Solera Slide Topper Install - '19 315RLTS

[howson]

The (dealer installed) topper appears to be positioned on the slide flange trim just as you have done on the first installation.

Mine are installed lower than yours--they are in the corner as shown in the Solera installation manual. (Perhaps the new style has a different requirement?)

The big problem on a 303 is getting the dinette topper to clear the awning arm. (Will you have this potential interference to consider ?) I have about 1/4" of clearance with both retracted, but the awning does not come out at exactly 90 to the wall, so the awning arm "kisses" the end of the topper as it goes past.

I didn't consider the other awning that's over the entry door. That's an issue I'll have to investigate. More to come...(thanks for the input!).

[Bob P]

Howard, I am hoping to do this to our 337RLS soon. We have the same dilema that you have on the Dinette slide. In looking at the pics in this thread, Can you not mount the plate in your last post on the framing trim similar to the last pic below? If so, it appears that the slide awning would still be above the Dinette awning.

[howson]

Howard, I am hoping to do this to our 337RLS soon. We have the same dilema that you have on the Dinette slide. In looking at the pics in this thread, Can you not mount the plate in your last post on the framing trim similar to the last pic below? If so, it appears that the slide awning would still be above the Dinette awning.

That's how Cate&Rob 's dealer installed his, but it is not according to LCI's installation instructions. I'm also concerned that putting the bracket that high will make it almost impossible to incorporate the appropriate slope into the topper.

I'm buried in another project today, so when I get back to this I'll be sure to update this thread. (LCI neglected to include extension arms in the kit for the 150" topper, so I'm waiting for parts anyway.)

[howson]

So the DW and I have researched the dinette slide topper installation dilemma as documented in post #11 of this thread and have discovered different ways to attack the problem.

On the Facebook "Grand Design Reflection 315 RLTS Owners" page, Donald Dennis has done a great job of documenting his install and has answered a lot of my concerns regarding dropping the awning arms. As he noted, dropping the awning arms is required to facilitate installing the slide topper brackets in the location specified in the topper installation manual. Donald said there is plenty of wire (at least on his camper) to allow the arms to drop ~1.5" and the wiring does not interfere with the topper brackets.

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GDRV-Megan -- this is not the ideal place to inject a Product Suggestion but here it is nonetheless: the factory should install the awning arms lower to allow installation of the slide topper hardware. Even better--If GD installs Lippert's slide topper prep hardware this should be a very easy change for the factory and will be a win-win for everyone as it will give dealers an opportunity to up-sell and easily install toppers.
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The brackets on Donald's topper are the old style, so not quite sure if I'll have any surprises due to mine being different.

Pictures Credit: Mr. Donald Dennis from Facebook




Others have gone the same route as Cate&Rob 's dealer and installed the slide topper brackets on the slide flange. A key difference between the installs I see online (on 303 and 337 5th wheels) is the amount of trailer sidewall between the top of the slide and the roof. A 5th Wheel appears to have more sidewall than a travel trailer (TT), so on a TT the pitch of the slide topper material could be an issue if the flange is utilized.

The picture below shows the limited space to work with on the 315RLTS. If the topper hardware is mounted to the slide's flange it will raise the extended portion of the topper fabric. That will necessitate raising the rail (attached to the camper sidewall) higher to retain the proper downward slope of the material so water sheds properly.

Based on complaints I've read about how water sheds off the topper near the entry door, I'm considering inducing a slope into the railing (~1 degree?). Enough to get water to run but not visually noticeable. Assuming the trailer is level, the slope will send shed off the rear of the topper (away from the entry door).

Cate&Rob -- note the large space between the front edge of the slide and the front awning over the entry door. It looks like on a 5vr the awnings are very close to each other, but on the 315RLTS the gap is significant. There's no worry of the awning arms over the door interfering with the slide topper hardware on the dinette slideout.



So based on what I've read and seen online the DW and I are going to attempt lowering the awning arms. We'll wait until there's no threat of an afternoon storm. Or playoff football. I'll update this thread with the good (and if necessary the bad, but hopefully there'll be none to report).

Please. If you have any ideas, suggestions, or "have you considered" thoughts don't hesitate to post. I'd much rather hash out issues now.

-Howard

[GDRV-Megan]

howson thank you for the production suggestion! I have sent a copy of this to our GM's. I'll let you know if they have any feedback or questions.

[JBill9694]

Howard, I'm not familiar with your leveling system so this post may be all wet (pun intended).

Before trying to pitch the railing towards the back of your TT, you might want to look at the tolerances on your leveling system. Unless you pitch the railing enough to insure that it will always be pitched to the rear, it is probably not worth the effort. Especially with the distance between your door/steps and the slide. On our Momentum the runoff from the topper lands on the steps, it looks like on your unit this will not be a problem.

Also, pitching the railing could result in funneling of the water towards the back and against your TT instead of over the top of the topper's roller. A 1 degree slope over 10' is about a 2" drop (10'xsin(1 degree)=0.17'=2").

[Cate&Rob]

howson
Hi Howard,

Most toppers that I see (including my own) are not taut enough to prevent pooling in the center of the topper when it rains. If you get the topper too taut, it will affect retracting the slides because this tension at the top is enough to tip the slide inward as it passes the balance point. Getting enough lengthwise slope to overcome the fabric sag in the middle might be difficult.

Rob

[GDRV-Megan]

howson I have been told that in the past, all units that have the awning near the slide box, requires a Carefree slide topper. I am waiting on more information from production to find out if this only pertains to a certain floorplan or model year. I am working from home today and will be headed to Tampa tomorrow. I'm hoping to have more info regarding this later in the week. But the bracket for Carefree is different than the LCI brackets so that it allows for it to work with the current set up. See the attached pictures for clarification.

[howson]

howson I have been told that in the past, all units that have the awning near the slide box, requires a Carefree slide topper. I am waiting on more information from production to find out if this only pertains to a certain floorplan or model year. I am working from home today and will be headed to Tampa tomorrow. I'm hoping to have more info regarding this later in the week. But the bracket for Carefree is different than the LCI brackets so that it allows for it to work with the current set up. See the attached pictures for clarification.

Tampa! Great time of year to be headed down that way--hope you have great weather and get some time away from the show to go dip your toes in the Gulf.

I may not understand (possible!), but if I'm reading the Carefree installation instructions correctly there's no difference between where the brackets on the Carefree or the Lippert topper are installed. In both cases it is the inside edge of the intersection of the side and top flange.

The problem on the dinette slide on my 315RLTS is the vertical arms of the awning are installed in that location. Literally right where the instructions for both the Lippert and Carefree toppers (I don't know about the Dometic topper) state to install the bracket (see highlighted picture below).

I do not doubt that mounting the bracket on the flange works--from the pictures in the previous post it is obvious that GD does it this way and members here with many years on their rig (with dealer-installed toppers attached to the flange) has also worked. However, it appears to me that those installations are not in accordance with the topper manufacturer installation instructions.

[Superduty]

[QUOTE=howson;n10173]
Howard,
Took a so, so picture of my 18, 303. The topper on the dinette slide is mounted like Rob’s, on the lower flange. The topper is a LCI Solera. Mount looks like the picture Megan sent, picture 1, Solitude unit plant 1.

mabe this will help you out.

[howson]

[QUOTE=Superduty;n10623]

Howard,
Took a so, so picture of my 18, 303. The topper on the dinette slide is mounted like Rob’s, on the lower flange. The topper is a LCI Solera. Mount looks like the picture Megan sent, picture 1, Solitude unit plant 1.

mabe this will help you out.

Thank you, Steve!

[howson]

This is an update to post #19 where I discussed the difficulty associated with installing the topper on the dinette slide.

After a lot of contemplation I lowered the awning arms today. Thankfully, there was nothing insurmountable and the rest of the install should be relatively straight-forward. A couple of notes, though, while they are fresh in my mind.

1) I sealed all the old screw holes and also sealed the screws during reassembly with RVFlexPro Sealant. (Side note: all the screws showed signs of corrosion due to moisture penetration down the threads. Not good.)

2) If there's EGS behind the sidewall, it doesn't provide much grip. During disassembly the screws were barely in more than hand tight and when re-installing I had to be very, very careful not to overtighten. They'd have stripped out if I wasn't careful because I had the torque-limiter on my drill set to "1". The drill didn't slip (overtorque) on about 12 of the 16 screws I reinstalled. Thankfully a few did bite and seat correctly.

3) GD used a thin, black mounting tape behind the vertical arms that meet the camper. I duplicated this using a thin, heavy-duty 3M Mounting Tape.

4) There was just enough wire coming out of the slide to move the awning arms down. This could be a problem if someone tries to duplicate what I've done and finds there no slack at all.

5) The awning rail (for its fabric) extended too far to allow installation of the topper access plate. What I did was carefully pry underneath the rail with a thin, narrow metal putty scraper. Once I had it positioned correctly I carefully used a dremel to trim off just enough of the rail to allow installation of the plate. The metal putty scraper provided the safety factor so the slide wall wasn't cut once through the rail.

6) To ensure the awning didn't flop around during this mod I made a "dead man" for the extended awning. It worked well.




Below I marked approximately how much I had to trim off (there's a picture later showing it cut). On the rear side I needed to go all the way flush with the fabric. The access plate just fit. (whew)






7. The DW and I did one side at a time. We started where the power is as we knew that would be the hardest. The dirt behind the rail made it very easy to figure out exactly where the rail needed to be reinstalled, so if the side wall around the arm is dirty clean it if you're contemplating duplicating what I've done here.

There's no concern the awning will hit the topper with the awning stowed--we checked by measuring the height of the forward awning (over the doorway and bedroom window) and looked at the previously-installed toppers on the other side. There should be plenty of clearance between the rolled-up awning fabric and the new slide topper. (I'll find out definitively tomorrow!)

8. I had to remove the top corner where the flanges meet on the slide. It's just a simple plastic cover held in by three screws (two cut off flush). This was necessary to slide on the access bracket since the awning fabric rail interfered with sliding it on the access plate from the inside (as was done on the other toppers I installed).




What I did was slide the arm up against the topper's access bracket and installed the top four screws. I then had the DW bring in the awning (after releasing from the "Dead Man"!) to ensure it closed flush and didn't bind. Then I had her extend it just far enough to get the bottom two screws in. Then she extended the awning the rest of the way and I installed the final two middle screws.

Since I did one arm at a time the rear-most arm was still in it's original position, but the relatively small drop to the front arm didn't seem to affect the awning at all. The fabric still rolled up just fine and everything closed nice and flush.

The back arm was much easier since there were no wires. As previously mentioned, though, the access plate just fit.

So here's where it is now. Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'll get the topper installed! Any questions, fire away.

[Cate&Rob]

howson
Hi Howard,

Awning move looks good.

When you reference that the "bolts" did not get much grip in the EGS backer, how coarse are the threads on these bolts? EGS is just (thin) sheet metal. The best "bolts" for this would actually be "sheet metal screws" through a very small pilot hole. You are only going to get less than one complete 360 degree thread engaged with the EGS so the engagement overlap between this single thread and the EGS needs to be as great as possible.

Rob

[howson]

howson
Hi Howard,

Awning move looks good.

When you reference that the "bolts" did not get much grip in the EGS backer, how coarse are the threads on these bolts? EGS is just (thin) sheet metal. The best "bolts" for this would actually be "sheet metal screws" through a very small pilot hole. You are only going to get less than one complete 360 degree thread engaged with the EGS so the engagement overlap between this single thread and the EGS needs to be as great as possible.

Rob

They were the original screws installed by GD--they definitely weren't a fine thread. The screws are flush without a lot of torque as I was leery of turning them any further. There wasn't enough resistance to assure me I could continue to apply force to them. (Hope that makes sense...)

I'll edit my term from "bolt" to "screw" to clarify. (Oops)

[Cate&Rob]

I'll edit my term from "bolt" to "screw" to clarify. (Oops)

The terms "bolt" and "screw" are interchangeable (and often disagreed upon ) Historically, a threaded shaft into a threaded hole is a screw, but the same threaded shaft into a threaded nut is a bolt. The company that I used to work for (that you will know) could never decide on which term was correct, so every fastener became a "bolt/screw" in the parts list.

Since there is only one thread engaged with the sheet metal backer, the difference between maximum joint compression and stripped hole in the backer is a really fine line. Definitely a place to use hand tightening vs any kind of power driver.

Rob