As February wound to a close, some RVers around the campfire were contemplating their trip back home. As the “snowbirds” discussed their travel plans, the topic of RV window shades came up. The discussion that followed revealed two opposite points of view: RVers who travel with shades up and those who travel with shades pulled down. Listen in to the rationale behind each opinion and then register your own idea in the poll.
Keep those RV window shades down!
Frank was adamant. “The shades stay down. Period. They help keep the inside of our RV so much cooler that way.”
Josie agreed. “I forgot to lower the shades and close the curtains on one travel day early in our RVing days. It took forever for the inside of the RV to cool down when we arrived at our campground. Never again! Now ‘lower shades’ is on our prep list for travel days.”
Frank added, “Besides keeping the rig cooler, having the shades down prevents the ‘Looky-Loos’ from peeking in when I stop for fuel. I don’t need anyone surveilling what’s inside my RV.”
“And keeping the shades down prevents sun damage inside, as well.” Josie said.
Keep them up!
It was time for other RVers to weigh in on the discussion.
Carl offered, “I think it’s less wear and tear on the shades to keep them up when traveling. I don’t like to hear them flap around while we’re on the move.”
Someone else picked up on Carl’s idea. “One of our shades’ hold-down brackets broke. The constant bouncing back and forth dislodged the shade on one end, causing the other side to break! From then on, we keep the shades up on travel days.”
Carl added, “My ‘To Do’ list for travel day is already so long. I see no reason to pull down all the blinds. It’s just unnecessary work. Besides, the windows are tinted, so no one can see inside.”
Your turn
What do you do? Do you travel with your RV window shades up or down? Tell us by voting in the poll. Then use the comments to share your reasoning.
I do like our roller shades flailing around as we drive on America’s smooth as glass roads.
I could not have said this as well, and certainly not better, had I contemplated, written, and revised for months. 🙂 Thank you Split Shaft for making me smile broadly! 🙂 Safe travels! 🙂
I believe that’s what we were told, to travel with the shades up.
Who knew this was a thing ? UP, we’re in a motorhome. I probably would have down in a TT.
What ever way they happen to be…
We travel with them raised. The “clack clack” of them banging the walls as the coach sways would drive me over the edge.
You can get felt glue on bumper pads almost anywhere. Even Walmart.
No need, I don’t lower my blinds for driving…..LOL
Down! I left my kitchen venetian blind up once now the string is permanently trapped between the counter top and the wall.
In the 5er they’re down of course I don’t hear make any movement.
We have Day/Night shades in our Motor Home and leave them up, cats sometimes like to look out the windows and we like to keep them happy. They don’t like the Coach when in motion and stay away from the bedroom, I think they don’t like the Cummins. I love it.
Shades are up when traveling. I’m the ‘looker’ if there are any odd noises while traveling in our motorhome. If the shades are down, it’s often too dim for me to see anything amiss from my passenger seat. Yes, when traveling, there’s always noises as things settle, or as you bump down the highway!
I answered down, but it really should have been both. The only shade we have in our 17′ TT is the one in the door window. Changing the window from pebbled glass to clear, tinted glass with a shade means much less heat gain parked at home (east sun) or on the road. In reality, closed is “up”,
The rest of the windows have room darkening curtains. We do usually close them on the road, again for heat gain in the SW sun. For the curtains, I don’t think open or closed is more strain on them.
Keep them up for same reason you put your window shade up in an airplane. In the event of an accident or rollover, the first responders can see inside and render help more quickly.
Usually up for better lighting, and visibility. Sometimes down, when traveling in extreme temps (hot or cold). Beyond the RV, this has been a point of contention between DW and I for the past 40+ years. She closes them (for privacy, and modesty), I NEED natural light! We live in the country and cannot see our nearest neighbors. If someone wants to spy on us, its not my fault if they’re traumatized by seeing a naked old fat man.
Shades down, but 2 points: It is a TT, not a MH. Nobody is inside when on the road, so nobody to rescue in an accident. The shades are not mini-blinds or roll-up. They are accordion with friction guide strings on either side. They cannot flap around.
So long as the light outside is brighter than inside, it is near impossible to see in from even a couple feet away. And to see much of the interior even if right up to the glass you would have to be quite tall. Window peeping is not an issue. Solar gain is our chief reason for shades down.
Bottom line, this poll is not a simple up/down vote. There are other factors to consider.
+1
The poll needs a wherever they are response.
In my travel trailer the blind over the kitchen sink (also next to the stove/oven) is a metal venetian style. It stays up while traveling so it doesn’t bounce around and get damaged since I do not have it fastened down in the brackets. The rest of the blinds are pull-down types and they stay down while traveling to keep out the heat.
We have day/night shades throughout the motorhome so I pull the day shades down – that lets enough light in to see fine without letting in the heat or people seeing inside. Nothing rattles either.
Thank you, Gail! We have “day shades” and “night shades.” The former allow us to see out, but people outside cannot see in. We travel with those closed for privacy, better temperature control, and preventing bleaching of material inside by the sun. The latter are for privacy at night and provide even greater temperature control. We only lower the “night shades” when we are parked. Safe and sunny travels! 🙂
Our Class B travels with the shades up – so the 105 pound German Shepherd can see and protect our rig!
We don’t travel anywhere where the outside summer temperatures exceed 80°F. Since our fifth wheel windows are so high up and tinted, the only consideration to shade positioning is the shade type. We have aluminum venetian blinds. They travel best up.
I’m in the up camp, less damage.
We travel with them down unless we are crossing an international border, Canada, Mexico. Ours are roller shades. We use a piece of pool noodle to keep them from banging. We cut a 5-6 inch piece of noodle and cut a slice in it. Then slip it over the bottom of the blind on each end. Works when camped and the wind blows through the screen too.
We have day/nite shades. I keep the forward lounge and chair (left and right sides) shades open to aid in side views from the driver or passenger seat. Usually we have one of our great-grandsons with us so my wife usually sits on the couch (which has belts. With my sister in law along, she likes the lounge chair, with a belt. All the others are usually closed however.
I do keep all of them closed when the Rv is in storage or not in use, to keep the sun off the furniture. When parked we will usually have the day shades down during day time.
Need a option of either way. I no longer have shades because I put curtains all around. When I did have the day/night shades usually up I think because they banged less
Agree. Just went through replacing two pull shades (frayed) on our new Sunseeker. Wife and I agreed, next repair is her making curtains like we have done for previous RVs.
We always try to keep the shades down, but are going to have to invent a way to keep them down. The one over our couch always ends up after the first few bumps and sways. I partially blame the sunlight and heat for the extreme failure of the cheap “leather” veneer on the couch and our recliners.
We travel with our shades up because, as Carl said, it causes wear on the shades from the rough roads. We also have tinted windows so not worried about anyone looking inside. I do think it would help with keeping the inside cooler in the summer but to repair or replace these shades IS just an added expense
In my old travel trailer, we traveled with the shades down for the very reason mentioned above – keep the heat out. It had cell shades that were on cords secured at the base so they couldn’t move. However, our new 5th wheel has roller shades that don’t have anything that secures them when they are down. Rather than letting them swing around, we keep them up when traveling. I am thinking about using some Velcro to secure them in the down position though… having them down does really help keep the inside cooler when traveling.
I use the velcro strips to secure the roller blinds when down and it works really well
That is a great idea, Bill! DW added that to the bottom of the bedroom black-out shades before we went to Alaska. The velcro prevented light from slipping through the bottom of the shades. 🙂
UV is the enemy of any RV, interior or exterior. Granted, the glass windows, even tinted, reduce interior UV but do not eliminate it. Therefore, in storage and in transit, ours are always down.
We travel with the side roller solar shades down and the black out shades in the up position
Generally we travel with our shades Up. As the clanking noise of shades down drives me berserk. (My wife not so much.) However, on hot-days we travel with the shades, on the sunny side, of the RV down.
To mitigate as much noise as possible, we’ve added some foam rubber pads to the walls where the shade bottom smashes the wall.
We travel with the shades on the sunny side down in our 43’ Ventana Class A. It is easy to determine going E & W but when going N or S we often have to change sides at lunch. On winding roads that make major direction changes we keep them all down. We live in AZ so most of our travel is sunny and we don’t want the fading or the heat load. We would have to run the Gen to run our 3 AC’s in transit and it takes forever to cool off when stopping if the shades have been up. We leave the shady side up to avoid wear & tear. We are high with smaller windows so privacy is not an issue – mostly just heat load.
Immediate front left / right / forward always UP… the rest…??? 03 39L
Good comments here. I never gave it much thought before. I have a Chalet TS116FB Truck Camper (aka “slide in”) that sits on the bed rail of the truck making it so high that nobody could look in, without a ladder. It has day/night shades and I almost always travel with them up; I live in the Northeast so blistering heat isn’t generally an issue. But living in the NE, the roads here, including the Interstates, are absolutely horrible. The bumping up and down often causes the shades to slide down, so I guess I should be happy that the UV now isn’t an issue. 🙂
Class A the blinds (D & N) in the drive compartment are generally up, unless the sun is coming directly into the area, then the D shade is pulled down. The front shades are up and must be a different degrees of up so they don’t sway and bang together. The shades in the back of the rig are all down. 8 years and 82,000 miles and we have only had to replace the motor on one of the day shades. We really don’t hear any shade banging – even in the Yukon and Alaska last year.