310GK Slide Toppers - Steve's experience

[steve&renee]

So my 2018 Solitude 310GK came with Carefree Latitude and Longitude awnings on the curb/entry-door side. We wanted a topper on the dining room slideout -- mostly to abate the noise when it rains. So last year, I measured the length of the dining room slideout and ordered a Lippert Solera that somebody had a good deal on at the time.

I didn't consider a couple of things when I ordered.

1) The two awnings (Latitude and Longitude) butt up against each other so that the dining room topper that you get based on nominal measurements can't be centered on the slideout being topped. The standard length topper for the dining room slideout has to be offset to the left, because the awning on the right prevents moving the dining room topper far enough to the right to center it over the slideout.

2) The Latitude slideout awning that covers the dining room slideout occupies the space that Solera intends for you to install the slideout hex-keyed mounting brackets. And the Latitude awning just can't be lowered as was done by howson. So I mounted my brackets in the non-Solera recommended upper position. See pics, below.

To mount the hex-keyed mounting brackets, I bought this hardware:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

12mm M5 was a perfect length and diameter, and the flat profile bolt head eliminated issues with sealing the slideout against the rubber bulb seal:



I mounted the bolts so the flat bolt-head was on the bulb-seal side, and the locking nuts were on the front side. All stainless;



The topper offset issue due to the proximity of the two awnings is seen here:



Continued in next post. Server doesn't seem to like lots of pics. . .

[steve&renee]

Continued from previous post.

So with everything mounted and the slideout extended, here's the result:



But here's the thing. Because I offset the topper to the left -- and pre-drilled the hex-keyed bracket inboard on the slide for strength (I didn't anticipate that I'd be offsetting everything), the Lippert-supplied hex rod turned out to be too short.

Luckily, I found a source for a solid-aluminum hex bar EXACTLY the same size as the Lippert supplied tube: MidwestSteelSupply.com

Order Contents
====================
6061 Aluminum Hex Bar (61AHB34)
Hex Dimension: 3/4
Quantity: 1
Length: 28.0000
Price: $11.77
Item Total: $11.77

This is what it looks like:



That's my story and I'm stuck with it.

-Steve

[howson]

steve&renee ,
I didn't consider the awning over the main door, either, when I ordered my toppers. I just got lucky that there's a large gap between the awning arm and the slide on my 315RLTS.


The angle of your topper looks good. I don't expect you'll have any water accumulation/pooling on it. When it does rain will you post a follow up? I've had a few private message exhanges on the topic and I know other folks are interested in abating the pooling effect on their toppers.

The hardware location on the inside of the flange looks like the bolt heads are below where the flange meets the bulb seal. Nice job!

Howard