Screen for sliding door on 2014 interstate

[BOBCONEYBEER]

Has anyone found a good screen for the sliding door on your interstate? I saw a couple listed in the sprinter store. Are they good or do you know another supplier

[Harleydeal]

Originally Posted by BOBCONEYBEER

Has anyone found a good screen for the sliding door on your interstate? I saw a couple listed in the sprinter store. Are they good or do you know another supplier

I would check out the new screen for 2017 that comes on the Ext Lounge. I haven't seen it up close but it is totally retractable. Maybe yours can be retrofitted with it. I have a 16 with the sliding screen door and it is a pain. And passenger in the back is always looking through a double screen.

[Ridgejockey]

I just bought a 2015 Grand Touring. It's in great shape but the original owner had some problems with the sliding glass door and threw it away out of frustration I guess. Now, I'm looking at replacing it to the tune of about $800. I've notice that in past there were a lot of issues with it coming off the tracks. My question is if that was resolved by Airstream in the newer models? Thanks!

[Lily&Me]

We bought a $25 patio screen door, the kind with a tension pole at the top, and it has worked great.

Easy up and down, stows under a rear bench.


Maggie

[RoadJager]

I talked to Advanced RV about the installation of a screen door on our 2012 model as they previously advertised that was one of their services. They told me they had discontinued the program. I have also take to another retro fitter and they too have discontinued the use of sliding screen doors because there were no products with quality they could warranty. Apparently the product(s) they were using or had used were requiring a lot of warranty claims.
I have not found a sliding door option yet. So I will be happy with the zipping-unit I got from the Sprinter store.

[knotdonne]

I made my own out of a spring tension curtain rod, mosquito netting, and magnets. It stores on Velcro tabs on the ceiling screws behind the driver and passenger seats. I was wary of spending hundreds after reading about them breaking easily and getting stuck.

[BOBCONEYBEER]

Originally Posted by roadjager

i talked to advanced rv about the installation of a screen door on our 2012 model as they previously advertised that was one of their services. They told me they had discontinued the program. I have also take to another retro fitter and they too have discontinued the use of sliding screen doors because there were no products with quality they could warranty. Apparently the product(s) they were using or had used were requiring a lot of warranty claims.
I have not found a sliding door option yet. So i will be happy with the zipping-unit i got from the sprinter store.

thanks i called advanced rv also with the same response. I ordered a screen from sprinter store last week. I'll give it a try. What do you think of the screen from the sprinter store?

[Sebtown]

I've got the screen from the sprinter store on my 2007 AI. It's not as easy to use as the factory installed slider but it certainly does the job and beats the magic mesh set up I used to have in terms of set up. With the sprinter store screen you only zip the screen in as needed.

[Boxster1971]

I also have the SprinterStore's sliding door screen. It was very difficult to install, but works well.


- - Mike
2013 Lounge EXT on 2012 Sprinter

[mdf]

I asked my local dealer about installing the 2017 accordion style screen in mu 2016 AI. The response was that it can be done, but that "the parts cost north of $2000, with labor on top of that". Not sure if they just didn't want to do it, or if the "parts" include a different cabinet over the second row seat and so forth. Either way, for me it will be sprinter store version or tension rod version.

I just completed an 8000 mile trip in my AI -- will post some thoughts separately, but I'm not sure after this trip that a screen door is even necessary....

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by mdf

.....

I just completed an 8000 mile trip in my AI -- will post some thoughts separately, but I'm not sure after this trip that a screen door is even necessary....

Use of screen door depends a lot on where you camp. I've used mine only once or twice each season.


- - Mike
2013 Interstate Lounge EXT on 2012 Sprinter

[InterBlog]

General perspective note on Interstate screens in general.

Yes, the need does depend quite a bit on where and how you camp, and also when (what time of year). Biting insects have been one of our two biggest challenges on our current trip (the other has been the lack of propane supply which is described in this On The Road thread).

I have spent considerable time and effort designing a custom bug screen for our 2007 Interstate. However, the whole idea of bug screens runs somewhat contrary to nature in the area where we currently are. Here are some Great Truths of Life for contemplation:

(1) The sun rises in the east.
(2) Bears defecate in the woods.
(3) The Canadian wilderness is overrun with biting insects.

No matter how good or expensive your Interstate screens, in an area like where we are, the problem is not keeping them out via screens - the problem is that every time the dog is let out to pee, at least 20 mosquitoes follow the dog back into the Interstate. Which then causes my husband to lose his mind and go on an obsessive interior kill-a-thon. Like, every single time. When we get back home, I'm going to have to wash every single interior surface of the Interstate to remove the blood and insect guts that are now everywhere.

In other words, the real problem in an insect-rich environment is not keeping insects out with effective screens. The real problem is the minor catastrophe that occurs each and every time people and animals must enter and exit the vehicle.

Therefore, why spend thousands on screens?! Better to go lower-end because if insects are present in abundance, you're going to be up to your navel in them either way.

We are not done thinking about this issue yet. There may be ways to reduce the intensity of the enter-exit insect surges. That's a project for future development.

[bugsbunny]

We have a Dyson portable vac that we suck them up with - works great!

[Lily&Me]

Yep, the little hand vacs are great for mosquitoes....not so much for flies, which tend to be fast.

Also, close up almost everything and turn your vent fan on high...they will be sucked up to the screen, where you can get them with the hand vac.


Maggie

[rmkrum]

Or do like we have, and deploy the flypaper streamer in a spot that you won't walk into it (don't ask!) and toss it when it's covered.

I like the fan on full speed exhaust trick to trap the little buggers. Will have to try that one, then deploy the 1 gallon shopvac we carry for clean ups.

We avoid the dog issue somewhat. Our pups all fit through the sliding door in the screen, so they get walked a couple at a time, and the door opens fully only one time to let the designated dog walking person out, after a good lashing of bug repellent applied all over.

The doggies think the slider is a 'normal' doggie door by now. They just wait while they get leashed, and then handed out the slider. Took only a couple times to get them used to it. Even the 24-pounder can get through ok😀

Some of this may be why they regard the AS as their home territory now.


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[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

Also, close up almost everything and turn your vent fan on high...they will be sucked up to the screen, where you can get them with the hand vac.

Better, you can remove the screen and turn the fan on high, so they'll be sucked right out. You only need the screen in when the fan isn't running.

[toskeysam]

My daughter gave me a "bug-zapper" that looks like a small tennis racquet. Works great!

[rmkrum]

I think you can get those from Harbor Freight.


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[InterBlog]

Good suggestions. Expounds, because a complete arsenal is needed:

(1) I find the vent fan works best when one comes back to the truck after some time away, and the flies inside are already P.O.'d about not having anyone to bite. Somehow they don't snap to the realization, "Hey, dinner just arrived" and they just want to get out of the truck. So turn on fan at THAT point, plus shine flashlight up into it if it's dark, and they will go right to it.

(2) Some sort of hand vac / fly sucker was definitely on my list of things to get.

(3) I also thought about some sort of screen vestibule for the outside of the truck. Maybe not a complete elaborate patio pop-up like I've seen offered commercially, but something, maybe a repellent-treated screen that could be hung magnetically on the outside of the truck such that one pulls that around oneself before opening the door, airlock-style. Perhaps an over-the-bed mosquito canopy adapted to this purpose, small enough to store in the Interstate.

(4) According to what I've read, none of the ultrasonic mosquito repellent devices have shown any efficacy. It's just marketing bunk.

(5) My husband wishes fervently that the Gates Foundation would continue stimulating the development of a laser zapper which apparently it had been collaborating on as a malaria control measure. As an engineer, that one appeals mightily to him. We could mount one on the outside of the truck. He would pay any price.

(6) Something is needed to drive mosquitoes away from the rear window flaps. They can congregate there in such numbers that they are sometimes loud enough to wake me up! Plus my husband freaks out when he hears the whine and I have to convince him that the remaining mosquitoes are on the OUTside of the flap screens, not inside buzzing around his head (in the Interstate RS model, one sleeps with one's ear about 18 inches from the flap windows).

(7) I cannot put repellent directly on the dog as she will lick it off. I have experimented with soaking a kerchief in repellent and hanging it around her neck. It may help a little but it's not a total solution (no single measure is). She hates the odor. Here's a nice study in contrasts - sad face with the stinky kerchief (BTW that fabric is Cape Breton tartan) and her normal "we're going somewhere!" happy face.

[InterBlog]

Throwing this out there just as food for thought.

We stopped at our local Holiday World to view a GT Twin yesterday. They had three identical 2016 Sprinter conversions all in a row. Initially I thought that they were all Interstates, but it turns out that one of them was someone else's Class B called a Galleria, which I had never seen before, so we took a look.

Fit and finish were obviously not as high-end as the Interstate (no surprise - nothing else equates at this point) but neither were they hideous. However, they had obviously put their thinking caps on with respect to the build, and had resolved the rear screen predicament in a way that I'd never seen done before - with a pull-down side-to-side roller screen, top to bottom, set in its own track. Sooo easy to use! Zip, zip, up, down.

There are no good pics on the internet that I can find - it sorta has to be seen and felt in person. I annotated this attached stock pic to show the features to which I refer.

It's interesting to me that they would put this much effort into that one feature because personally I think Airstream dropped the ball in de-emphasizing the potential of the Sprinter's rear doors via an overabundance of lounge models which cut off ingress-egress use of those doors (as well as the floor-to-ceiling views). Obviously Coachmen had every intention of taking a different tact and playing up that potential, and why not?! THAT is where the million dollar travel view is always going to be best displayed. Plus it's the maximization of the rear door usage that alleviates Class B claustrophobia IMO.

It's got me noodling about what do do with respect to evolving our own rear screen. We wouldn't be able to install a similar structure due to the other elements of Airstream's T1N build, but it's something to think about for possible idea refinement.