Day/Night Window Shade Questions

[rideandfly]

A cord broke in the Ollie's rear window Day/Night Window Shade. Has anyone replaced a window shade cord and give advice on how to make this repair? Who is the manufacturer of this window shade assembly?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

 

[ScubaRx]

Our shades are custom made in Canada and are a specialty item made only for Oliver.  The company is Auto-Motion Shade Inc. 400 Bentley Street, Markham, Ontario.

 

The Customer Service Representative is Alex Colavecchia.  You can reach him at 905-470-6198 or alexc@automotionshade.com.  But the guy you really need to talk to is Vick.  He is the one that actually assembles all of Oliver's shades.  His cell phone is 416-989-1075.  He will send you the cord and an instruction sheet for free.

 

All that having been said, the sheet is not very clear and after disassembling the shade it's like doing Chinese arithmetic trying to see where all the strings go.  I never did get ours fixed.  Thanks a lot for reminding me. I think I'll go eat a bug.

[rideandfly]

Steve,

 

Appreciate the excellent information. Looked on their site and it appears our shade is a custom Manual Framed Twin-Pleat Shade TPS-720.

 

Will post about project after receiving the cord.

 

Thanks,

[Mainiac]

Our shades are custom made in Canada and are a specialty item made only for Oliver.  The company is Auto-Motion Shade Inc. 400 Bentley Street, Markham, Ontario.

 

The Customer Service Representative is Alex Colavecchia.  You can reach him at 905-470-6198 or alexc@automotionshade.com.  But the guy you really need to talk to is Vick.  He is the one that actually assembles all of Oliver’s shades.  His cell phone is 416-989-1075.  He will send you the cord and an instruction sheet for free.

 

Is this info available in the owner's manuals? I know I won't be able to find the info if I need it 4 to 8 years from now? Have you asked why they don't make the shade in pure white?

[ScubaRx]

Is this info available in the owner’s manuals? I know I won’t be able to find the info if I need it 4 to 8 years from now? Have you asked why they don’t make the shade in pure white?

 

This info was available because I did the research and discovered it.  I don't own an owner's manual but I'd bet a month's salary that it's not there and if you were to call Oliver they could only tell you the name of the company. As far as finding it 4-8 years from now, I'd write it down.  I keep information like this in my phone.  And it's backed up, multiple times.  The only answer for the question of color seems to be the fact that they choose not to produce it in pure white.  They used to, the shade frames in our first Outlaw Oliver were white but sometime during Oliver's travel trailer building hiatus (2009-2013) the company switched to only Black and Almond.

[Mainiac]

Looks like I am going to have to prime and paint mine. Think the 'almond' looks old, faded, and dirty. Maybe a question for the Oliver Rally...

[rideandfly]

Canoe12,

 

Once I receive the new cords and instructions, will see how easy it is to disassemble/reassemble shade and frame. May change color of  all Ollie window frames with plastic primer and white paint.

 

Front jack motor covers painted with plastic primer and white plastic paint in the following thread.

 

http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/ollie-front-jack-covers-painted-white/

 

Back to polishing the Ollie!

[Overland]

Trying to imagine what a black shade would look like in the Ollie.  Hmmm...

[Mainiac]

With black cabinet doors, window frames black might be nice. Someone in here painted theirs and like the jack cover they primed first. It is definitely something we have on our list to do. Keep us posted..

 

Black shades would make an afternoon nap easier??

[Try2Relax]

I agree black frames might be a good contrast look.

 

As for the shade color, on the sunniest day an afternoon nap is easily accomplished with the off white currently installed, when you close all the night shades it is DARK in the trailer. Well, except for the MaxxAir, need a little draw shade for that too.

[Mainiac]

I agree black frames might be a good contrast look.

 

As for the shade color, on the sunniest day an afternoon nap is easily accomplished with the off white currently installed, when you close all the night shades it is DARK in the trailer. Well, except for the MaxxAir, need a little draw shade for that too.

 

 

Stuff a small pillow in the MaxAir. Keeps heat in ir out too...

[Kgoodusav]

We have the same problems with the window shades-  two of ours also  broke.  We have not tried to repair yet but maybe at the rally we can put collective minds together and figure it our. :)

[rideandfly]

Steve,

 

Appreciate the fine research you put into finding information about our shades.

 

Decided to go with a 4 window cord repair kit and "How To" instructional CD off of Amazon, since I'm going to install new cords in all four windows.  Should receive the kit in about a week.

 

http://www.dirtyblindman.info/

 

Plan to disassemble all four windows, prime & paint frames white, and reassemble with new cords. The kit was pricey at $25 delivered. Found replacement cord sold in quantity on Amazon, too.

 

Will post about the project.

 

 

 

 

[rideandfly]

Installed shade cords in our rear window and decided to leave frame original color. Could not find any shade cord re-thread diagrams matching the Ollie's windows. Decided to make rough sketches of the frame cord routing and shade cord routing before taking the shade completely apart.

 

Frame cord routing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shade cord routing:

 

 

 

 

The cord used is about 30% thicker (1.5MM cord) than the original cord, did not use tape where indicated in the sketch because the new cord was sandwiched tightly between shade & frame without tape, used thicker cord on right:

 

 

Broken old cord:

 

 

There is one spring in the top and bottom of frame for cords to tie to:

 

 

With larger diameter cord, threaded each hole one at a time instead of multiple holes:

 

 

Copied the original cord routing:

 

 

 

 

Night shade with new cord re-threaded:

 

 

Job completed:

 

[ScubaRx]

Great job.  I've got to tackle my broken one also.  For some reason this intimidates me a hundred times more than drilling holes in the hull.  Weird...

[rideandfly]

Great job. I’ve got to tackle my broken one also. For some reason this intimidates me a hundred times more than drilling holes in the hull. Weird…

 

Steve,

 

Know what you mean.

 

Inspected other blinds last night and found another cord ready to break. The previous owner lived in our Ollie 6 months (campground host), so the cord wear was accelerated compared to normal use. Getting ready to order a spool of cord to eventually re-cord all of the Ollie's blinds.

 

Thanks,

[rideandfly]

Had some extra time today and started making better sketches of my Ollie's shade cord routing. The following shade sketch shows the cord routing on the day and night shades.

 

If the night shade is being threaded (shade in top of frame), the taped side of shade is positioned at the top. If the day shade is being threaded (shade in bottom of frame) the taped side of shade is positioned at the bottom.

 

The cords from night shade are routed to the spring in the bottom of the frame. The cords from day shade are routed to the spring in the top of the frame.

 

I'm working on additional information and will post as soon I have it.

 

Hope this helps!

 

[rideandfly]

Springs maintain tension on the cords. Each cord is fixed and taped in place where indicated in the previous post. Cord in shade handle is not fixed allowing the handle/shade to slide up and down on the cord.

 

Hope this helps.

 

[rideandfly]

Used 1.5MM shade cord which is about 30% larger diameter than original cord.

 

 

Cord routing in end of each shade handle:

 

 

Cord routing in 90 degree portion of frame:

 

[bugeyedriver]

These schematics are great!

 

I haven't needed to replace a cord yet, but I did have an issue with sagging shades. I found the tension on the strings can be adjusted by moving a small metal shuttle that slides up or down in the channel on the side of the frame. A small Allen wrench us useful for this fix.

[rideandfly]

Pete,

 

Good tip on adjusting tension!

 

The original owners probably used the shades a couple times daily while campground host causing pre-mature cord wear. Ordered a spool of 1.5MM cord and hope it arrives later this week. Have another shade in need of new cord, too.

 

Thanks,

[rideandfly]

Used 1.5MM shade cord

 

 

Used 1.5MM cord on the rear window and got away with it on the smaller window. While installing 1.5MM cord on a wider side window tonight, found the 1.5MM cord to be too thick with clearances too tight where the shade slides into the longer shade frame. I may get away with using 1.5MM cord, but recommend using the original cord size.

 

Looks like the original cord size is 1mm.

[ScubaRx]

OK, Tali and I restrung the shade with the broken string this evening.  Not the most enjoyable task we've ever done but it beats a sharp stick in your eye.  A little complicated until you've done it a couple of times but once you "see" how it works it's really not too bad.  I had to partially disassemble another one to see how much tension to put on the strings.  I'll be happy to restring one for anybody for only $500.00 string included.

[rideandfly]

Steve,

 

Agree, We finished re-stringing another one yesterday. Hope that's all we need to do for a while!

[Chixter]

This stuff is a good bet.  Close to original size and will probably outlast the shades....https://www.ebay.com/p/?iid=351988397092&lpid=82&&&ul_noapp=true&chn=ps