Opening windows - or Not???

On holiday last month in the Ceze valley in temperatures of the high 30's I was chatting to a Stratford owner.  He took me into his van and demonstrated the concertina blinds and fly screens on the side windows in the rear lounge and asked me what was wrong with them.  I thought that he was referring to thetendency of the concertinas to misbehave occasionally when they have been up for the winter. He then pointed out that his Stratford has NO OPENING WINDOWS apart from in the loo.  As you can imagine his van was like a furnace inside even with all the rooflights open.  They had to sleep with the side door open.
Is this really a standard feature of A/S van conversions?  His dealer had shown him the flyscreens - it did not occur to him to check that the windows actually opened to let flies in!

When we had our 59 Symbol some years back and during a very hot period in Wales we had to sleep with the front windows down and the wee side windows open, still too hot to have a decent nights sleep in the van.
 Boaby time for a wee half.

inspiredron wrote:NO OPENING WINDOWS apart from in the loo

Are you 100% sure Ron?

In our Warwick Duo there are two small sliding windows, one on each side. The only flyscreen fitted to the 'van is needed for the sliding window panel by the cooker / kitchen and we could do with another screen for the unit in the side door, but alas no screen is fitted as standard.

inspiredron wrote:Is this really a standard feature of A/S van conversions?  .................

Yep, the windows in the rear don't open but A/S give you fly screens anyway -

They do reduce the light a bit but other than that I do not see the point. (Maybe A/S got the blinds/fly screens as a job lot)

Just checking the Auto-Sleeper 2011 brochure which shows the Stratford, it shows the normal opening window in the sliding door but it looks like the opposite side will be behind the shower/toilet cubicle.

On our Warwick XL, like others have said has only 2 smallish sliding windows, one in the bathroom, and one in the sliding door. the rest are fixed except for the cab windows.. The problem during the day, at any rate, is compounded by the black glass windows which, in bright sunlight get very very hot to the touch and heat up the vans interior. During the recent very warm spell we had all windows and back doors open, side door open,  and all roof-lights open , during the afternoon the inside temperature was showing 36 deg C .... 10 degrees hotter than outside !!!!

Ramblers wrote:Just checking the Auto-Sleeper 2011 brochure which shows the Stratford, it shows the normal opening window in the sliding door but it looks like the opposite side will be behind the shower/toilet cubicle.

I did not actually check the sliding door - I was so gob-smacked by the fly-screens in front of fixed glass.  Blinds yes - but fly screens?  The only thought is that sometimes we pull down the flyscreens for privacy when changing with no interior lights on - a bit like net curtains giving privacy - biut with the dark glass is that necessary ?????

It isn't something simple like the standard blind fitting always comes complete with fly-screens is it?  I could understand that it wouldn't be worthwhile producing a blind-only fitting (mind you, I couldn't bear having no opening windows myself!).

We found the toilet /shower compartment in our kemerton was like a sauna early morning if we putched with the rear to catch the sun in the morrning, the exposed metalwork was like a radiator, and with only a snall roof vebt it got unbearably hot, seems a sleek look was more important than practicality.

Slightly incorrect, the window in the bathroom doesn't open either, the wood surround containing the blind impedes it. However the one in the sliding door opens, so there is one window in the habitation area that opens.

Oddly during build A/S removed the flyscreen from the bathroom blind but not the two rear windows though. They left it on the opening side door thankfully. 

Personally we have never found an issue with this arrangement and just love the automotive look of the black van windows, which outweighs the poorer ventilation.