Shades.....again

[slewis]

Our big window shade is nearing a repair. We are operating it carefully with one cord broken. Any advice other than "leaving it alone"? How or who repairs these shades?
Sandy
Seems like there was a post a while back about lubricating the shade cords. What would that lubrication consist of? (so sorry to end the sentence with a preposition)

[awaywego]

When the string broke on ours I called and ordered parts from the website below.
He sent all the things I needed and instructions at very reasonable price.

http://www.dirtyblindman.com/

[SlickWillie]

quote:Originally posted by slewis

Our big window shade is nearing a repair. We are operating it carefully with one cord broken. Any advice other than "leaving it alone"? How or who repairs these shades?
Sandy
Seems like there was a post a while back about lubricating the shade cords. What would that lubrication consist of? (so sorry to end the sentence with a preposition)

Well, if your were still in Rockport, there is a lady at Ron Hoover's that repairs them. We had a small one that the string broke on. Seems she charged $23 to restring it. I sure wouldn't fool with it for that.

[exav8tr]

slewis, Could you share the year of your Montana, so we know when to expect such a thing....

[simonsrf]

Sandy,

I'm sorry about the preposition too!

OntMont posted this a while ago. Restringing them is not that bad, we just recently did one...good idea knowing how to do it.

Take a look here...Thanks to John.

Restringing Day/Night Shades

[slewis]

Slick, we'll wait for our trip next year to ROckport and have her fix it for us. For $23+ we won't mess with it. Thanks for the info. Oh, Phil, our Mountaineer is 2006, so get ready.
Sandy

[Waynem]

Hi Sandy.

Just last night I was searching for "day/night shade" (without quotes) and I had a ton of hits. Many of them were on the restringing. I'm looking to replace ours with day/night.

As for the "lubrication," try wax on the string. The wax will allow the string to ride a little more freely on the inside of the holes that it is strung through. It is that rubbing that typically deteriorates the string causing it to fray and break.

Good luck.

[snfexpress]

We had the same problem on our 2006 3400RL. But, after calling the vendor,
Irvine Shade & Door Inc
1000 Verdant Street, Elkhart, IN 46516-9042
(574) 522-1446, and getting new string, Kathy & I decided to enlist the help of footloose (our wonderful mom and dad). We spent the afternoon repairing the day/night shade, then we reveled in our accomplishments by having a few cocktails - no better way to confirm success! These earthquakes on wheels will continually provide us challenges!

[Rondo]

Sandy-- Go to the main page of the MOC site and you will find a subject that is NEW -- RV Day and Night Shades (I think is the subject and you can see all the materials needed and I think it even has instructions on it on how to do it-- if not, I know I've seen several threads telling how to rethread them. It really isn't that hard but you have to be patient-- it's not a 10 minute job! Best of luck and let us know how you do!!

[Art-n-Marge]

Word of caution. On a website somewhere (not sure if it was "dirtyblindman" or some other one) I read that one of the biggest problems with these day/night shades is that they are shipped from the factory very tight to guarantee that they do NOT move during transportation. Then it was explained that each owner should loosen all of their shades a little bit and as soon as possible because using the day/night shades when they are that tight will cause the the cords to break, which is what happened to me.

It is difficult to know exactly how loose to make them but they should be tight enough and even enough where just a little looser would cause them to drop and operate evenly. Then when travelling keep the shades down so they don't drop from the movement. This took a while to make all the adjustments in my rig because we have a lot of these in every room, in all sizes, on all but one window in the kitchen, ugh! But I have not had any problems since except that I need to tighten up one or two because it was too loose.

IIRC, Wayne is right that wax be used as a lubricant but I don't remember what kind (bee, candle, etc.)

It took me a long time to repair the failed unit but I am glad I did it. Maybe the next one won't take so long.

[sreigle]

On one of our earlier Montanas the string was tied to the little hole in the spool and wrapped a short ways around the spool. That allowed for some adjustment of the tightness of the string. On our 2007, it's tied directly to the spool with zero provision for adjusting tightness other than moving the spool to a new location. This is something I wish Keystone would change. Allow for some adjustment.

Wayne, what kind of wax (same questions as Art) and also how does one apply the wax to the string that's up inside the shade when the shade is fully raised? Or is it not important to wax that part?

[H. John Kohl]

Steve,
My logic says the wax should be on the areas where the string rubs on the angle changes so that would mean every location it goes into or out of a hole on the solid plastic parts.

[AlanPat]

Did the lub thing and still had problems. When all was said and done we restrung the shades and set the tension along with putting little screws throught the medal into the end caps and it appears that fixed the problem. We can now adjust the shades and they work well. Restringing the shades is very easy. Getting the valance off is a little difficult.

[MuddyPaws]

I had to restring the big rear window. The lessons I learned was to find a large clean work area, indoors, and to wash your hands every so often.

What causes the strings to wear out so quickly is that they are almost always adjusted way too tight. You should be able to move either section with one or two fingers. If they fall down when you travel they're just about right!