fitted cab blinds on 2014 warwick xl

Yes , got to agree with all comments so far regarding n/s blind.   on picking  up our 2014 Kemerton  , first thing I noticed was the stupid cassette blind that obscures the wide angle mirror on passenger side . Had a near miss when overtaking a vehicle on M6 where a vehicle joining motorway was hidden because you have no view of vehicles close to you on nearside. To say that you unscrew and chuck the blind at the back of the garage is ludicrous in a motorhome costing 55000 pounds although a good fix regarding safety. This is nothing more than poor choice of eqpt by Auto sleeper which could possibly cause an accident. The buck stops with them. Peugeot provide the mirror for a reason , that reason being safety , Auto sleeper choose to obscure it by fitting a blind. I believe the Police would prosecute if it was proved you obscured mirrors by applying stickers etc to windows , so what would happen if involved in an accident that could have been avoided if nearside wide angle mirror  had not been obscured by a blind that is not fit for purpose  'Motorhomes of excellence' they like to claim....  I'm seriously beginning to wonder . 'We treat customers as family' - what family turns you away when you report a problem with basically a 'tough' response? Time for Auto sleeper management to man up and 'live their values'

I have taken out my window and door blinds for the very same reasons, once after over taking a slower car I nearly took the poor guy off the road it was only the wife saying there's a car still by your side ops, but when that's done it leaves tell tale hole where's hey were fitted, not a great look, if I ever could afford a new one I would try and specify that the were never fitted in the first place and have the external ones they keep so much more light out.

Hi Geoff Brooke are you still willing to try and push something forward on the matter of theses blinds which are not fit for purpose. From the responses so far there seems to be quite a few of us all suffering with the problem that has been created by AutoSleeper. Baz from the ASOC does not seem aware of it and hence it does not seem to have been raised at the technical group forum. It seems ludicrous to ask owners to pay out more to sort out a problem that AutoSleeper has created especially where cost of these vehicles is 50k plus!

I can see from the comments new and improved NOT, I will stick with an older model, safer bet all round. jmho. I think it is disgraceful that the money these van cost,  and there are these problems , there is a saying if it isn`t  broke don`t mend it. Doesn`t AS try things out before they go into production ? sounds as though the buyers are the guinea  pigs, at their expense, unbelievable from a "quality firm"

Might I say it's not just AS before we got ours I noticed several different makes have these sort of blinds, or do some people not care about the safety of others?

Hi, I just use a small rubber band on the central catch to keep them together, a bit of a pain but easier than taking camera off etc.

I find it hard to see from mirrors too, but can just about manage.

Does anyone use these blinds to keep the sun out when in storage, if so has there been any damage due to sun on the paper?

I agree; the blinds fitted to the 2014 models are a disgrace.  We are going to remove the lot and revert to a cab curtain.  We purchased the 'pre bent' curtain rail on a recent visit to AS, to have a manual water fill fitted – don’t get me started on that tale of woe.
 
The lack of eye line to the lower portion of the near side mirror is downright dangerous, especially driving in Europe.  My husband thinks it might be deemed a fail on the MOT test, as part of the mirror is obscured.  I haven’t researched his yet, so if someone has first hand knowledge perhaps they could post the answer.
 
I agree with Kaspian, if the Police picked up on this in the event of an accident, I’m certain our insurers would quickly take one step back.
 

Gill

Can't agree more about the blinds they are really dangerous. I now remove the passenger door blind whilst driving and just drop it back into position when on site. I have spoken with Baz Wellard, Auto Sleepers owners club, and he said he has not received any other complaints! Apparently if enough people raise the issue with him he will raise the issue with Auto-Sleepers.

hat004 wrote:Can't agree more about the blinds they are really dangerous. I now remove the passenger door blind whilst driving and just drop it back into position when on site. I have spoken with Baz Wellard, Auto Sleepers owners club, and he said he has not received any other complaints! Apparently if enough people raise the issue with him he will raise the issue with Auto-Sleepers.

Hat004 earlier someone stated that only comment from auto sleepers owners club members not from the forum are recognised so perhaps valid views from forum contributors are not taken on board . Reminds me of Sgt Shultz in Hogans heroes ' I know noth-ing, I have seen noth- thing!! As stated before if the Police deem a contributing factor in an accident to be your view was obscured by stickers or furry dice hanging from a windscreen they would prosecute , so having your nearside wide angle view mirror permanently obscured by a blind cassette must be a prime candidate should the worst happen. Could anyone from the owners club please raise this issue on our behalf?

I have already raised the issue with Baz Wellard, ASOC. Perhaps if you and others in our situation also raise it with him then he will have enough complaints to raise it with Auto-Sleepers and they may then take some notice!

Peter Brown wrote:

geoff brooke wrote:
What clout the A S owners club in these situations ?

ASOC have regular meetings with the AS technical management.  ASOC will not lobby for one particular ASOC member but if several ASOC (not ASOF) members contact and convince the clubs technical representative, Baz Wellard, that there is a generic problem then he will raise the subject with the company.  This will get the topic 'on the table' with AS Management but that is the limit of the ASOC input.

Peter #1

Hi hat004, from Peters post above it seems Baz will only take comments from ASOC members unfortunately

I'm rather intrigued by this thread - can someone clarify please, just to satisfy my curiosity.
I've just been out to the van to be sure I'm not talking rubbish. ( ) The nearside mirrors are in full view and not obscured at all, but I need to lean forward a few inches to see all of the driver's side mirrors. I can speak only from what I observe of course, but on our van it's not an issue.

Not to drift off thread but just for interest, of more concern to me is the thickness of the "A" pillars, particularly on the driver's side, although the blinds do not exacerbate the problem in this case. It is made worse by the elevated seating position caused (presumably) by the addition of the swivel mechanism. I am quite tall anyway, and I'm too high up to see out of the quarter light. I have to look out of the main door window and lean forward and back two or three times to see round it, and ensure the way is clear to proceed.

When entering a roundabout for example, I find it creates quite a big blind spot.

Hi Gromit, vans around 2014 fitted with paper blinds in cab area one large one that pulls up concertina style to cover windscreen and one fitted along top edge of each door which raise like a fan hinged at the rear edge to cover glass. It is the closed cassette which covers the bottom wide view  mirror on the nearside creating a large blind spot that can easily hide another vehicle . The blinds themselves are silver one side and trap air and eliminate almost all condensation in use but it is when stored in the cassette along the door that  created the large blind spot as you cannot see the wide angle view mirror at all. Annoying in the least but could be downright dangerous as near misses testify above.

Forgot to say Gromit , our previous chassis cab had Peugeot seats with built in swivels, adjusters integrated into the seat frame and seat belts mounted completely on the seat itself , a vast improvement on the  red handle jobs that catch your calves and the seatbelt mounted on the B pillar.Our seats are too high even at the lowest setting for comfort.

Hi Kaspian

Yes, those are the exact same concertina blinds that we have, which is why I can't understand that I don't have a problem seeing the nearside mirrors, while others obviously do. Is it just because I am tall, and raised up even more by the seat swivels?

Completely agree with your second post too. In fact I have had to remove the shroud on my side across the top of the blind fitting. Apart from having to drive like Quasimodo in order to see under the top of the housing, there was a thin gap above it which let in a very distracting sliver of light.

I would get some seat height reducers, but lowering the cab seats with our layout would drop them well below the height of the side seats. It's not completely scrubbed off the list though.

I know most of the problems are caused by my being 6' 3" so we can't pin this one on A/S ( ) but the seat swivels don't help at all! Added to that I'm not even exceptionally tall these days - I often have to look up to a spotty teenager!

The only time I can't see out of the nearside wing mirror, at a crucial time, is when Mrs Masai Warrior bends forward to get something out of her handbag (usually to find something to hit me with!) or when she is in full stretch reading her Guardian!

Dave, I can't blame that on AS either!

Pete

Masai Warrior wrote:The only time I can't see out of the nearside wing mirror, at a crucial time, is when Mrs Masai Warrior bends forward to get something out of her handbag 

Pete

Don't they always do that at exactly the wrong time !

Wife of Masai Warrior says, don't believe anything he says!

You see I am never right!

Pete