Has anyones window valance catch while raising? - Hi-Lo camper travel trailer forum

Fireballsocal · 03-05-2011, 07:30 PM

I just bought a 2203T and while in decent shape, I need to fix some things. While initially inspecting the trailer, the valance (upholstered window treatment that fits over the day/night shade) had obviously been torn from the wall and the wooden trim along the top of the bottom half of the trailer was broken from it hitting. When raising up, the valance rubbed and eventually was torn off. The owner told me that unless you are perfectly level, it will hit and that he would fix it before I picked it up.

It appeared that it was fixed when I picked it up but upon arriving home and raising the trailer, it hit and started to tear off again. My fix is to remove all of the upholstery and trim off 1/4" from the rear of the valance so it sits closer to the wall and therefore won't hit. It's a time consuming fix as there were easily 50 staples to remove but should turn out fine.

Has anyone else had this problem? I'm sure being unlevel had no bearing on this happening. The tolerances were just too close. I hope.

campthewestcoast · 03-05-2011, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fireballsocal

I just bought a 2203T and while in decent shape, I need to fix some things. While initially inspecting the trailer, the valance (upholstered window treatment that fits over the day/night shade) had obviously been torn from the wall and the wooden trim along the top of the bottom half of the trailer was broken from it hitting. When raising up, the valance rubbed and eventually was torn off. The owner told me that unless you are perfectly level, it will hit and that he would fix it before I picked it up.

It appeared that it was fixed when I picked it up but upon arriving home and raising the trailer, it hit and started to tear off again. My fix is to remove all of the upholstery and trim off 1/4" from the rear of the valance so it sits closer to the wall and therefore won't hit. It's a time consuming fix as there were easily 50 staples to remove but should turn out fine.

Has anyone else had this problem? I'm sure being unlevel had no bearing on this happening. The tolerances were just too close. I hope.

My window valances were fabric on curtain rods on my 97. I removed them completly( they were pink). They always got caught at one time or another. I replaced the pink curtains with navy blue thermo panel curtains and upgraded the curtain hardware with tracks and sliders( removed all of the curtain rods)

RichR · 03-05-2011, 07:57 PM

I have never heard of that happening before but I suppose it has. Look around to see if there has been anything else that has appeared to have scraped or rubbed. Check to see if the glide blocks are intact and moving on the glide rails, the vertical strips, outside. Those keep the top aligned with the bottom when raising and lowering. When raised do the top and bottom match up or are even all the way around inside?

Look here for the picture of the blocks: Home - JR REPAIR

Fireballsocal · 03-05-2011, 08:11 PM

Hey Les, how did you screw the new tracks in? I am thinking about using well nuts. The thin plywood is pretty badly messed up on mine from the less than professional repairs.

Rich, nothing else seems to have rubbed and the glide rails/blocks are alligned and functioning as they should. There is no sticking and the top goes up and down smoothly. By my measurments, there was plenty of room with the origional valance so I don't know what happened. Now there is 1/4" more.

campthewestcoast · 03-06-2011, 10:05 AM

Being the plywood is in bad shape, your well nuts sounds like a good idea.I think I know them as wall screw ancors. I mounted the track with pan head stainless steel screws. My plywood wall was in good shape to hold the screws. On my 97 towlite, the window covering were pink curtains with rods and rod hangers. The rod hangers/holders were weak so the rod would pop out and get caught when raising/lower the trailer. To cover the holes from the screws, I used white screw covers glued to the wall. I went to ; www.recmar.com/products. And used 3294 slide-rite aluminum curtain track,3060 snap glides and 3090 snap tape. My wife sewed the panels to the right size and installed the snap tape onto navy blue thremo-backed curtain panels I found at wallmart(for $15.00). I did mount upper and lower tracks for the curtains so they don't roll up when lowering the trailer.

sam · 03-06-2011, 10:48 AM

Thanks for the info. on the curtain rod fix. Sounds like this would work on abused,delaminated walls.

Fireballsocal · 03-06-2011, 11:41 AM

A well nut is similiar in execution but heavier duty. I origionally used this one for sealing a hole in my fresh water tank that I had drilled. Of course I meant to drill that hole in there.

wall anchors will work well also I am sure.

Fireballsocal · 03-13-2011, 06:06 PM

I was able to trim 1/4" off the back side of the valance with a circular saw. After I reattached all of the upholstery and mounted the valance again using wall anchors, everything works great!

JMDoering · 03-13-2011, 07:23 PM

Fireball,

Did you ever figure out the source cause of your valence coming off? Could it have been that the valence wood was mis-sized at the factory? When you pulled the material off the wood did it look like maybe a fold of cloth had come undone and then caught on something to tear off the valence.

I've actually considered the possibility that the previous owner wanted to remove the privacy blind, didn't know how to properly remove the valence, and accidentally broke it off in the effort. Not all Hi-Lo owners are mechanically adept.

I like your fix, but I'm still puzzled by the cause.

Jim

Fireballsocal · 03-13-2011, 10:10 PM

Jim, I think it was mis-sized however the valance matched up with all of the others. All of the fabric was intact however there were some definite rub marks/holes worn through. I now have 1/4" of space while lowering so shouldn't have any problems. The prior owner did mention that being level had to do with the rubbing/scraping so I will continue to keep an eye on it and the other valances. My maiden voyage is next weekend for a 3 day trip to the desert and I will be camping in several other areas so I will see if that has anything to do with the valances rubbing or not.

You may be correct that the previous owner needed to remove it for some reason but in any event, it was rubbing. Hopefully, it's an isolated case.