Day/Nite Shades & Pleated Curtains…

One side of the bedroom’s Day/Nite shade cord broke soon after I moved in, after attempting to open and close it a couple times. This particular cord is already prone to that because of the emergency exit handles that interfere with the shades operation and cause strain so though I was disappointed it failed so early in my ownership of  the Winnebago, was not all that surprised. A fortuitous occurrence as it turned out.  That’s because on my bike rides around the neighborhood, I’d passed a business just a few yards from the entrance to the RV park I was staying at (Ambassador Downs, 2345 E. Main St., Mesa, AZ, no web site as of early 2016), that had the supplies I needed to fix it. Named Mesa Sales. They have all sorts of curtain type stuff; needle sets, fabrics, cordage, etc. Having them nearby meant I had the resources to fix the bedroom shade rather than {gasp} just replace the entire thing, or having to find the right materials to fix it online then having them shipped to wherever I happened to be at the time. I bought 50 yards of 1.8mm nylon cord but turned out that was a mistake because after all those years they had been in business, and though they sell by the yard, not only by the spool, they used a yardstick to measure out all 50 yards by hand. Took two people. They have no winding spooler! Manual or electric. They found that one partial spool only had 25 yards on it, so I ended up with two loosely hand wound piles of cord.

Later at home, I had to dig out and wind the cord on my own spool, what a mess if those hand wound coils of cord got all screwy. And though it was marked $0.30/yard, I noticed later they charged me $0.35/yard.  GAH! I should have just bought the 100 yard spool for $22 instead of screwing with just getting 50.

If you recognize the RV outside the window of my newer RV, good eye, that’s my old ’94 Fleetwood Bounder parked next door. The RV park was kind enough to let me park it there no charge while I was moving all my stuff into my New2Me Winnebago Journey, and getting it ready for sale. Very handy. I did have to move it out of the way a couple times and park it in overflow when they rented that space. Kind of a hassle but better than paying for two spaces in the park.

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 How to restring Day/Nite RV shades without measuring the cord.

Remove the shade by removing the screws in the valence. There may be a plastic clip or two that will hold it in place after the screws are removed so release it and carefully work the shade out of it. The shades upper rail is sort of in the way and you can’t really see the clip, so just twist the assembly a little while pulling until it comes free. Don’t get too aggressive and break it as you’ll want it to be there later and functional when you put the shade back up. You can unwind and remove the cord from the cords holding and tensioning spools at the bottom of the window before or after there is slack from the shade removal. Note which direction they are wound.

Here’s a drawing that shows how the cords are strung in a 4 cord type of shade. A smaller shade would only have 2 or 3 cords but the restringing procedure would be similar:

Calculate String Needed:

Here’s the formula I used to calculate how much cord I’d need for one shade that had 4 cords:

Where:

W = Width of shade rounded to the nearest foot

H = Height of shade from the upper mounting to the plastic cord clamps, rounded to nearest foot

L = Length of cord required for entire shade

Collect dims and calculate L = [(W X 2.5) + H] X # of cords

So my 49″ X 41″ ( ~4 foot X ~4 foot) shade with 4 cords calculates to:

L = [(4 X 2.5 = 10) + 4 = 14 X 4 = 56 feet (672 inches or 18.7 yards)

If your shades are in bad shape, here’s a link to where you can get all sorts of replacement shade parts: Repair Parts

Lay the shade face down on any flat surface as shown…I used the bed. (The face is the surface you would see when you walk into the room where the shade is installed).

 Mark the backs of the top, middle and bottom rails with L(eft), R(ight), and mark any other info you need to remind yourself how they are reinstalled. With a flat screwdriver, pry the end caps off the rails and either mark them, or place them where you’ll know which side of the shade rails they go on. Remove the bottom rail by sliding it off the shade. Bunch up the Day (lower) portion of the shade as shown in the above and below pictures. Pull, shorten, tie together loose ends of any breaks, whatever it takes, to get one of the cords back into position so you can position it in such a way that it shows you how long they need to be. There is usually no need to remove the night (upper) shade from the middle rail, just the day (lower) shade. While it’s off during restringing, deburr before running the cord. If your cord broke right near the middle section, you might want to remove both sections of shade to inspect for burrs that might have cut it.

  Remove the top rail. This might be a little more difficult as there is masking tape holding the spring that can stick or bunch up and bind the rail to the shade. Purposeful tugging can eventually free it. Try to avoid tearing the shade. Measure the width of the top rail. Mark a centerline. Note the spring still attached to one set of cords in the next picture. When you string your new cord, that spring needs to end up in the middle as shown. This shade’s manufacturer doubled the cord. It’s rather small diameter, 0.75mm, so two cords are equivalent to a single 1.5mm. I’m using a single 1.8mm cord to replace them.

First thing to do after removing rails and deburring, was to cut the cord off right at the spring, removed that once broken and re-tied cord (had a knot in the middle of the nite section from where I’d repaired it, which would catch on the edges of the holes in each section making moving the shade up or down difficult). Measured it once it was out and got a ‘close enough’ type measurement as backup information (3 yards long).

Second thing was to cut any sharp edges of fabric present near or around the plastic eyelets. Third thing was to use the lighter to melt the raw ends of the new cord so it wouldn’t fray. Than using the functional cord still strung on one side of the shade as a guide, I simply started to loosely string the new 1.8mm nylon cord, started at the top of the shade and worked towards the bottom. Discovered the large canvas needle I’d bought at Mesa Sales was too large in diameter to fit through the plastic eyelets in the rails, and I had used the lighter to melt the end of the cord to prevent fraying and finger squished it while plastic so it would fit easily through the eyelets. Once through, I use the needle to thread through the holes in the shades. That went quickly because if you bunch up the pleats so all the holes are aligned, then the needle makes short work of threading. Then pull off the needle so you can fit the cord through the plastic inserts in the rails.

I had rewound the cord on my own spool and found it convenient to put it on the floor so the cord would unwind from the spool easily as I threaded the shade.

Nice heavy canvas needle makes the work go much faster. Something else I pick up at Mesa Sales. I tried doing it by hand, and that works OK, it’s just tedious.

Here’s a picture of the tools I used. The rotary deburring tools didn’t really help as much as I’d hoped. I ended up deburring with the tip of the flat blade screwdriver and with the small wire cutter. Once the cord for the first side was at the right length, as compared to the other side, then cut it from the spool up at the top rail and tied that loose end to the centered spring. I’d taped the spring in place in the middle of the rail earlier. Then I cut the other cord off the spring, removed it, and repeated the process of stringing new cord.  You can pull a couple feet of extra cord at the bottom of the shade to assure you have enough.

Now that both new cords were strung, I slipped the top shade into the rail, replaced the end caps, the lower shade into the middle rail, replaced the caps, and the bottom shade into the rail. Pay attention to the cord so that it lays in the middle of the rail and isn’t pinched by the sides. Not as easy as it sounds sometimes so work carefully to avoid damaging the fabric. Down at the bottom rail, I threaded the cord through the holes in the plastic end caps, tied three knots in the ends so they would not slip back inside while I was mounting the shade. This happens if the weight of the loose lower rail extends the lower shade.  I used packing tape to hold the bottom shade rail to the middle shade rail during some of this work. Doing so just makes it easier to mount the shade and the knots help prevent pulling the cord back inside the bottom rail.

Finally, holding the shade in place under the valance, clip it into the plastic clip and then drive the screws back into the original holes. Then tightly pull the cord at each side of the window and loop it clockwise over the cord tensioners at the bottom of the window on the left, and counterclockwise on the right side. The cord tensioners have a slot to hold the knotted cord securely after winding. Finished. Here’s how it looks now… No longer sagging towards one side. You can see where those red emergency handles interfere with operation of this shade so I only pull it down as far as the tops of the handles for safety, as in quickness in opening the shades in an emergency, and to avoid straining the shade’s cords by not trying to cover those handles. Still, even though not all the way down, the shade does the job and it’s dark enough in the bedroom for a midday nap.

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December 2016 —————– Living Room Shades

Day/Nite shades, 59″ wide, covering a 24″ tall window. I could see that the strings in two of my living room day/nite shades were becoming threadbare so it was time to do something about it. Especially when the shade right next to my dinning table & computer desk, broke and the shade got all wobbly bobbly. I did get myself a piece of stiff 1/2″ PVC to jamb under it to hold it up for a few days before I got around to working on it. Unlike the bedroom shade I’d worked on before, these two shades are wider so have 4 strings each which makes them a bit more complicated to restring. I had the drawings at the PDF link above on my computer screen to refer to so that helped.

Removing the shades required that I unscrew two screws that went up through the aluminum upper rail. Using self tapping metal screws, the factory drilled holes near the ends of the rail without regard for appearance or actual positioning. Then wood screws replace them as the shade rail is screwed into the underside of the window valance. In order to accurately access those off kilter screws, you need a long extension for your drill. I also removed the lower screws from the brackets that hold the window surround, but found out later that really was a waste of time because I never found the upper screws that actually hold the surround above. After 10 minutes of searching, I just gave up and worked around the surrounds.

After removing the screws holding the D/N shade, there’s a plastic bracket that holds the shade in place by clamping onto it front and back. It is nearly impossible to see when there’s strong sunshine on that window and I ended up rocking and pulling on the shade until it unsnapped from that bracket. If I had been able to see it and had working room, a putty knife could have easily unsnapped it from the back of the shade rail, allowing it to be rocked down, than out of the bracket.

And there’s the little bracket, that black plastic device shown here in the shade channel. It does work fine. I like the way it holds the shade in position while you’re trying to get the screws lined up when you’re done restringing and are back to hanging it up. I broke the front section off the other one but it still hangs on fine…long enough to get a screw started.

After removing the shade, instead of using the bed to work on, I found that the couch is just the right width to put the shade on while restringing. Again with these two shades I used the 1.8mm cord I’d purchased at Mesa Sales.

Below is the pic of where the screws in the window surround that I didn’t need to remove would be when installed, they are screwed into that white bracket near the bottom. If are left in, you do have to work a bit to get the shade assembly in and out, but that’s not all that difficult. I’d recommend that the shades are bunched up to the top of the window as much as possible and then taped closed using packing tape before trying to remove the assembly…to avoid tearing the fabric.

Took me quite a while but I think I have a handle on how to do most of this work. Following the charts given in the shade repair PDF (link above), I cut enough cord, plus an extra foot, for my size shade. Knotted the center of the cords in the spring, than taped the spring in place in the middle of the upper rail. These ’02 shades only have one spring for all four cords. Newer shades use two springs. I have no idea it that makes a difference in operation, I know my single springs work fine, with no tendency to hang crooked. I routed the cords following the guide (PDF link above).

Here’s where it got tricky. When the shade was all ready to be reinstalled in the window, I couldn’t find a decent guide on how to get the four cords tightened correctly. So here’s what came up with.

• Scrunch the shade up so it’s mostly closed up. This will result in the cords hanging loosely on either end of the shade. Rubber band the shades on either end closed. Leave the cords hanging. Loosely screw it into place in the window (do it loosely enough that later you’ll be able to remove the rubber bands. Alternatively, you can tighten the shade and later just cut the rubber bands).
• Thread the cord through the provided holes for your type of tensioner. Tie a knot in the end. Old style tensioner is shown below. (Newer tensioners are easier to work with as the design is clever enough to allow removal of slack just by loosening the screw and pulling the cord a bit).
• Loosely screw the tensioner into place. It should be loose enough that it can turn freely.
• Pull the cord taunt, then pull the ends of the cord to take up nearly all of the slack except for an inch or two. It should be wrapped counterclockwise on the right side of the window, and clockwise on the left.
• Now, twist the tensioner to wind up the cords. The tighter the cords, the stiffer the shade is moving up or down. Try to have a couple turns around this type of tensioner as the additional turns friction hold the cord so it doesn’t slip and gives some slack for adjusting the cord tightness. If needed, use a small pair of channellock pliers to twist the cord tight. Try not to squeeze the tool too much to avoid breaking the tensioner.
• While holding tension, screw the tensioner tight against the wall. Try not to do this too often in different spots as there are small knobs on the end (bottom?) of that plastic tensioner that are suppose to be pushed into the wallboard so the tensioner won’t spin and loosen the cords. If it is screwed into the wallboard tightly and then turned, it puts little grooves in the wallboard that will allow it to turn too easily. To overcome this minor difficulty if it has occured, move the tensioner and screw it into the wall 1/4″ up or down from it’s original mounting spot so it’s contacting new areas.
• Cut off excess cord and tie the two cords together into a knot at the end of the cord.

These shades took me far too long. The big problem was not having a good idea on how to tension the cords after restringing and re hanging the shade. The furniture in the way didn’t help a bit. Very frustrating to get it figured out. Doing the small window shade in the bedroom didn’t help with these bigger shades as I just barely figured out the BR shade. I did watch a couple videos on youtube but the only ones I found showed how to work with the newer shades that have an easier tensioning system using different type spools. I have the old fashioned spools.

The tricks I’ll remember next time after restringing and during reinstallation are to:

1. With the shade loose, hold the shade’s upper rail in place and screw in the screws half way,
2. bunch up the shade, rubber band it on either end to hold it in place,
3. tension the cords a bit, loosely install the tensioning knobs,
4. back up top, remove the rubber bands and tighten the top screws,
5. back down below, tighten the cords at either end by rotating the tensioning knobs until there are two or three turns around the knob and the cords are fairly tight, (newer shades with the fancy tensioning knob skip this part),
6. tighten the knob screw,
7. readjust the tensioning as required.

I can see how easy it would be to do this job if you have room to work. But this bolted down furniture really gets in the way. My other LR shade on the passenger side is readily accessible but of course it’s in fine condition. The two little windows at either end of the LR slide don’t get used much so they’re in good condition too. I did the bedroom shade a few months ago and it’s not going to need work again for a long time so until the large window shade on the passenger side needs work, I’m all set for now.

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Update: Aug. ’17

After a few thousand miles of travel, two of the shades loosened up so they would drop down while I drove along due to road conditions. One window is needed to watch outside while parking or navigating around a RV park. So I needed to adjust the shades so they wouldn’t drop down too easily, blocking the window view.

All that’s required is a pair of channel locks, and an electric screwdriver. Loosen the tension knob screw while holding onto it with the channel locks to prevent it from turning, then turn it slightly with the channel locks to add tension to the cord, then tighten. Do that on both sides, and the shades now stay all the way up when needed. Be careful with the channel locks as to not damage the plastic tension knob.

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Update: Nov. ’17

Well, it finally happened. The last large window Day/Night shade broke a cord. That shade is 49″ wide, and 41″ high. So needs a lot of cord. I started working on it and shortly found out that I was about 25 feet short. Checked on Amazon and see that 100 yards is $9, free shipping, looks like the good stuff I’d found in Mesa, but I wanted to get the shade up before dark so I went to google. But found the 2 sewing shops in town were closed on a Sunday. Hmm. Well, I’m close to Walmart and drove over there just to check. I didn’t really hold much hope because back in early ’16, I’d gone to 2 Walmart stores and they didn’t have anything close to 1.8mm. Well, that was in Mesa, Arizona and I’m now in Pahrump, Nevada, it’s 18 months later, and yep, here they have cordage. A loose weave but it is 1.8mm, a tan color (they call it natural) that will match my day/night shades for the most part, and best of all, only $4+tax for 150 yards! That’s only $0.008/foot. Can’t get much better than that. It’s Red Heart brand, 100% nylon, named crochet thread, and is 18 gauge. UPC last five are 81108 if you go look for it. Cheap enough you can carry some in your RV.

Using that Red Heart brand was a bit of a disappointment though. It’s quite possibly too loose of a weave and though it’s the right diameter, it may not last as long as the stuff I got in Mesa. I had trouble with it unraveling while trying to work with it. Cutting the ends carefully, than quickly trying to melt the ends of the cords with a lighter was a chore. But, got all the prep done including that and the next day the shade was restrung, finally. And near the end, while trying to put the last bar on, two of the cords got frayed. Damnit! Don’t have the ambition to start all over, so I’ll just live with it until it breaks again.

Here’s the formula I used to calculate how much cord I’d need for that one shade:

Where:

L = Length of cord required for entire shade

W = Width of shade rounded to the nearest foot

H = Height of shade from the above mounting to the plastic cord clamps, rounded to nearest foot

Therefore L = [(W X 2.5) + H] X # of cords

So my 49″ X 41″ ( 4 foot X 4 foot) shade with 4 cords calculates to:

L = [(4 X 2.5 = 10) + 4 = 14 X 4 = 56 feet (672 inches or 18.7 yards)

Since two pairs are needed to make the 4 cords, each pair would be ~9 yards. This shade design has just one spring so the middle of each 9 yard piece of cord is knotted to the spring. Then following the drawings in the link above for my style shade, the cord is routed.

In this case, when I finished routing the cords, I had about 18″ left on the end of each. So about 6 feet left over. I first tightened the cords than wound the cord around the cord tightening spindles about 6 times, knotted the two cords at each spindle together, than cut off the 18″ excess from each cord. And now I have a working shade…yea!

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One other thing I found, I was messing with the small shade behind my desk and that type of spindle has the single slot with two thin pieces of plastic where you wedge the cord so it stays in place. Well, those two thin pieces break and leave just a slot. Cord gets loose, falls out. So what I did was drill two small 1/8th” holes nearby in the spindle. Then string the cords through the holes, tie together and it’s good as gold. New life for a broken spindle.

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Update: Feb. 2021

The last shade I fixed above is the first one that the Red Heart brand of nylon cord (probably better called ‘string’) frayed and then broke. It’s the large window on the passenger side right behind the passenger seat. The other shades don’t get used nearly as much as this one does as I close it every evening at nightfall, and open every morning when I get up to greet the day…so much more use then the other shades. Anyway, it frayed and broke so time to fix it. I’m currently parked in a RV park and will be here for a couple months so I had plenty of time to work on it. Turned out that I took two days to complete the job. That’s just lolly gagging around. I took some of that time researching because it’s been so long since I did one of these Day/Nite shades that I’d sort of forgotten. It wasn’t the taking it apart portion of the repair, those instructions are above, it was putting it back together that I’d neglected to do a write up about. I remember the last time was because I had to travel and spaced it. When I got to writing the article, I’d forgotten how I’d done it. I’ll try to correct that now.

Refer to the instructions above on how to remove a Day/Nite shade. Once that’s accomplished, use a black marker and mark the top, middle, and bottom rails, indicating which side faces the window in each case. Right and left indicators help too. I did that to the plastic inserts on either end of the rails as well. Since I’d already restrung this particular shade, it still had those markings so I didn’t need to do them again.

Restringing was not a piece of cake, as it’s been nearly 4 years since I’d done one and it was tough remembering the procedure. I had to search online for the string routing for a 4 line shade after I found out the former links above with that info no longer worked. Anyway, I found them again and added them above. Or will shortly.

First, calculated the length needed (see formula above) measured out 2 each 10 foot lengths of cord, folded them in the middle and tied them to either end of the spring. Used a small piece of blue tape to hold the spring in the middle of the upper rail. Remember I’d marked the rails as I removed the shades so I knew which orientation it needed to be in. There are tiny plastic eyelets in several places so keep them organized so you don’t lose any. They guide the cord as it routes here and there in the shade and helps prevent fraying.  Installed those eyelets in the bottom of the top rail, gathered the upper shade up to the top rail, slipped the middle rail into position, and rubber banded it all in place. In this case I had 4 strings that needed to be routed. So using a large needle, I routed each cord down through the accordion style upper shade, then trough the plastic eyelets that were inserted into the holes in the middle rail from underneath. I’d also used a 1/4″ drill bit and drill to clean off the sharp metal still remaining from when the factory first drilled them so sloppy. How I missed that the last time I don’t know. I got the top of that rail, but missed the bottom cleanup. Another trick I need to use was to melt the end of the cord, then quickly flatten it somewhat so it would fit in the eye of the needle. Since I had plenty of extra cord, I repeatedly cut and reheated the ends while working, as required.

The tricky part was the center rail. I initially put it on upside down so had un-string it to remove and reposition it. The deep part of the rail faces down, and that’s also where the cords crisscross (see above diagram) in a specific order.

Then I again used that big needle to string the 4 cords straight down through the next shade section, through the eyelets and into the rail. At that bottom rail, they crisscross again and this time I routed them through the holes in the plastic covers, then loosely tied a knot in each set of two cords to prevent them from getting lost if I fumbled the shade assembly (that had happened the first time I worked on one these shades – had to restring after I dropped it and it all came apart).

With the hard part done, now put the top rail into the clip behind the valance, then put the two screws in to hold the shade in place. Braced the shade assembly up a bit, untied my temporary knots on either side and inserted those cord ends into the tensioners. After the cords were inserted, tied knots there, just so they wouldn’t be loose. At this point, wrapped up the slack cordage, until it was tight on either side, used the drill to secure the tensioners to the wall nice and tight so they’d hold that tension. Now I can trim the excess cordage that is extending from the tensioners, tie new knots close to it and that’s it.

Done. Whew. Nice little job for an afternoon. Time to pick up all the tools laying around.

 

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Front window privacy Curtains:

The curtains in this RV are the white, stiff, pleated kind. They are much better looking than the fabric curtains I had in my Bounder from both the inside and outside. And it seems they’ll be easier to care for.

The Velcro type edges that hold the curtains together when closed will be a problem if washed via machine as they are so stiff (and meant to be), so I’m thinking most people remove and then gently wash these curtains by hand. You can see a bit of dirt on the bottom of this one. 

When I bought this rig, those curtains had lots of unsightly dangle-y down threads. Unsightly enough that I wanted to do something about it within the first couple weeks I owned it. I formulated a plan where I would just use scissors to cut off the threads but on reflection, decided that probably wouldn’t do as the threads were unraveling and just cutting them off wouldn’t stop the unraveling. I knew I’d probably need to melt the threads at the point they were unraveling to ‘fix’ them in position, but naturally, I didn’t want to burn the RV down. Hmmm. I do have a couple soldering irons, and a heat gun but thought using them for this job would be cumbersome, leave unsightly discoloration, and likely be unsuccessful. After some thought I did come up with a simpler and quicker idea. I’d burn them with a lighter while twisting the curtains mostly horizontal or more.

I just left the curtains hanging from the rails, and where I had access, I tightly bundled the bottoms of the curtains a small handful at a time, and forced them horizontal or more so I could get at the bottom edge easier. Then used the lighter to gently melt all those loose threads. No more dangling threads so far after 1.5 years. I was worried the process would leave black marks all over the bottoms of the curtains but the only place that happened was at first when I tried to tap the burning thread with a finger. Only did that once. If I just removed the flame and blew on the burning thread or just let it burn out, the black dots that are there are so tiny as to be hardly noticeable. Holding the pleats tightly prevented the fire from spreading to more of the curtain. I did take the precaution of having a squirt bottle of water nearby.

There was only one area where it was difficult to get to the bottom of the curtain and bend it up enough and that was the 2″-3″ of curtain behind the driver. But there were so few dangling threads in that area that I didn’t bother to take the curtain down or anything. Just very carefully torched the few dangling threads I had and then quickly squirted the area with water. Worked fine.

I did wonder what I’d do to clean them and eventually I got around to asking on one of the RV’ers forums I frequent. What people do is remove them from the aluminum slides/guides they hang from and loosely bundle them up. Then they slosh them up and down in a tall garbage can filled with water, some dish detergent, and some bleach. Depending on the depth of water, then you flip them over and do the other end. Then use a hose to rinse. Allow to drip and air dry.

Cleaning the curtains – Dec. ’17:

Following the advice I’d read online, I carefully removed the curtains from the racks. There are 3 of them, one covers from behind the driver to the middle of the front window, the next covers the passenger side of the window and has a split in it where the door is for access to the door, and the third curtain is on the passengers right side. When you’re driving, these are all bundled up behind the driver and passenger, than strapped in place.

Here’s what those aluminum rack hangers look like, there are three of these screw type ‘stops’ on the two separate hangers that are removed so the curtain sets can be removed:

Right off the bat, as I removed the curtains and tried to bundle them, found that the numerous little devices that hung the curtain from the racks were going to be a problem. On each of those devices, there are two small plastic rollers that attach to a bendable U shaped piece of metal. And there are hooks that attach to the U. Those numerous hooks are inserted into brass eyelets at the top of each curtain, holding it up. As I remove each curtain, I bundled them up and slipped a rubber band over the end to hold it, making it easier to handle. Than preceded to remove those little hooks with the plastic wheels from the curtain eyelets. And some of those little rollers fell. Had a devil of a time finding them in the carpet. Moved to a place where I’d have less difficultly finding them if they did fall out. Which they did often. Also missed removing one assembly in the house and it fell apart outside…onto sand. Took at least 15 minutes finding that pair of rollers, the hook, and the U.

And here you can see what those assemblies look like. The hook that attaches to the eyelet, the metal U shaped piece, and one of the two plastic rollers (the other roller is on the other side of the channel).

On the drivers and passengers sides, the curtains are screwed to the wall slightly behind the person. Once those screws are removed, than the small thumb screw clamp is removed from the end of the aluminum channel the curtains hang from, and you just slide the curtain off. The middle curtain has a convenient thumb screw at the end of the aluminum channel in about the middle of the dash ceiling because it’s not all that easy to slide it all the way to behind the passenger seat in order to remove it back there.

After I had the curtains free and the hardware removed and safely stored in a plastic bag, I left the curtains rubber banded and sloshed them my garbage pail filled with warm water, Dawn Liquid, bleach. After one end was done up to the middle, I’d flip the curtain over, move the rubber band to the top end, and slosh the other end. Water got surprisingly brown looking.

Spent at least 3-5 minutes sloshing each end of each curtain up and down. Like an ol’ timey washer woman. I then used small bungee cords to hang them from the awning arms while I rinsed them softly with the hose, than let them drip dry in the warm sun.

After all three curtains were clean and dry, moved back into the RV and began attaching the hardware…and dropped rollers over and over again. I did not have the best method of reattaching them. They should be hooked at the eyelet, that hook squeezed shut so it won’t drop off, than the U piece with the two rollers should be squeezed together too, so the rollers won’t fall off so easy. When that’s done, it becomes difficult to attach that U piece with rollers interfering over the rail from the awkward positions you find yourself in…and I got impatient. Which explains my having to chase those little rollers all over the inside of the rigs front area several times, including the dash. I’d anticipated though and covered those large dash vent holes. I was sure I’d lose several of them but eventually found them all.

One other thing I learned from all this is that I should have used starch. The curtains came out clean and white, so I was happy about that, but they could use some extra stiffness that starch would provide. I’ll do that the next time I clean them. They look really good now though. Noticeably cleaner and brighter. I think I’ll use bluing next time too. That really brightens whites.

So that’s how you clean the pleated curtains of this style. Fairly easy job, as long as you keep track of those tiny rollers and hanger assemblies.

I found the little hanger assemblies here in Yuma, Arizona at the Southwest Exchange Home and RV Superstore. Cost was ~$6 for a packet of 14 of them. The U, two small plastic rollers, and the hook all included for each one. The hooks do seem to be a tad shorter then the originals but, they’ll still work regardless. I had lost a single roller recently so the cost was a bit much, but, whatever, I wanted it. Once installed, works great and I now have quite a few spares. Probably will never need them so if you need one, let me know. Made by JR Products. Wheeled Curtain Carrier w/Hook. P/N 81155, Type B, Lifetime warranty.

One trick I learned is that it’s far easier to add the hook/U/roller assemblies to the end of the channel and than reattach the hooks to the curtain than try to add the U mid curtain. Rollers keep dropping off and disappearing when you do it that way.

Good luck!