Rainbow Screen with an Acapulco blue van

[Polomint]

Calling all Acapulco blue owners,

Thinking of purchasing a rainbow screen for our van, but am finding it difficult to choose a base colour,
any pictures of your lovely vans with their screens on?

Thanks

 

[Georgiegirl]

We went for the dark blue

 

[Polomint]

Looks good, like the eyes

 

[Jay gas]

We went for the dark blue

View attachment 97050

 

[Jay gas]

Not quite a blue van I’m afraid

 

[66tim99]

I
Know the vans not blue, but you can’t go wrong with black

 

[Polomint]

are all the rainbow screens black inside or do they come in silver too?

 

[Mr T]

are all the rainbow screens black inside or do they come in silver too?

They are silver on the inside.

 

[Polomint]

Thanks Mr T .

 

[66tim99]

They are silver on the inside.

It’s a shame I think that they are not reversible to reflect heat when in hot places. Would have been simple to put a sleeve for the cab door on both sides?

 

[Polomint]

I am so surprised and dissapointed that there are so few Acapulco blue van owners on the forum.
My thanks to georgie girl Jaygas and 66tim99 though.

 

[Mr T]

I am so surprised and dissapointed that there are so few Acapulco blue van owners on the forum.
My thanks to georgie girl Jaygas and 66tim99 though.

It's more likely to be the combination of Acapulco blue AND a rainbow screens cover, there are plenty of blue Cali's around.

 

[Ozzy Pete]

They are silver on the inside.

Don’t quite understand the thinking of having black on the outside and silver inside. The black must draw a massive amount of heat. We have silver on the outside and the van is soooo cool even in really high temps. But maybe that’s not important to some.

 

[Mr T]

Don’t quite understand the thinking of having black on the outside and silver inside. The black must draw a massive amount of heat. We have silver on the outside and the van is soooo cool even in really high temps. But maybe that’s not important to some.

Mines not black on the outside.
I guess having silver facing in is helpful in the colder months maybe? Keeps the warmth in.

 

[GVMAC]

It’s a shame I think that they are not reversible to reflect heat when in hot places. Would have been simple to put a sleeve for the cab door on both sides?

I use my Rainbow screens with both the coloured side facing out (when it is cold) and the silver side facing out (when it’s hot).

Just pull the bit of the material that hooks over the corner of the door over to the other side of the screen and it works perfectly well without any issues on the other side.

 

[Polomint]

That’s clever, what’s internal condensation like for the different sides?? Thanks

 

[GVMAC]

That’s clever, what’s internal condensation like for the different sides?? Thanks

Only have had small amounts condensation when cold outside and warm inside (so dark side out), but noting compared using the standard internal blinds. Opening the drivers and passenger windows a bit whilst the covers are on makes a lot of difference

 

[CaliBear]

Dark Blue for us too!


They are very well made and definitely make a difference for us in the cold. Not used them for heat reflection yet but with the reversible silver side out I'd imagine they would work well.

The pop top cover is what we use the most and has certainly helped protect the roof bellows in high winds and storms. If we hadn't had the cover on I would have dropped the pop top roof down for fear of damage to the bellows.

 

[Chrismat]

Recently used the reversible side in the heat wave. Van was cooler as a result. These are the ones from vwcaliforniaclub.com shop so not custom made. The window vents don't totally align with the bellow vents but its not an issue as there is still enough of an overlap for ventilation and to see out off.

Delivered in a less than a week vs many weeks quoted from rainbow screen.

 

[66tim99]

I use my Rainbow screens with both the coloured side facing out (when it is cold) and the silver side facing out (when it’s hot).

Just pull the bit of the material that hooks over the corner of the door over to the other side of the screen and it works perfectly well without any issues on the other side.View attachment 97320View attachment 97321

Nice one @GVMAC. It had crossed my mind as I wrote the above, but I haven’t tried it. Great to know it works

 

[66tim99]

Nice one @GVMAC. It had crossed my mind as I wrote the above, but I haven’t tried it. Great to know it works

I have too much time on my hands on the beach, and decided to contact Rainbow Screens -
‘Why don’t you design to enable the reversal by putting sleeves on both sides? And btw I understand you can reverse them by pulling the sleeve over to the outer side.’
They replied saying I’m only the second person to contact them requesting this, and they’d rather take the thousands of happy customers who use their screen covers as intended (full text of their final email below).
Earlier emails explained that the outer colour really doesn’t make much difference to the insulation properties of the screen, which is filled with heat insulation material.

That final email:
The silver is on the inside as we have the insulation made up that way which is the industry standard. The silver inside reflects nothing but the light when you switch the interior lights on in the evenings.
Your worry about our products and turning them inside out is something that you really shouldn’t be worrying about if there was a better way of doing things we would have found it after 12 years of making screens.
The customer who turns the screen inside out is in invalidating his warranty as stretching and spinning it inside out will put stress on the stitching and May in the long term elongate the stitch holes in the material leading to water ingress.
Adding extra pockets on the inside will cause 99% of customers to wonder why they are there.
Interestingly in 12 years of making screen covers we have two customers who would prefer the inside out on their screen covers.
I’ll take the thousands of happy customers who use our screens the way they were intended to be.
Can I suggest if you would like a silver colour to the outside perhaps you bought the wrong colour for the outside of the screen ? We do sell a lot of silver outer covers.

 

[Stu@rt]

I have too much time on my hands on the beach, and decided to contact Rainbow Screens -
‘Why don’t you design to enable the reversal by putting sleeves on both sides? And btw I understand you can reverse them by pulling the sleeve over to the outer side.’
They replied saying I’m only the second person to contact them requesting this, and they’d rather take the thousands of happy customers who use their screen covers as intended (full text of their final email below).
Earlier emails explained that the outer colour really doesn’t make much difference to the insulation properties of the screen, which is filled with heat insulation material.

That final email:
The silver is on the inside as we have the insulation made up that way which is the industry standard. The silver inside reflects nothing but the light when you switch the interior lights on in the evenings.
Your worry about our products and turning them inside out is something that you really shouldn’t be worrying about if there was a better way of doing things we would have found it after 12 years of making screens.
The customer who turns the screen inside out is in invalidating his warranty as stretching and spinning it inside out will put stress on the stitching and May in the long term elongate the stitch holes in the material leading to water ingress.
Adding extra pockets on the inside will cause 99% of customers to wonder why they are there.
Interestingly in 12 years of making screen covers we have two customers who would prefer the inside out on their screen covers.
I’ll take the thousands of happy customers who use our screens the way they were intended to be.
Can I suggest if you would like a silver colour to the outside perhaps you bought the wrong colour for the outside of the screen ? We do sell a lot of silver outer covers.

That's a poor response from them. How rude. If I was wondering who to spend my cash with, I now know. Thank you for sharing.

 

[66tim99]

That's a poor response from them. How rude. If I was wondering who to spend my cash with, I now know. Thank you for sharing.

To be fair to him this was responding to my 5th email! Their website just isn’t clear, and we were having comms difficulties.
Thing is, the screens are great.
If you are concerned about reflecting heat (in the end, I don’t think you should be) you can order a silver one…

 

[flying banana]

These screen covers are a waste of time,space and money unless in extreme low temperature weather. Even then I'm not sure the benefit apart from keeping ice and snow off the screen. In hot weather I have blinds that pull out from the sides of the screen to shade the van, vw built them in. they work great and are in operation right now in this ferocious death dealing heatwave we are having

 

[chockswahay]

When we had our Globecar I ended up staying in Aberdeen for the whole of winter 2014/15 and fitted Silverscreens (the brand). My wife was in the van everyday whilst I went flying……. the screens were a game changer! They cut down on cold draughts from the cold air dropping down from the windscreen and made the van much warmer altogether. Also during that time we never had any condensation whatsoever. Once we were on the road again and out of winter we never used them again. They were great whilst it was cold and we were stationary but for touring they took up a lot of space and were a lot of faff to fit and remove daily. Horses for courses I s’pose.

I have been wondering about insulation for the top but a bit like @Stu@rt I can’t really say I warm (no pun intended) to Rainbow Screens and their old fashioned indulgent way of making what they want to make and not what the customer wants to buy (don’t get me on my soap box about measuring my van for fit!)

Regarding external screens, in the generic motorhome world Silverscreens are highly rated by virtually everyone. Their quality is excellent (but their website is awkward, clunky and out of date)

Silver Screens the original and best Motorhome cab window insulation !

'Silver screens' from J&M Designs (01274 872151) Mike Parker and June Richardson are the original inventors of Genuine motorhome 'Silver screens' and are the only company who can legally use the trade marked 'Silver screen/s' name. www.silverscreens.co.uk

www.silverscreens.co.uk

Hmm, I think I might contact Silverscreens and ask about a pop top cover…..

EDIT: I’ve just been on one of my other forums and Minster get rave reviews (@Stu@rt?)

Minster Products Ltd

Minster Products Ltd

www.minsterproducts.co.uk

Think I might call them too…..