Day/Night shade fix

[Clay L]

My day/night shades that I restrung about a year ago crapped out again. This time I took them completely apart.
This turned out to be quite easy and a better way to work on them than trying to do it without diassembly.
I found drill burrs on some holes that extended above the plastic gromets.
I deburred them, ran new cords and hopefully the problem is solved.

[Clay L]

My day/night shades that I restrung about a year ago crapped out again. This time I took them completely apart.
This turned out to be quite easy and a better way to work on them than trying to do it without diassembly.
I found drill burrs on some holes that extended above the plastic gromets.
I deburred them, ran new cords and hopefully the problem is solved.

[JanBCarter]

Clay: Thanks for the post. This is what makes this forum so valuable...people like you sharing solutions to our "insurmountable opportunities". We hope to be in your area this fall visiting cousins in Gilford and Lake Shore Park and to experience the fall colors. 'Tis a beautiful part of the country you call home.

[Clay L]

Fall is really beautiful in NH, but the taxes can kill you - $1300 to register my motorhome this year, $1400 last year.
We are on the way to SD to see about changing our home address.
We still plan to go back in the summers though.

[wagonmaster2]

Clay L
Where do you get the cord to restring your shades? I have taken down a couple of my shades and did the de-burring on the holes but the cords are badly frayed and need replacing. I have tried several shade/curtain stores and got no help. Thanks.
Wagonmaster2

[Clay L]

I gave someone the answer in another thread but I am not sure it was you, if not I am sorry it took me so long to answer.

I got the cord at a fabric store - JoAnns - which I think is a national chain. Other fabric stores should also have it.

[wagonmaster2]

Thanks Clay L-
I'll try our local fabric shops. When we were visiting relatives in Fayetteville, Ark I tried 3 different blind/shade stores without any luck. They had various sizes of cord but mostly in white or off white. Mine is in a 2004 Itasca Meridian and is kind of a taupe color. I would like to find a color that somewhat matches. I'll keep trying or maybe have to order direct from Winnebago thru a dealer someplace. Thanks again.
Wagonmaster2
2004 Meridian 36G
2001 Jeep Wrangler

[Clay L]

Mine is also an off white and JoAnns had it. Good luck.

[wagonmaster2]

Clay L-
I have removed several of my shades and deburred the holes by just sliding the metal sections apart far enough to get to the holes. But it looks like its really going to be fun completely replacing all the cords. Do you have any special tricks to do this? On my '97 Southwind I was able to melt the old cord to the new cord and just pull the new cord thru all the right holes, course it only had a single cord going any one way. Since it looks like these start as a looped double length at the very top and threads down toward the bottom tie down. Any good hints from one with so much experience would be greatly appreciated. Lot of luck changing your home station, we're not full timers but love spending 6-8 weeks at a time on the road. Especially when nothing goes wrong with the coach (which hasn't been the case with this Winnebago). My previous 3 Fleetwoods never gave us any problem on the road, nothing that couldn t be left until after getting home. This new $200K coach has been out 3 times and had problems every time. I guess it stands to reason, the more you pay the more problems you've bought. Have a good day.
Wagonmaster2
2004 Meridian 36G

[Zimectrin]

Do a seach on this topic. There is a wealth of info with photo and drawings.

Best 'string' we have found was some fly line backing that we purchased at sportsman wharehouse. Very low cost and VERY strong. You can even get some color.

[Earhartphoto]

I was reading you old posting about your shades. Did you ever get the problem fixed?
David


<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by wagonmaster2:
Thanks Clay L-
I'll try our local fabric shops. When we were visiting relatives in Fayetteville, Ark I tried 3 different blind/shade stores without any luck. They had various sizes of cord but mostly in white or off white. Mine is in a 2004 Itasca Meridian and is kind of a taupe color. I would like to find a color that somewhat matches. I'll keep trying or maybe have to order direct from Winnebago thru a dealer someplace. Thanks again.
Wagonmaster2
2004 Meridian 36G
2001 Jeep Wrangler </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Clay L]

Yeah, deburing all the holes did the job.
That post must be a couple of years old and they are still working fine.
I posted a restringing guide back then also.
I put it below in case anyone is still interested.

[GG1]

The actual size is 1.2mm cord. try a place called Fix My Blinds in Colorado fixmyblinds.com. I had been using the heavier cord at WalMart and Joanns Fabrics the 1.2mm actually works a little better.

[Old Snipe]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Clay L:
Yeah, deburing all the holes did the job.
That post must be a couple of years old and they are still working fine.
I posted a restringing guide back then also.
I put it below in case anyone is still interested.

[IMG]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/ClayL/d52e3c54.jpg[/IMG] </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I appreciate your posting the diagram, it helped me when I restrung two of my D/N shades. What it doesn't show is the spring under the top rail that the strings loop through. Just wanted to add that comment for somebody that is going to do it themselves, so they are not surprised.

I got my string from Winnibago, and paid way too much, will try Joanne's next time. Like yours, the shoddy drilling and sharp edges on the holes are what cut my strings. Cleaned them off and the strings pull smoothly now.

Thanks Again!

[Clay L]

Old Snipe:

I am glad that the diagram helped.
When I drew it, I had not yet taken my blinds apart and didn't realize the spring was up there on the top piece.

CGI is right the smaller (1.2mm) cord is easier to thread. When I got mine at JoAnn's the first time they had both. I used the thicker (maybe 1.5 mm) then. When I had to redo them I used the thinner.

Looks like I missed Wagonmaster2's second question back then. At that time I only got on the forums on weekends (no aircard then) and must not have seen it.

The answer to his request for tips is to completely take the blinds apart to work on them.
It was much easier than I thought it would be and the job went smoother and faster than my first attempt when I didn't take them apart. I had wasted a lot of time drilling small access holes and fishing the cords through the blinds.

[tomsm]

One more little tip about this operation - when I restrung a couple of my shades last winter, I found all my grommets were installed "up side down". The grommets are mushroom shaped with the "stem" going through the drilled hole and the "cap" of the mushroom providing a smooth turn for the cord. If you look at the stringing diagrams, the cord always comes straight into the drilled hole from one side and makes a 90 degree bend as it goes out the other side of the hole. Problem was, at least in my shades, all the grommets had the "cap" side toward where the string comes straight in. So where the string makes a sharp 90 degree turn, it's getting no protection from the grommet.

The grommets pop out easily and I reversed all mine - so far so good...

[Cheryl Bisson]

Just yesterday, for the first time, I restrung the D/N shade over our couch. My cord did not fray due to a lack of grommets...all were there. What I did find when I completely disassembled the shade was that the 3 of the 4 holes in the plastic stiffener (that is placed inbetween the bottom pleat of the night shade)did not perfectly match up with the 4 holes in the middle rail. As a result, I believe three of the grommets didn't even go into the holes. This allowed the cord to rub against metal. So, I enlarged the holes in the plastic with a drill.
Initially, when I disassembled the night shade from the middle rail, it was very hard to take off the rail, but I managed to get it off. Trying to reassemble the rail on the shade was impossible...there were too many layers and I don't know how the factory ever got it put together. To fix this I trimmed off 1 1/3 of the bottom pleat lengthwise so I would have a layer of fabric/plastic stiffener/fabric in the sofa side of the rail, and a layer of plastic stiffener/fabric/fabric in the window side of the rail. Before reassembling, I made sure the metal holes were burr free. After I reassembled the rail I put the grommets in place, mushroom side up (looks like now that the mushroom should be on the bottom which makes sense...next time!)making sure they fit into the holes by examining the holes from the floor side of the rail.
Restringing was easy thanks to Clay's diagram which I got from his original posting. Thank you, Clay! I used most of the 20 yards of white cord from JoAnn's Fabric Store. The original cord was beige/taupe, but when another shade was restrung under warranty white was used. I actually didn't even notice it was different for quite awhile even though the night shade is medium taupe! Before I could reassemble the top rail I had to deburr the screw hole near each end of the rail since this shade was screwed in place, not held by brackets. The burrs were keeping the rail from sliding over the springs, and I wonder how I got the rail off to begin with!

Thank you to everyone who has made any postings regarding restringing day/night shades! I couldn't have done it without your help!

Cheryl
2005 Adventurer 33V (love it!)
2005 Honda CRV (love it!)

[THutch]

I found the following on the Winnebago site...reprinted from the WIT Newsletter:
Day/Night Shade Restring

[Cheryl Bisson]

I had found this article a few months ago, when I googled restringing day/night shades but I don't remember what the source was at that time. It's and excellent article and I'm sure it will be very helpful to anyone attempting this project. Thank you for adding it to the forum. I wonder if Winnebago now has it on their site since there seem to have been many problems with the cords fraying on the shades they make.

The article does not say to remove the bottom of the night shade from the top of the center rail which is absolutely correct. It's an unnecessary step. However, I had to remove my night shade from the top of the rail because the grommets were inaccessible since they were sandwiched between pleats held together in the channels of the rail. Also, the grommets were not filling their respective holes in the middle rail which allowed the cord to rub against metal and fray. Now that my shade is reassembled the grommets are visible from the back(window side), and are seated tightly by pressure in the holes.

Cheryl
2005 Adventurer 33V
2005 Honda CRV

[rebelsbeach]

Cheryl, Welcome to the forum and the Winnebago Owner's Forum!!

Glad you were able to find a fix for those blasted day/night shades and we look forward to hearing more of your experiences with your rig.