Pleated rear shade - anchor pulled from wall

Diamondjim

Well-known member
New to 5th wheel towing. Our shake down trip was truly just that!

2011 Greystone 32RL and our first trip (1365 miles) was from upstate NY to our home in Florida.
TV is 2005 RAM2500 Cummins and it did a super job!
However, coming through SC the bridges did a number on our rear window shades. Not sure if I left the shade down or not, had some other issues I was dealing with, and shades were the least of them.:eek:

(OK - issues?) At our first refueling stop, north of Pittsburgh on I79, Pilot station, DW spotted McDonald's and just had to have a cup of coffee. I was taking care of fueling, music blaring from pump island, saw her exit McDonald's, cup in hand. Next thing I know, a gentleman comes around the front of TV with a crushed coffee cup. DW had fallen, bathed herself in coffee, and (as it turns out) broken her elbow in three places!:eek:
She could not get up on her own, I could not hear her calling me for help, but another fellow got her up and back into the truck, then got me! (thank you sir)

Anyway, the hard BUMPS at the SC bridges on I77 & 26 pulled the anchors for one side of the rear shades and the bottom anchor for the surrounding upholstered "valance" out of the wall!:mad:
Have not had a chance to take a studied look at the mess, but I have two large holes now in the back wall. AND a wide pleated shade that will not go up. Initially thought that the string had broken, no. Now there is no place to anchor the string, or the angle bracket for the "valance" surround.

Will be a day or two before I have a chance to look at the damage, as getting the DW to a surgeon is top priority for today!

Other than the injury to DW :(, the trip went well, and 5th wheeling is the way to go. Have towed everything from a pop-up to a 3250 Shasta over the last 40 years, but never a 5th wheel. The Greystone is barely used and was very comfortable. Will be living in it in Ohio & Mass for 4 months as snowbirds.

Thanks for your suggestions on wall repair!:)
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
When I removed and replaced most of our Day/Night shades with Levelor vertical blinds, most of the screws were just driven into the thin wallboard without any anchors or hitting framing. If the holes aren't too big, you can fill them with wood putty and use small bottles of acrylic paint to mix a close cover up (my wife is good at that). Reattach the valance using short plastic mollies for the screws.

We actually had one small shade partially rip off the wall while pulling it down before it got replaced.


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wdk450

Well-known member
I used large metal screw-in anchors like this for the shade tensioners, which are under a bit of stress from the shades:

metal wall anchor.jpg
 
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