Camco 53051 RV Door Window Shade, Light Blocking

The Camco 53051 is a light-blocking shade made for the little window in your RV's entry door. That's the window that never seems to have a good cover. Morning sun pours right through it, and at night anyone walking past the campsite can see straight in. This shade fixes both. It measures 25-1/4 inches long by 16-1/4 inches wide and mounts right over that door window.

It's built from black nylon ripstop with a silver reflective backing. The ripstop face is what you see from inside, dark and clean. The reflective side faces out toward the glass, and that's the part doing the real work. It bounces sunlight back before it turns into heat inside your rig. Park in the afternoon sun and you'll notice the difference near the door, especially in summer when the whole coach is fighting to stay cool.

Install is about as simple as it gets. The shade attaches with hook-and-loop fasteners, and Camco includes nine of them in the package. You stick the loop tabs around the door window frame, press the shade on, and you're done. No drilling, no tools, no adhesive on the glass itself. When you want the light back, peel it off and roll it up. It stores flat in a drawer or a door pocket until the next trip.

We like this one for a few real situations. If you're a light sleeper and the sun hits your door side early, this keeps the cabin dark past sunrise. If you're boondocking and want a little privacy after dark, it blocks the view in without you having to close every blind in the rig. And if you're parked broadside to the afternoon sun, the reflective backing takes some of the load off your air conditioner. Small piece of gear, but it earns its keep on a hot weekend.

Campground mornings are the big one for us. You've got the shades drawn on the main windows but that door glass is still letting a bright stripe of light across the floor at 6 a.m. Cover it with the 53051 the night before and you actually sleep in. Same story at a busy RV park where the sites are close together. A little separation from the walkway goes a long way toward feeling like the rig is yours.

The face carries Camco's Life Is Better At The Campsite design with the retro stars print, so it looks like it belongs rather than a plain black rectangle taped over the glass. It's a nice touch if you like your setup to have a little personality. And because it's fabric, it packs down small and weighs almost nothing.

Nylon ripstop holds up to the abuse of RV life. It resists tearing, shrugs off a little rain if you catch a storm rolling in before you get the door shut, and wipes clean with a damp cloth. There's no rigid frame to crack or hinge to seize, so there's really nothing to break. Fold it, stash it, and it's ready the next time you need it. Over a season of weekends it just keeps doing its job.

A couple of honest notes so you buy the right thing. This is a manual shade, meaning it's a fabric panel you put up and take down yourself, not a spring-loaded or motorized unit. It's sized for a standard RV entry-door window at 25-1/4 by 16-1/4 inches, so measure your window before ordering. If your door glass is a lot larger or smaller than that, this won't be the right fit. And it covers the door window only. It's not a windshield shade or a full window kit for the rest of the coach.

For the money, it's one of those upgrades you wonder why you waited on. Keeps the sun out, keeps the neighbors' eyes out, and knocks down a little heat while it's at it. Toss it in the drawer when you don't need it, put it up in about a minute when you do.