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MCD Innovations, McKinney, Texas Experience

May 21, 2018, 12:49:05 pm

A brief post to recount our visit. Arrived Sunday afternoon as instructed. Big, level sites with 50 amp service and plenty of room to hook/unhook and park toad. 3 other Class A and two big 5th wheels in line with us...the only Foretravel. 

We'd made our reservations several months ago so we were first in line for measurement at 9 am Monday. The installer, Calvin, was a pleasure to work with. Been doing installs for 5+ years and obviously knew his stuff. We were better prepared than most given the research on this Forum. No surprises on materials price from what we'd estimated using the materials MCD had sent prior to our arrival.

Big, pleasant surprise that labor will be far less than we'd anticipated. MCD materials are based on two installers and assuming more hours than will be required. Entire job can be installed by Calvin only in less than 1 day.

We'll have day/nite shades everywhere except bedroom where we'll have day shades only and keep the drapes. The entry door will have the integrated day shade unit attached to the screen door and a pull down night shade.  Motorized only on windshield with switches for day & night using the two switch blanks on the panel below the retarder.

We will also be using the "Roger" side panel solution for the windshield so the entire one piece shades can be fully retracted (no hanging flap) and fully extended behind the dash hump which also maintains the full dash landing area as you enter the main door on your right.  We prefabbed these with cardboard before arriving.

Here are before pictures. I'll update the rest of the experience and pictures when complete. Although MCD asks you to plan to stay until 5 pm Friday we're thinking they'll actually finish on Thursday so we can head out Friday morning.

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Re: MCD Innovations, McKinney, Texas Experience

Reply #1 – May 21, 2018, 02:15:58 pm

The wedges on either side of the windshield shades work great.  I appreciate the suggestion from Bill B when I was planning my install.  The idea may be older than that.

More often than not we don't even use them at all.  And then if we use any usually just the driver's side.  To allow for the defrost vents to blow inside then we use both.

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Reply #2 – May 22, 2018, 12:22:31 am

Hi Randy,

Thanks for the notes and before pics! Looking forward to the afters! Being in Fort Worth, this is on my list for our coach. I would definitely like too how it looks after they're finished via pics, and if you pass through Fort Worth, would love to meet you guys and buy ya dinner! We both got our coaches about the same time! I think I saw yours at MOT when I was looking!

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Reply #3 – May 22, 2018, 12:26:49 am

We are believers with MCD:

To do both day & night in bedroom even though we also have room darkening drapes.  Just makes sense for flexibility, and for increased night & day security, not having to worry about center drape overlap and edge tight to wall.

To permanently remove side valences and make MCD a bit wider to fit maximum between top valence inner sides.  Inside of coach looks much cleaner and wider with no visual wall things that catch your eye.  And with the additional MCD overlap on both sides, from the outside the coach looks dark inside, even all inside lights are on.  Common to hear visitors say they don't know why the inside looks so wide, and surprised we don't have slides.

We also have your side windshield vinyl pieces that are wider at bottom, black on side facing out, light on side facing in.  These allow us to push shade toward windshield glass giving us back use of dash when shades are down.

We love our MCD and also find them one of the best mods.

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Reply #4 – May 23, 2018, 10:23:07 pm

Tomorrow's the big day for install...and two weeks on the road. Starting tomorrow our retirement will provide us with a longer "vacation " than we've had in our married life. And, Saturday is our 34 anniversary so many things to be thankful for.

We've enjoyed our stop at MCD. A lot to do in this area. Our blog has some of the details but we've discovered more to do than we've had time for even in nearly a week here.

Campingfortherestoflife.com

Randy and Karen

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Reply #5 – May 24, 2018, 10:47:57 pm

Our install didn't begin until Thursday. We left the coach around 2 pm and returned about 6 to find that all shades had been installed except the power windshield. That's 8 shades installed in about 3 hours.

We're totally happy so far. The duo shades are easy to raise and lower. We especially like the entry door which includes a matching metal module containing the day shade attached to the screen door and a night shade installed above the door in the factory location. We kept the drapes in the bedroom and installed the Day shades behind them. Duos everywhere else.

Windshield powered duos installed tomorrow morning.

Although we'll provide details after we're done but the install was much faster and cheaper than we thought.

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Reply #6 – May 25, 2018, 10:21:32 pm

Install complete around noon today with motorized front Day/Night shade.

Impressed so far with quality of MCD product and install.

6.5 hours to install entire coach consisting of 6 duo shades, 2 day shades in bedroom (keeping curtains) and motorized front window shade.

Initial observations are that day shades keep coach cooler, night shades even cooler when used on side facing sun. EZ to operate, EZ to clean. 

Less expensive than we planned, mostly due to far less labor than anticipated. About $3.5 coachbucks labor and materials. Solid investment for us.

Previous shades saved from the landfill by a McKinney family with a 2000, 34' FT.

Complete pics coming soon.

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Reply #7 – May 26, 2018, 01:34:43 pm

Here are "after" pics. Day shades down. Night shades down just a bit on front window. Last pic is night shade closeup. Matches trim vinyl on coach but also has a bit of texture.

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Reply #8 – May 26, 2018, 05:35:41 pm

Man does that look nice. One more thing to add to the bucket list.

Larry

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Reply #9 – May 28, 2018, 12:18:39 am

Man, looks great! I can tell y'all will get some awesome shut eye! I bet that baby gets dark with the blackout shades down.

I will be adding this too my wish list!  Thanks for documenting the experience!  See ya down the road maybe!

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Reply #10 – May 28, 2018, 12:39:07 am

Hello Randy, Enjoy your posts.  A tip to all re taking inside photos.  Close shades to night shade, turn on inside lights, pictures will come out better and show off your terrific MCD shades.

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