

Julie

Trailer Trash 2 · 02-12-2005, 08:50 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by camper

We can't raise the day/nt shade at the dining area table.It's so close to the table & one person can't get a grip on it anyway.I added curtains to all windows & it's way easier to close them, than it is to fool around with the shades.

Camper, I took my table and and turned it 90 degrees from its original position, the table is now wide but I can reach over the table now and grip both sides of the shade, of corse I do lay my belly a little on the table when doing this. the only down side to doing this is I only seat 2, but thats OK, because it only 2 living in this trailer. if we have company we eat outside on the pick-nick table. The two extra chairs are covered and are stored in the attic. I seen a quote by another RVer can't remember who but I love it. " My trailer seats 7, will feed 4 , and sleep only 2, company can get a Motel if they want."

Also now I can also access the frig without having to open the dinning slide. Oh by the way I put the screws in the grip rails today came out great and they only have to be installed on the rail that conects the dark to the light, 2 screws per shade ( easy fix )

sreigle · 02-12-2005, 02:10 PM

TT2, my comprehension tonight must be asleep. Can you elaborate a bit on what you are talking about re the screws in the shades? Sorry to be dense, must be something to do with being retired...

OntMont · 02-12-2005, 02:16 PM

Hi Les and Julie,

We restrung one of ours using mason's line from Home Hardware. It is not really an "easy" task, but we did it. Key thing is to clear some time and space and work slowly and methodically. They can be taken apart, and they can be reassembled. We took digital photos at different stages to keep us on track.

If you really don't want to tackle it yourselves, Sicard's RV on highway 20 near Smithville can do them.

Trailer Trash 2 · 02-12-2005, 05:56 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by sreigle

TT2, my comprehension tonight must be asleep. Can you elaborate a bit on what you are talking about re the screws in the shades? Sorry to be dense, must be something to do with being retired...

Sure Steve, I'll try. The grip bar that seperates the dark part of the shade with the lighter part has the plastic caps that alwas pop off, causing the material of the lighter shade to slide out of the bar if it is raised unevenly, then there is a possability of it getting damaged. by securing the end caps with a very small screw through the bar and into the cap prevents the caps from poping off, If I knew how to do a pictuer on this computer I would take one and show but I'm prity dumb in that department.

sreigle · 02-13-2005, 06:00 AM

Aha, TT2, got it. Thanks. I suspected as much but wasn't sure. We had the trouble with one of ours popping off so I used a spot of contact cement to keep it in place. With your solution if you need to disassemble to restring, just remove the screw. Mine likely wouldn't be so easy, if doable at all.

Thanks.

ols1932 · 02-13-2005, 02:51 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by camper

We can't raise the day/nt shade at the dining area table.It's so close to the table & one person can't get a grip on it anyway.I added curtains to all windows & it's way easier to close them, than it is to fool around with the shades.

The difficulty in raising our curtains was that the bottom of the curtain wouldn't clear the table. So, I removed the 4 screws fastening the table to the floor and moved the table in about 3 inches and re-fastened it. It works now!

Montana_440 · 02-14-2005, 10:59 AM

The difficulty in raising our curtains was that the bottom of the curtain wouldn't clear the table. So, I removed the 4 screws fastening the table to the floor and moved the table in about 3 inches and re-fastened it. It works now!

Good solution...but if we moved trailer closer to aisle...wouldn't be able to get past in with slide in.Pat

Bill Hill · 02-14-2005, 11:16 AM

TT2
We also have the 2980 and I just finished doing what you did with the dining table. Got fed up with have to open the dining slide to get to the fridge. I first tried to put a lazy susan spinner between the table top and the base, but the weight of the table top made it very wobbly, and I couldn't come up with an acceptable locking mechanism. We're leaving on Friday for Death Valley for the first trip with the table turned around, and unless we have company, will probably just leave it that way.

Trailer Trash 2 · 02-14-2005, 01:34 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Bill Hill

TT2
We also have the 2980 and I just finished doing what you did with the dining table. Got fed up with have to open the dining slide to get to the fridge. I first tried to put a lazy susan spinner between the table top and the base, but the weight of the table top made it very wobbly, and I couldn't come up with an acceptable locking mechanism. We're leaving on Friday for Death Valley for the first trip with the table turned around, and unless we have company, will probably just leave it that way.

Bill Hill you will see with the table that way you will enjoy it, I did move the one end of the table closer to the little window just enugh to put the chair there when traviling, the other chair at the other end that way you can pull the one chair away from the table and sit at the end closest to the couch in other words your back is facing the side of the couch, for a quickie snack for one while the slide is closed, and when open the other chair goes on the long side of the table and there is plenty of room to pass by when the slide is open. I also installed a computer low profile gang plug on the wall and stapled it to the molding on the floor and up the wall again to the plug bu the couch so we could have power for th toaster when needed.

You guys have fun in Death Vally great time to go see it not hot now.

TT2

Parrothead · 02-14-2005, 04:32 PM

We also found we had to unscrew the table and move it a little to raise shade. That shade also catches on the knob that opens the window. We don't have that problem with the windows that go up and down only the one that has a knob that screws the window out and in. Bill, enjoy Death Valley. Be sure and go to Scotty's Castle while you are there. Really interesting.

padredw · 02-15-2005, 03:33 AM

We noticed this irritant from the very beginning. The table is just an inch too close to the window. We have the dinette booth (not the freestanding table) and have to be very careful in raising and lowering the shade on the window next to the table. We have learned that it is better when both of us work together. We have to work the bottom of the shade around the table when raising and again when lowering. If the people at Montana would sit at this table and lower this shade a few times, I think it would not be too difficult to correct the table size by one inch, but they have not done so. No big deal, but one that could so easily be corrected.

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