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During my daily walkaround on April 4, I noticed the belly of the topper over the roadside kitchen slide was flapping in the breeze. I determined that the stitching forming the sleeve for the upper polycord had broken, allowing the edge of the fabric to pull loose from around the polycord and out of the wall bracket. This resulted in additional loading at the ends of the bracket, which pulled the screws loose from the wall.
Finally closed out this self-repair on April 29, not that I worked on it daily. Most of the time was spent researching directions for replacement of the fabric, ordering new fabric, organizing friends with ladders to help with the replacement, and just plan waiting.
While waiting, I pulled the vinyl trim from the wall bracket so that I could replace the pulled No. 6 by 1” screws with No. 8 by 1”. While doing this I saw that other screws in the bracket had backed out, so all were replaced with a shot of silicone caulking into each screw hole.
The number of screws that had backed out of this wall bracket drove me to a rare act of extreme preventive measurement and I removed the vinyl trim and replaced the screws in the wall brackets for the other two slides. I did find several screws that were loose a turn or two, and several of these had stained tips, possibly from water. Silicone caulking was used on all holes.
The fabric replacement went well with only a few stumbles. Mostly because I had slept since reading the instructions. Other than having to work off ladders, or the roof, this was not a challenging DIY repair.
The instructions in the manual are in more detail than I care to type, so I’ve attempted to attach the .pdf (didn’t see anything in the .pdf saying not too share). The Alpine line has been discontinued by Carefree, and I had to go through their customer service to find the documentation, which would be another source for the .pdf.
Finishing the job with new vinyl trim followed a few days after the fabric install. Long way from the RV Park to the nearest RV parts and supply stor.
Lessons learned are:
Finally closed out this self-repair on April 29, not that I worked on it daily. Most of the time was spent researching directions for replacement of the fabric, ordering new fabric, organizing friends with ladders to help with the replacement, and just plan waiting.
While waiting, I pulled the vinyl trim from the wall bracket so that I could replace the pulled No. 6 by 1” screws with No. 8 by 1”. While doing this I saw that other screws in the bracket had backed out, so all were replaced with a shot of silicone caulking into each screw hole.
The number of screws that had backed out of this wall bracket drove me to a rare act of extreme preventive measurement and I removed the vinyl trim and replaced the screws in the wall brackets for the other two slides. I did find several screws that were loose a turn or two, and several of these had stained tips, possibly from water. Silicone caulking was used on all holes.
The fabric replacement went well with only a few stumbles. Mostly because I had slept since reading the instructions. Other than having to work off ladders, or the roof, this was not a challenging DIY repair.
The instructions in the manual are in more detail than I care to type, so I’ve attempted to attach the .pdf (didn’t see anything in the .pdf saying not too share). The Alpine line has been discontinued by Carefree, and I had to go through their customer service to find the documentation, which would be another source for the .pdf.
Finishing the job with new vinyl trim followed a few days after the fabric install. Long way from the RV Park to the nearest RV parts and supply stor.
Lessons learned are:
- Be ready to pin the topper/awning. I wasn’t and did lose tension on the roller. It was not particularly difficult to get the tension back, but it did add an unnecessary step to the process. I now have two 3/16” by 2” cotter pins in my “just in case kit”.
- Good to have friends with ladders. This was a two person, two ladder minimum job. There were three of us with me working from the roof. The two friends on ladders made installing the fabric and getting everything aligned a breeze. The extra hands also helped with getting the tension back in the roller.
- Reread the instructions before starting. Nough said.
Attached Files