MCD Shades

Ralph A · 01-08-2012, 12:39 PM

Has anyone retrofitted the MCD American Duo shades in their Horizon? If so, I would appreciate your comments.

We are expecting to have Alliance Coach in Wildwood, FL install the MCD shades all around our 2005 Horizon. If anyone has any experience with Alliance Coach, we sure would like to hear your comments.

Lazy Days is also an authorized MCD dealer and they are in this area. Any comments about Lazy Days / MCD shades would be appreciated.

sdennislee · 01-08-2012, 01:26 PM

While you are waiting for someone with the specific experience try searching the forum. There have been several threads on MCD shades, perhaps one will discuss your particular coach.

MaverickBBD · 01-08-2012, 03:51 PM

Are you going to have them installed all the way around? The factory told me it would take about five full days and offered space at their facility while they measure, manufacture and install.

ernieh · 01-08-2012, 08:31 PM

I installed them myself last year. Great improvement.

I stopped by the factory and let them take the measurements. Everything went well, except that I wasn't happy with overlap on my 3 piece windshield shades. Their standard is 3/4 inch overlap, and in my opinion that's not enough for privacy. They remade my center shade to provide a 2 in. overlap. That change provides total privacy.

Now i'm happy and more importantly the DW is happy.

Ralph A · 01-09-2012, 08:28 PM

Thanks for the input. We decided to have the MCD shades installed by Alliance Coach in Wildwood, FL. They will be installing them throughout the entire coach including the cockpit. Windshield powered and the balance manual. The installation will be more involved than I expected because four of the valances need to be modified. They expect the installation to take three or four days and we will stay in their campground during the installation.

smlranger · 01-09-2012, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ernieh

I installed them myself last year. Great improvement.

I stopped by the factory and let them take the measurements. Everything went well, except that I wasn't happy with overlap on my 3 piece windshield shades. Their standard is 3/4 inch overlap, and in my opinion that's not enough for privacy. They remade my center shade to provide a 2 in. overlap. That change provides total privacy.

Now i'm happy and more importantly the DW is happy.

I want to use the 3 MCD shades to replace the aging pleated curtains in our Journey. I will be ordering the shades from MCD and installing myself. Did the plastic tub under the TV enclosure interfere with the center shade? Can you give me the width of the center shade?

Thanks

336muffin · 01-09-2012, 08:38 PM

Congrats on the MCD shades. DW and I ordered and installed them in our coach a few months ago. Took us a little longer, we re upholstered all the valances (8) while we had them down. We also fabricated new valances for the windshield and driver and passenger windows. 11 shades in all, we love them.

ernieh · 01-09-2012, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smlranger

I want to use the 3 MCD shades to replace the aging pleated curtains in our Journey. I will be ordering the shades from MCD and installing myself. Did the plastic tub under the TV enclosure interfere with the center shade? Can you give me the width of the center shade?

Thanks

The side shades are 36 3/4, the center is 30 3/4. Those are the dimensions for the brackets, outside to outside.

You will need to notch the top of the A pillar trim and extend the portion next to the windshield from top to bottom. I think that MCD just tries to use a spacer for that. I did mine differently using 3/4 pvc. Their head of installation looked at a picture of the way I did mine and said that he really liked it.

Roadking · 01-15-2012, 12:06 PM

Measuring of 9 shades took about an hour cause I measured each shade three times. The old adage, measure twice and cut once.... So I figured three times was better.

The shades arrived in about 4 weeks and the sizes were perfect. First shade took about 30 minutes to install and the remainder were done in about 15 minutes each. Installation was very easy with two clips and two screws per clip on the small shades and four on the long shades... Factory adjustments were fine with just minor tweaking to compensate for the long valances. Our interior wood is Maple and so I made a Maple valance for the small kitchen window. Looks great!!!

iRV-in-a-SunStar · 01-24-2012, 05:16 PM

I am at the MCD Innovations factory in McKinney. Four manual duo shades were installed today. Wow! How nice they are. My order was very straight forward...a swap out for the stock day-nights that came with the moho. Three fit in the existing valances. I had the kitchen sink metal venetian blind replaced. I'm not sure if I'll just let the rollers show on the kitchen install or put up a cover valance...the rollers are not real obvious under the kitchen cabinetry. I did not have remote controlled shades installed, so the install of the shades here at the factory was very fast...1/2 hour! Sure wish I could afford to have the cockpit shades replaced, but my configuration would require valances to hide the rollers...a lot of work.

MCD has electric hook-ups for up to 12 coaches. There is a dump and potable water available. You will have to look far to find a more motivated group of employees.
--------------
2010 Itasca SunStar 26P