I interpret Sean's post to be--he's looking for absolute privacy. If he is
parked on any street USA, he wants the bus to look like no one is home
especially at night. I memtioned dark tint on the windows, but you can't do
this to the front side windows in most states and deffintely not to the
front . The dark tint combined with the curtains work great for camping at
various camping locations. However, if someone was trying to look in and see
if there was a light on, they would more than likely see it, like officer
Mitchell <grin> (comic relief from Jeff Foxworthy)

Bill

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
> Of S Sittservl
> Sent: Friday, January 14, 2000 12:00 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Curtains and privacy...
>
>
> >  From:    yturn@HOTMAIL.COM (Sean Cole)
> >
> >  I've lived in my van ...  I created "crude home made curtains"
> >  using 25 yards of black felt and button snaps ...  The fact of the
> >  matter is, factory curtains allow people on the street to see
> what's going
> >  on inside your van.  I've never found a commercial product
> that provides
> the
> >  service I require.
>
> The factory curtains on my '88 Westfalia seem to me to do a good
> job of covering all the glass, particularly if I go to the trouble to snap
> them closed where there are snaps.  The one possible exception is
> the sliding door curtain - its bottom hangs a bit away from the door,
> but I think it would basically only allow someone to see the floor.
>
> What problems are you finding with your factory curtains?  Where
> can people see in?
>
> Some ideas that come to mind to improve privacy:
>
>     - Velcro to "seal" curtain edges together, and possibly to
>       the wall of the van.  Could have strips going the full length
>       of the curtain.
>
>     - Heavily tint the side windows.  Unless the lights are on in
>       in the van, this would probably prevent anyone from seeing
>       through any gaps in the curtains.
>
>     - Use cellular or accordian blinds.  That's what I see on most
>       new RV's.  There's often a sort of frame added around the
>       window; the blinds run between that frame and the window.
>       That keeps anyone from seeing around the edges of the
>       blinds, helps the blinds hug the curved wall, and keeps the
>       blinds from rattling around when the van's moving.
>
>     - Use a permenantly-attached horizontal accordian blind on
>       the front window.  Can't remeber where I've seen these.
>       Basically, it resembles a standard accordian blind mounted
>       sideways, one to each pillar on each side of the windshield.
>       To close them, you pull them toward each other and they meet
>       and latch in the center of the windshield.
>
>     - Get new RV curtains that are more light-blocking.  Camping
>       World has a variety of window coverings at www.campingworld.com.
>
> Good luck.
>
>                                                       -Steven Sittser
>