Fuel Lagoon - Exterior Blind

andys

Ex member
VIP Member
T6 Legend
I know there was a thread recently about the interior ones but I've finally given in and although I prefer interior I'm coming round to the conclusion that when I'm at a campsite one of these would be a quick and easy way to black out the front of the van and be less fiddly when I've got my grandaughter. plus she would love it if I got one with eyes on :)

I'm attracted to these as they seem easy to fit and it says they roll up very small for storage, but the reviews seem a bit mixed, anyone had any experience of them? Or an alternative? Eyes are a prerequisite :D

For wild camping I don't like exteriors so for my next project I'll be buying some T5 Remifront blinds and making them fit a T6. I hope...
 
Ok resounding silence there so decided to be the guinea pig again and take a punt.
First off, their marketing is poor. I'm not on facebook and it's going to stay that way, so I had to go by their Ebay shop and website. Very difficult to decide which one to go for as each colour/design has its own entry on ebay and several of them didn't say what colour it was supposed to be. Then if you clicked on it you were told "no images have been uploaded for this item" so you had to go back to the thumbnail and judge from that. In the end I had to extract the image from the site and blow it up so I could make it out properly. Not ideal.
No pictures of the side either so you just had to hope that would be ok. The normal ones were £80 and then there were deluxe versions, which looked exactly the same, for £10 more. No explanation what was deluxe about them, other than to say they were printed on "our deluxe cover", so I went for the £80 ones with purple eyes.

Arrived very quickly by a courier that gives you an hour window, always prefer that, and I've got it out to have a look and see how it fits.
Firstly, a couple of the reviews mentioned it folded up so small it would fit in the glovebox - it doesn't, not even close, but it would have to be very thin material indeed to do so. Even so, the size is small enough to wedge in somewhere without too much issue. The bag it comes in feels decent quality and the screen itself is made of a heavy, good quality canvas.

IMG_4742.JPG

They make a big play in their advertising that they make a specific design for the T6, rather than selling a 'one size fits all' T5/6 version so I expected a good fit.
Putting the screen on was easy, though I can see it needing two people if it was windy and the fit across the windscreen seemed good. The only way to get it tight across the doors is to go inside and pull the fabric tight with one hand while closing the door with the other, doing it from the outside always meant that it would loosen off as the door was slammed. Doing it from the inside got it fairly tight and the elasticated top and wipers on the bottom should keep it in place okay, though I'm trying it in absolutely dead calm on the hottest day of the year so time will tell.

So far so good, but two black marks. Firstly, the emphasis on the different T6 design was to allow for the different mirrors, but the cutout for them comes far too high, and the velcro fastenings underneath cannot be made tight enough to close the gap that opens around them, meaning that light gets through under each mirror. You could probably stuff something in there, take the velcro off and stitch it on further round, or sew another piece of material over the gap, but for something supposedly so tailormade for one specific vehicle it's a bit disppointing. Now the biggest minus - it isn't fully lightproof, I can see pinpricks like starlight all over it, and clear shadows from a tree. Fair enough, it was pointing almost toward the midday sun in the middle of summer, but even so something is light-tight or it isn't so don't advertise it as light blocking if it isn't. I have blackout blinds in my bedroom or I can't sleep and the room is totally black, no matter what it's doing outside.

Photo 27-06-2018, 13 49 49.jpg



So my verdict? Yes I'm happy with them overall. They're almost lightproof and that should be good enough for my needs, which are when I'm on a campsite with my grandaughter. My old silver screens, which I hated, always leaked tiny patches of light from where they would sometimes bow away from the windscreen fractionally during the night, and this will be a bit better in that respect. I also always managed to crack my head on the roof whenever I was fitting them and was forever forgetting to fit them before swivelling the seats. The other factor is the price, there is no way I would pay the £200 plus being asked for this sort of thing. Even if they are better quality, I simply wouldn't have bothered at that price.

I won't use it when it's just me though, I like the Remi concertina blinds having had them on my T5 and I've got bored of waiting for them to bring out a T6 version so I have an early T5 set and a pair of T6 A pillar covers on the way from ebay that I'm hoping to cobble into a solution.
 
I've got a plain black one and very pleased with it.
With hindsight that's what I should have done and then got some vinyl eyes made and stuck them on, world have been much cheaper.
Granddaughter has now asked if I can paint the bumper red so " it looks like a smiley mouth with lipstick on". No - got to draw the line somewhere :rolleyes:
 
I have the plain black one of these and I agree with you about the fit, but am generally happy with it for the price. I use it in conjunction with the insulated internal silver sceens and they keep the light out pretty well between them.
 
I have the plain black one of these and I agree with you about the fit, but am generally happy with it for the price. I use it in conjunction with the insulated internal silver sceens and they keep the light out pretty well between them.
I bought them so I could get rid of internal stick on screens, I hate them

Edit: just realised I keep saying "them" when of course the blind is an " it" as it's one piece.
 
Wish I'd seen this before I bought mine....

Big swathes of light down the sides. Specified T6 on order, sent pics and measurements as requested...
☹️
 
Wish I'd seen this before I bought mine....

Big swathes of light down the sides. Specified T6 on order, sent pics and measurements as requested...
☹️
Yes it's not great, but I have internal concertina blinds as well now which keep the light out completely, and homemade magnetically attached blackout blinds for the cab windows. I only use the Fuel Lagoon blind when I'm on a site with my granddaughter cos she loves it, otherwise it stays at home.
 
Yes it's not great, but I have internal concertina blinds as well now which keep the light out completely, and homemade magnetically attached blackout blinds for the cab windows. I only use the Fuel Lagoon blind when I'm on a site with my granddaughter cos she loves it, otherwise it stays at home.
Which internal concertina blinds do you have?
 
Ah! I was hoping that a T6 version was available.
So was I by the time I'd finished ;)

I believe you can use Cali ones, but you would have to replace a lot of other trim inc headlining and over mirror console so it would work out pricey
 
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