Buying used caravan blinds isn’t something that is common place but if what ever reason your caravan blind stops working properly there are places you can visit to replace a blind part or even the whole caravan blind. One of the most common reasons for blinds to break is often drivers towing the van with the blinds down, this puts extra pressure on the clips as well as the tension springs. Extra pressure on the clips with eventually have the effect of breaking them off or in some cases the continual movement of the clip in its holder will cause the space into which the clip fits to become so large the tiny clip can no longer stay in place. If the spring lose their tension you can adjust these to become tighter but only to a certain amount, after that no more tightening is possible and you will have to replace the springs on your caravan blinds.
Looking for used caravan blinds or accessories shouldn’t be too difficult and you would have two simple options, either a caravan breakers or on eBay. The latter is a great place to find those small accessories like caravan blind end inserts or caravan spring roller blind end piece. eBay can also be a great place to find used caravan blinds, caravan rooflights and combined caravan blinds and flyscreens. Caravan breakers are rather sparsely dotted across the UK but many of them will post items to you, rather than you going to them. The main advantage of the breakers over eBay is they will have a larger selection of used caravan parts available and more often than not if it’s a used caravan blind your after they will have the correct size in stock for you.
While parked on a caravan site in the south west of England some years ago me and my wife would get woken up real early with some tapping on the caravan window. At first we thought it was something we had left loose but after some inspection and it happening again we began to think that it was someone usually kids playing some silly game. But to be honest with this occurring at about 5am or 6am in the morning i couldn’t imagine any kids getting up that early just to play some tricks.
It wasn’t until sometime later that the mysterious was solved. The reflective coating on the caravan blinds must have been attracting some nearby birds who would then tap at the caravan window, maybe at their reflection in the caravan blinds silver surface or something else who knows. But if your mysteriously woken each morning while on holiday you should try and check this as a possible reason for these noises.
Across mainland Europe were the weather is a bit warmer than the British Isles many caravanners keep the inside of their caravans cool by leaving the windows open and fitting sun-blinds to the outside of the windows. These types of caravan blinds are relatively easy to make and won’t cost you the earth either.
The materials needed are a large table protector, or more than one depending on the number of caravan windows you want to cover, with silver reflective surface on one side and soft cloth material on the other. You can either use a piece of card or the material itself to measure the size and shape of the window to be fitted. Once you have the measurement you should add a few inches to each side of the caravan window sun-blind to be cut to allow it to fold over the edge of the windows.
Depending on were you’re going on holiday you may want to fold a small hem in the bottom and add some weight with either small ball bearings or something similar. This weighted end should be just heavy enough to stop the wind blowing the end up but light enough not to pull the whole thing off.
Once completed you just have your caravan window open and offer the home made sun blind to the window and fold over each side and hold in place with nothing more than a plastic slide binder. If you seem to be having trouble with that then you could always use bulldogs clips.
That’s it simple really, now obviously the larger the windows are the more material you will be using and the slide binders may not work on their own. If this does happen leave a long strip on the top and add weight to this or use bulldog clips to that to secure it in place.
There are main different tips passed from one caravan enthusiast to another but for the purpose of this web site I’m starting list of hints and tips for caravan blinds. If you have any that you think would be useful then leave a comment below. To start the ball rolling I’ve listed three that I know about already, anyone got anymore?
1. A strip of foam, similar to that you would use for insulating around doors can be fixed to the bottom of your caravan blinds. This will stop the any early morning sun shining getting through into the van and wakening you up too early.
2. If the inside of your van gets unbearably hot during the summer, try shielding your caravan with a sunblind and leaving the windows open. These blinds can be as small as the individual window or cover the whole side of the caravan.
3. If you find the glare in your rear view mirror coming from the reflective surface of the caravan blind in the front of your caravan try leaving this blind up while travelling or place a piece of corriboard at the window to stop the glare.
Depending on were you’re going on holiday you may want to fold a small hem in the bottom and add some weight with either small ball bearings or something similar. This weighted end should be just heavy enough to stop the wind blowing the end up but light enough not to pull the whole thing off.