Showing posts with label snap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snap. Show all posts

Improving the Rear Window Blinds

The stock Winnebago window blinds for the rear windows work pretty well for us. However, I leave them snapped in place 24x7, as I showed here, and they're starting to sag after a few years. So today I added a few more snaps to the top to help with the sagging, and made it easier to unsnap them at the bottom by substituting velcro.

Two new snaps in the center.


I employed the 'velcro snap' method that I showed here.




11-Nov-2020

Daytripping vs. Roadtripping

The Covid pandemic has us using our van a bit differently for the past four months, and it's caused us to make some changes to how we organize our van. Rather than taking long road trips, overnighting with a lot of gear, we're mostly doing day trips, not taking much gear at all, and using the garage differently.

This is our normal roadtripping mode, with all the gear that we need for weeks at a time, organized and labeled in totes.

We don't need most of that gear (water replenishment, tools, many changes of footwear, campfire materials) when we're on a day trip to the beach or mountains, so I pulled almost all of that gear out of the van. Taking a cue from the fabulous Canyon Adventure Vans' GLSS, I replaced it with a couple of comfortable folding chairs and a camping table, giving us the daytripping configuration shown below. This gives us another 'room' to dine in, watch the whales out the back, whatever. 

However, if you're in a place where you need to use the insect screens, and you have the excellent Rolef screens on your van, then your view is blocked because the lower panel of the screen is opaque. Bummer, dude.

So I used one of the old-school Revel screens from model years 2018-19 to give us floor-to-ceiling views. This works great, and we love the screened-in porch vibe.

It was a little tricky to attach the Winnebago screen to the Rolef screen, and I had to make some stuff. Here's what I did...

I wasn't going to uninstall the Rolef screen just for day trips, so I needed a way to attach the Winnebago screen to it. Since the Winnebago screen only offered snaps for attachment, I made 'velcro snaps' to solve the problem.  I cut 1" x 1" squares of plastic by cannibalizing a Flexible Cutting Mat, then attached snaps to them. Then I attached some self-adhesive velcro squares, yielding what you see below.


Then I attached velcro squares to the Rolef screen, shown below. Works great, no bugs, floor-to-ceiling screened-in porch for the pandemic.



May-2020

Shower Curtain Extension

Our shower curtain was about 1.5 inches too short, letting water splash out on the floor, etc. So I was happy to find 'snap extenders' for solving the problem. 



Vent Cover with Snaps

Our 2018 Revel has a 2nd roof vent instead of air conditioning, and that's been great for us. However, it's clear that it's a source of heat loss in the winter, and there are times when we'd like to block the light that comes through the vent cover.

I bought an Adco 18" Vent Cover, but didn't like the velcro patches that they shipped with it - - it was prone to falling off the vent.



It seemed to me that some snaps would be better, so I got some simple snaps for the job.



I used the existing screws in the vent, but added snap heads to them.



I added snaps to the vent cover, using an awl to align & punch the holes, and now it's a tighter, more secure fit. An easy job, it took about 45 minutes or so.




Bottle Hook

I sometimes need to get a drink in the middle of the night, but I sleep near the back door, and there's no good place to store my water bottle. I decided to repurpose one of the snap screws as a way to anchor a hook for my water bottle. 

I used a 'rope hook' and a #8 1 1/2" self-drilling screw, costing about $2.00.






Update 2020:
This was a big success, so my wife wanted one on her side. I used a slightly smaller hook (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BQMUJ2/) and reused one of the holes from the 'bed seat belt' that I had removed.  Works great.


Dec-19-2019

Hidden Snaps

The FitRV reminds us that behind every one of these 'buttons' lies a snap that can be used for storage or modification. Also, the screw head that the snap/button is trying to hide usually is a fastener for a panel that you may want to open and check behind.