Pleated Blinds

[Guest Ray Ball]

Our Cheyenne is now coming up to three years old. We were a trifle surprised and concerned while lying in bed late one morning to see daylight coming through the folds in the pleated blinds. It appears that whatever the blinds are coated in is now coming off along the creases and admitting light. Has anyone else had this problem? With the end of the three year warranty now but a few months away I was wondering whether this was something I could have rectified under the warranty or will it be claimed to be wear and tear. Incidently we have never attempted to clean them and the rather useless handbook does not mention how to clean them although it does contain gems like advising me not to use abrasive materials on any gold taps!

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

There is obviously nothing to lose from attempting to have your Auto-Trail's blinds replaced under warranty, but I expect the "it's due to normal wear and tear" argument will indeed be used to counter your claim. You'll need to check your warranty terms carefully and you may need to approach the manufacturer of the blinds themselves to obtain their views on this. I'm sure I read a letter somewhere about pleated blinds admitting light through 'pin holes' in the blind-material and the manufacturer saying this was normal and a property of the material used. In your case, I guess the validity of your claim would also depend on how much light is getting through and how ineffective the blind has become.

[Guest Ray Ball]

Thank you Derek for your comments. The blinds have considerably more than pinholes along the creases. The coating, if that what it is, has come off in varying lengths along the creases. I'm surprised that no one has had the same problem. The name of the manufacturer I do not know but I'll write to Auto-Trail to try and find out.

[Guest Norma]

I'm fascinated for the latest fashion for pleated blinds. Correct me if I'm wrong but all summer I often saw new vans with pleated blinds that seem to have gone wonky and didn't look as if they would last very long. The roller sort seem alot tidier.

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

Norma: I shan't argue with you. Compared to roller blinds the pleated versions are much more vulnerable to accidental damage (or ham-fistedness) and are virtually uncleanable if marked by fly-spotting or cooking splatters. Unless twin-walled material is used, heat-insulation is no better than rollers and decidedly inferior to thick curtains. The only comparative advantages I can think of for pleated blinds are, if fitted carefully, they should be easier to operate than rollers (they won't lash back on you) and they won't (shouldn't!) rattle while the motorhome is being driven. The main benefit comes in their unique ability (compared to rollers) to be cut to fit non-straight-line shapes (eg. cab side-windows) or to follow a curved path (windscreens or curved roof-lights), though Michael Sharman's posting of 12/09/2005 indicates that such applications are not always problem-free. Certainly, within a motorhome's cab, pleated blinds are neater than traditional curtains and, because the retracted blinds' 'cassettes' are normally quite narrow, less likely to lead to dangerous blind-spots for the driver. Some cab-blind systems are much more successful than others regarding robustness and ease of use. The Remis pleated cab-blinds on my Transit-based Hobby work well on the windscreen and main side-windows, but, on the oddly shaped 'quarter-lights', the small blinds need a lover's sensitive touch to avoid damage when deploying or retracting them. Worth saying perhaps that a similar Remis system I saw fitted to the more steeply raked windscreen of a new Renault Master-based motorhome had already become detached at the upper and lower central supports.