Monday, September 1, 2014

We have had the coach now for just over 6 years, so it wasn't a surprise that one of the day/night shades needed some work. Joani sent for a complete repair kit that included new string, bushings, springs and a DVD  with a step-by-step video showing how to repair the blinds. 

The string had not completely broken, but it was not going to last much longer. I could not picture how the blinds magically worked.  The DVD helped a little, but videos found online at www.fixmyblinds.com were much more helpful giving us an idea of what to expect.

It's not surprising to see this happen in a 15-year-old coach.

American Coach owners beware:  It should be noted that although they illustrated three different methods of routing the strings, none of them matched the arrangement used on our blinds (used in year-2000 American Dream). Additionally, our blinds did not use bushings and our springs were different.  

To make sure we could reassemble the shade, I marked each of the four lines and tried to carefully note where each line passed through each section and rail.  I just hoped the drawing would be clear enough when it was time for reassembly.

If David hadn't thought to do this, we would have been in a pickle.

The most difficult thing was to slide the sections apart while still following exactly where the strings went.  Rubber bands helped to keep the different sections of the blinds neat and were a must as we tried to thread the new string during reassembly.

We handled the plastic endcaps with great care.  Any plastic in our coach was well beyond its life expectancy (10-12 years).

The video said the job would take a couple of hours and I scoffed.  As it turned out, they were wrong.  It took us closer to four hours from the time we removed the unit from the wall until we were finished!

Since there are three more blinds in the coach that, at least, look the same, I decided to neaten up the stringing diagram for future use, but if we never have to perform this repair again it won't hurt my feelings.

Note:  The cord used in the RV day/night shades is not the same as shade cord that you can find at JoAnn's Fabrics.  It has an amazingly strong core which makes it quite stiff (it does not stretch).  Next time (heaven forbid, there is a next time) I will order just the cord and new cord tensioners (if needed) instead of a kit.  Our 4 strand - 62" x 30" shade required 16 yards of 1.6mm (alabaster) cording/string.  The cord was stiff enough that a restringing tool was not necessary.