Community Forums

dllederman · 09-08-2012, 09:47 AM

My husband and I are very excited about our first RV purchase - a 2007 National Tropi-Cal.

As we drove West, we quickly realized the standard sun visors were of little help in blocking the sun, so we could see the road. We would like to install a pair of Carefree Power SmartVisors. We are DIYers and plan to purchase OEM rocker switches to put on the dash to operate the visors. But we are having trouble understanding how the shades mount on this model between the front overhead cabinets and the windshield. It appears the shades cannot mount to the ceiling as they will interfere with the privacy curtains and the plastic that surrounds the cabinets is curved and seems too flimsy to mount the shades.

Can anyone please describe, or better yet provide pictures, of how the shades were mounted from the factory, if you purchased this option? Also, if anyone has added the SmartVisor to their RV aftermarket, could you please explain how you mounted it (or provide photos)?

Thank you in advance.

Denise

Skip426 · 09-08-2012, 10:43 AM

I just wanted to say hello & welcome, and post so I can track the info you get as power visors,shades are in my future.

dllederman · 01-03-2013, 04:01 PM

We completed the installation of power shades in our Tropi-Cal RV. We ordered two of the Flexi-Visor FLX680 motorized shades in black vinyl (National Part No. 132942) from Auto-Motion Shade Inc. in Ontario for $192.00 per shade, plus shipping. We also ordered two switches with rocker covers to match the existing ones on dash of our rig. The project took us the good part of a day to complete but we are very happy with the results. I am posting a couple of photos from the project and would be happy to share info as to how we achieved this for any interested DIYers.

AFChap · 01-03-2013, 04:13 PM

We replaced our OEM Auto-Motion tiny visors AND flimsy curtain with MCD ShadeMan Duo day/night shades. The day portion are manual, and the night portion I wired into the OEM wiring for the removed sun visors. The night visors work as full width sun visors when needed ...awesome!

Submustang · 01-05-2013, 05:28 PM

Here are pictures of our installation. We dropped the plastic shell from around the bottom of the cabinets, cut away the "hump" for the bubble tube TV and covered it with a nice piece of wood to which we mounted the shades. Our shades came with a wireless remote, so we did not have to mount or wire switches. I tapped into the power for the dash fans.