Skreenz

[wander]

I bought a set of Skreenz for my 1998 E250 SMB. They fit great. I'm looking forward to camping with the front windows down.

[Otter]

Looking forward to hearing your experience. I’m on the fence about purchasing them.

[wander]

Originally Posted by Otter

Looking forward to hearing your experience. I’m on the fence about purchasing them.

I hope to try them out this coming week, but depends on the weather.

[Mr.Anderson]

TLDR - buy them! you need the windows down for airflow at night and unless it's winter, there will be bugs.



FWIW - I DIY'd the exact same thing on my van, buying all the hardware, screening, and fabric, then spending a solid 8+ hours making the things - which included the two front screens and a rear door screen (so I can have both back doors wide open while I sleep if I'm out in the wilderness).



The cost was $102 in materials and ~8 hours of my time. I thought it would be a super cheap, easy and fast thing to make, but like all van build things, it took about 3x as long and cost about 3x as much as I initially expected. I'm currently at the 1.5 year mark for my van build and at this point my philosophy is "if they make it buy it, don't build it yourself" The latter takes wayyy too much time, mental energy, and effort and often doesn't save you much dough anyway. Yes there are things that you need to make custom, but save time even if it costs a little more if the thing is available on the shelf.



The screens I made did come out really well and they work great, it was nice when my friend explained "wow you made these yourself, they look professional". But - the fact that Skreenz sells the two front windows for $104 I think I would have just bought those. Granted I made the extra screen for the back door but if you have a roof fan opened up and both windows down at night I'd imagine you would get enough air flow.

[Otter]

Mr. Anderson... gees, everytime I see your name I get that same creepy feeling I got from him in The Matrix. But I digress...

I’ve had the same thought many times about my DIY projects. I have some sort of calculator in my head about how long it will take me to do something versus what I can buy the thing for. Have made many mistakes over the years but I think you’re right on this one. I’m likely to just buy the screens.

The one I’m really stuck on is I want a barn door screen that’s permanently, or semi-, affixed to the van that I can zip up out of the way and that has a magnetized opening in the middle. I’ve seen versions of this but none I can buy for a decent price? I keep thinking I need to buy the magnetic screen and then make my own zip-in/up version.
.

[Mr.Anderson]

Originally Posted by Otter

The one I’m really stuck on is I want a barn door screen that’s permanently, or semi-, affixed to the van that I can zip up out of the way and that has a magnetized opening in the middle. I’ve seen versions of this but none I can buy for a decent price? I keep thinking I need to buy the magnetic screen and then make my own zip-in/up version.
.

Yeah that would be a nice feature to have, depending on how much the starting screen is, it might make sense to buy that then do the zipper mod which would save you the trouble of patterning and measuring everything out for the van - you would just need to buy the zipper, do a cut and sew the zipper(s) in. let me know what you end up going with. shoot me a PM if you want any advice based on the ones I made, mine don't have zippers but I could see that being pretty straight forward.



I've used my screens a couple times and I'm fairly happy with how quicky I can put them up and take down. I use snaps as opposed to magnets, and I can do both front doors and the rear door in under 5 minutes, not a huge deal before passing out for the night.

[Otter]

Originally Posted by Mr.Anderson

I've used my screens a couple times and I'm fairly happy with how quicky I can put them up and take down. I use snaps as opposed to magnets, and I can do both front doors and the rear door in under 5 minutes, not a huge deal before passing out for the night.

If you’ve got any photos of your door screen setup, it would be great to take a look.
.

[Otter]

Hey Wander, apologies for hijacking your thread, but thought this install video might be helpful to some. This is the idea I’m toying with for barn door/back door screens. It’s from the Rolef company out of Canada:

https://youtu.be/pa3uZsSVX88

.

[Twoxentrix]

Otter - If I didn't already own the full screen set from Sportsmobile I think I would have gone that route. Really like the Rolef product...Glad you posted that link. Thanks

[Black95]

Hey guys. I guess I went the cheap route. I bought two pair of these on Amazon. They slide over the front door window including rear view mirror and the rear door windows on my Chevy Express van. They take about a minute to install. No zippers, no Velcro, just elastic and slip over window. It fits tight enough that you don't need any magnets either. When you take them off, just kind of wad them up and put in the little round gray zippered pouch about 4"x4". We use Reflectix window light blockers at night and they just slide into place under the inside netting.








I bought a Velcro magnetic screen on Amazon for my side doors.