Jetjockey Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Is it possible to slightly adjust carefree slidetopper to remove some of the sag? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cherry Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 That depends. The original fabric was either Sunbrella or equivalent. Mine were newer than yours, but I had to replace them in 2015. My Camelot is stored under a “Carport” structure and all slides are closed. My issues were the abrasion of the fabric and the thread in the seams and the “sagging”. We used out MH about 2 months out of every year…so the slides were out. I had @throgmartin make new toppers and he recommended a Vinyl. I THINK I was one of the first. All was well on 3. BUT, even a new and he made a replacement vinyl topper sagged on the drop down main slide with the refrigerator on one end. The geometry and design was that when the slide reached full extension, the corner where the refrigerator was would drop down a smidge more….snd that warped the “envelope” of the slide….so the front slide was not out as far snd the water ponded on the front. That slide was adjusted by a very experienced tech, recommended by Chris. Helped a smidge….but, from a stress analysis or measurement standpoint….when the corner drops downwith the refrigerator the slide then warps…. My other 3 Vinyl slides are perfect….and they were installed correctly where the tech counted the turns and just replaced them. If you have sagging on your Non Drop Down slides, odds are….NOPE. Fabric is stretched. There is not adjustment on one end or the other….the roller is fixed or has the same number of turns and is pinned or secured there. NOW…if you measure the tops and bottoms and look carefully and measure precisely and the slide is warped….as in it is NOT coming out exactly the same distance on each side….then correct that….but there is NOT, to the best of my knowledge….based on my Carefree design, s way go adjust a corner or side from the top. You get the sldie square….measure top and bottom and in the center. If the topper safe, replace….if not squared up, adjusting the stops and get the slide moving and stooping correctly… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacwjames Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 My slide toppers have an internal spring. Installation instructions will show how to tension the spring, the number of rotation of the shaft depends on length. I had a spring break and had to replace. I decided to give one more then suggested rotations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinvz Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 I have new slide toppers from Talin. I know from the DW’s craft as a seamstress that it is near impossible to perfectly stitch fabric so that it will be 100% tight all along the length of the slideout. So we do have some pooling but we view this as a minor inconvenience. That said, I have not increased the spring tension of the toppers to see if this will improve the ponding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Pratten Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 Short story - I used layers of tape on the topper tube to create a “bulge” on the tube to tighten the fabric. Long story - Our slide topper material was in pretty good condition, however, it sagged on one end and collected a pool of water. I took the material off and measured from cord to cord across the length of the topper. I found the cord to cord measurement is nominally 46” and was about 3/16” longer in the middle of the side where it puddled Since our slide extends 19”, a little more than half of the topper material was never unrolled and exposed to weather. I flipped the topper fabric so the unexposed material would now be used and the previously exposed material was placed on the tube side. To compensate for the 3/16” difference in lengths, I put several lengths of painters tape on the tube prior to reinstalling the topper. I built up tape layers starting around 6’ long and shortening about a 1’ for each successive piece. In the end, I suspect I built it up about 1/16” in the middle of the tape layers, which taper down from there. Worked very well, the slide topper looks new and is very taught. When the topper is extended, there’s 4 layers of fabric still on the tube with a bit more fabric wrapped on the area with the tape “bulge”. All in all, took about 3 hours with my son helping. Suspect could cut that in half, having figured out how to safely remove and reinstall the topper. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetjockey Posted February 14 Author Share Posted February 14 (edited) That is being inventive. Will consider . It would take so little to bring it up tightly. When I get a chance I am going to look at the mechanism. See it there is a way to modify the spring arrangement to take up a little tension. May have to dissassemble and remachine a little.rv Shop suggested that taking a full turn is not necessarily a good idea.it can cause slide extension and sealing problems in some cases. Thankyou all for you responses. Edited February 14 by Jetjockey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throgmartin Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 The vast majority of Carefree slide toppers will have a little sag. Trying to tighten them up so they are tight is done with spring tension. But putting too many winds in a spring can lead to other issues - spring bind and complete failure of the spring. As the founder of Stone Vos I have over a decade and a half of experience with slide toppers. I also was brought in at service centers to train technicians on Carefree topper assemblies. Working everyday with slide toppers and assemblies while also sewing them has allowed me to witness every issue with a slide topper system. Freddie: You have an 05 coach so will have the SOK II slide topper assembly. The SOK II spring is located on the left side. These assemblies differ from all other Carefree models as the tension on the spring is done with a horizontal hold down bolt. The SOK II came out in 2003 and was replaced by the SOK III mid way through 2006. If you have acrylic ( canvas ) toppers then you need to know they will stretch over time creating more sagging. High quality poured vinyl toppers will not stretch. Laminated vinyl will. My suggestion is if the toppers sag a little let it go. Tightening up the spring to get rid of a little sag could end up creating other headaches. Pictured below is an SOK spring tension hold down bolt. This bolt cannot be loosened until the roller tube has been pinned in place. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetjockey Posted February 14 Author Share Posted February 14 Thankyou great advice. I always like the “let it go” recommendation. I will take a look at it just for info purposes. Realizing disassembly can create problems so I will not get too carried away with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan K Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 I bet you have also seen people pushing inflatable 'toys' under the toppers to keep water flowing off them. I don't have that problem, just an observation. I do however have one of those much bigger inflatable tubes to keep wind from blowing at us from under the bus, unrelated... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throgmartin Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 2 hours ago, Ivan K said: I bet you have also seen people pushing inflatable 'toys' under the toppers to keep water flowing off them. I don't have that problem, just an observation. I do however have one of those much bigger inflatable tubes to keep wind from blowing at us from under the bus, unrelated... I made a new topper for a guy who owned a Newell. He put some contraption under the topper, forgot about it, brought the slide in and destroyed his new topper. I had to make him a second one. 🙂 I have heard and seen it all. The best one was when I made a prototype topper, installed it on my coach and 2 weeks later a family of squirrels decided to make a nest using my slide topper fabric. Dang tree rats. 😞 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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