Open Windows?

Jdavis54 · 08-13-2012, 01:08 PM

We just purchased a 2013 Sabre 34TBOK and we love it. We camp alot in the mountains and don't want to run the a/c all the time. With the day/night shades, how can we get to the windows to open them? Seems simple enough until you try it - the shades are held down and in some cases the valances are along the sides of the windows as well so you can't go behind the shades to open the window. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

bakken · 08-13-2012, 01:13 PM

May I ask what you mean by "the shades are held down"?

OldCoot · 08-13-2012, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jdavis54

We just purchased a 2013 Sabre 34TBOK and we love it. We camp alot in the mountains and don't want to run the a/c all the time. With the day/night shades, how can we get to the windows to open them? Seems simple enough until you try it - the shades are held down and in some cases the valances are along the sides of the windows as well so you can't go behind the shades to open the window. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

We raise the blinds, open the window and close the blinds. Not much air comes in thru' the windows with the blinds pulled tho'.

jd-ford-hd · 08-13-2012, 01:57 PM

This is probably another "give me your money, have fun" walk thru by the dealer. Not knowing the kind of blinds you have, I would venture a guess they are the accourdian style that slide up and down a string. They are sometimes hard to move. Use both hands, one at each end, lift straight up. Hope I am on the right track here and that it helps.

trudinator · 08-13-2012, 02:06 PM

If they're anything like ours, they have a day shade and a night shade on the same set of strings/ropes. Almost impossible when new to move both of them at once when they're new. Try sliding the night shade up first and then the day shade. They'll eventually get easier to open. I agree though, not much air moves through the blinds when closed.

bakken · 08-13-2012, 02:20 PM

Not sure why the OP is not answering, so we will just have to continue to speculate.
If the blinds are so tight that they think they cannot raise them, the strings will definitely have to be loosened. It seems the factory installs them over-tight so they don't have to adjust them.
The other issue is that if the strings are left tight, they will wear out and break, as they run through eyelets inside the blind pulls. That is what holds them up, and makes them hard to move.
It is an easy procedure. Just remove the plastic holders located at the end of the strings, near the bottom of the windows. Unknot the string, lengthen the string a half inch at a time until the desirable tension is achieved. I adjusted ours so that they take only the slightest pressure to raise/lower.

Jdavis54 · 08-13-2012, 02:44 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. The blinds seem to be held down by little plastic circles and the string goes through there. We tried turning the holders but we were worried we would break them until we knew what/how to loosen the string to allow the blinds to move. The string is very tight but we figured there had to be a way to open the windows.

bakken · 08-13-2012, 02:55 PM

You have to remove those little plastic circles, as they are screwed to the wall. Then you can untie the knot that holds the string to that little plastic circle, and lengthen the string, then retie the knot. On some of ours we had to lengthen them over an inch each.
One other note, make sure you lenghten each side about the same. There is a mechanism inside the blind pull bars that must be kept centered.
It is a simple job, just takes a bit of time and patience. But it is well worth the effort. Your blinds will be a pleasure to use, instead of a pain in the butt!

jomarie · 08-13-2012, 04:54 PM

We too wanted to keep the windows open during the day and when we were out and about… Not a good idea. We had a tribe of squirrels break into our camper and ransacked the place. Yeap, they broke thru the screens and had a ball with a bag of peanuts we had on the table... What a mess. Darn varmints.

**SabreSam** · 08-13-2012, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jdavis54

Thanks for the suggestions. The blinds seem to be held down by little plastic circles and the string goes through there. We tried turning the holders but we were worried we would break them until we knew what/how to loosen the string to allow the blinds to move. The string is very tight but we figured there had to be a way to open the windows.

Dear customer
If you loosen those strings your blinds will not stay up. Try sliding them up with both hands. You might also be hitting the crank out knob on the window.

funkyJunk · 08-13-2012, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trudinator

If they're anything like ours, they have a day shade and a night shade on the same set of strings/ropes. Almost impossible when new to move both of them at once when they're new. Try sliding the night shade up first and then the day shade. They'll eventually get easier to open. I agree though, not much air moves through the blinds when closed.

Trudinator's post/photo explains it best. Make sure you lift one section at a time. It makes it much easier. DO NOT cut, loosen or mess with the strings or the little circles.

bakken · 08-13-2012, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SabreSam

Dear customer
If you loosen those strings your blinds will not stay up. Try sliding them up with both hands. You might also be hitting the crank out knob on the window.

Most of the blinds in our camper were so tight we could barely move them, even when putting up the night shade first, then the day shade. They were simply installed far too tight, so tight that one of the strings broke, and I had to re-string it. I wasn't about to re-string all of them!

We travel with the blinds down, so do not worry about them falling while on the road. And like I said, we sure like having blinds that are easy to operate, as opposed to the pain in the butt they were.

**SabreSam** · 08-13-2012, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bakken

Most of the blinds in our camper were so tight we could barely move them, even when putting up the night shade first, then the day shade. They were simply installed far too tight, so tight that one of the strings broke, and I had to re-string it. I wasn't about to re-string all of them!

We travel with the blinds down, so do not worry about them falling while on the road. And like I said, we sure like having blinds that are easy to operate, as opposed to the pain in the butt they were.

Dear Bakker
I'm sorry you've had problems with your blinds. I will forward your comments to our Production Manager.

bakken · 08-13-2012, 07:03 PM

SabreSam, I am not really complaining about the installation, as it takes a bit of trial and error to get them just right, and I doubt the installer would want to spend that much time. And even if they did it one way, some customer would still not like it.
I can understand why the factory would err to the tight side, as I am sure most people would complain if they were too loose, as they will slide down while travelling.
But, some of ours were far too tight, to my liking at least. But, then again, I am a fussy fart!

jiggerk · 08-13-2012, 11:53 PM

I found the same problems on our 32 RLTS. If you have the window knobs with like 3 spikes they keep hitting on the blind. We replaced ours with new round knobs, Also if the window was or the valance designed different that would help the problem.

**KyDan** · 08-14-2012, 06:58 AM

We also have the day/night shades and they also were VERY tight from
the factory. Most were super hard to move and a couple nearly impossible.
Way back 4 years ago there was some discussion about this problem and
someone who said they installed and repaired these type shades wrote
in and said-- "the most common problem with these shades is they are
installed with the strings too tight".
With that little gem of info I proceeded to loosen all the strings on all
my shades and for the last 4 years they have been fine. We don't have
a problem raising and lowering them and they stay put.

Donno why the factory insists on putting them in so tight. I can only guess
it's because they install them and then don't actually camp and use them
to see how they work in the real world.

On some of mine I was able to untie the knots and get the little bit of
extra string I needed. On others I had to move the anchor screw up
slightly to get the the needed slack but they all work great now.

Much like the OP we didn't know how good they could work at first
because we'd had no experience with them before.

AquaMan · 08-14-2012, 09:18 AM

So by shortening the strings, you can make these blinds tighter? Mine started tight, and now I have a couple that don't want to stay up all the way. Will give it a try when it returns from dealer.

**KyDan** · 08-15-2012, 07:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ttrost65

So by shortening the strings, you can make these blinds tighter? Mine started tight, and now I have a couple that don't want to stay up all the way. Will give it a try when it returns from dealer.

Yes but don't snip the string until you are completely happy.
Sort of like the old Brylcream commercial-- "a little dab'll do ya!"
Good luck!

Jdavis54 · 08-15-2012, 02:41 PM

Our problem really isn't with moving the day/night shades themselves, but getting access to the window to open it. Even with the night shades up, the day shades are down and with the valances along the sides, it is impossible to get to the mechanism to open the window.

funkyJunk · 08-15-2012, 03:08 PM

I think we may need a picture to help out here.

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