Slideout Awning Instal ?

OK, so here is the deal, we have friends, who in the first 18 months of ownership, discovered that their slide had been leaking, apparently since day one. By the time they realized it, the ENTIRE slide had to be replaced. Was not an R-Pod or Forest River product. The dealership went to bat for them and got it covered under warranty. Took about 6 weeks to get it done.

So we are sure we don't want any chance of that fun and adventure if we can help it.

Ordered a Carefree Sideout Kover II to fit a 72" roof. Trailer already has an awning rail in the right place.

BUT.. looking at it, right where the awning itself should mount, there is a trim piece that runs all the way around, with a plastic insert that covers what I assume to be the screws that hold the "flange" to the "room"..  It looks like that will need to be cut and removed in the area where the mounting brackets for the awning need to go..

Anyone else done such a thing and how did you handle it??

Thanks in advance for any help..
 

OK, update on progress..

The trick is in getting the mounting brackets in the right place, so the brackets will be screwed into the room framing. That framing is directly under the flange track..

Having to build a filler piece to go inside the flange "track", and a spacer to go below it and support the brackets. I am using .250" x 1" aluminum bar stock to build them. The spacer I just drilled holes to line up with the bottom bracket holes and painted. But the filler for the track area of the flange I am fitting.. it needs to be .610" x .180".. that should make it flush, +/- a couple .001's with the spacer..

Once they are done, I will remove the track filler strip, a couple screws that the factory put in there, put in my filler and line up the bracket, mark, remove filler, drill it, then use the self tapping screws provided with the awning to mount the brackets. There are also two corner filler/cover doohickies that will need to be modified.. all easy from there.

Its too bad they didn't include mounting points from the factory.

It looks good so far.  Good job!

Terry

Nice job.  I was going to do this also, until I read that Forrest River advised against it.  They never gave a reason why they didn't want us to do it, they just said not too.  My 'guess' is that they are concerned that the awning could bind and damage the slide out mechanism.  I can't see any other reason why they would care.

After my warranty is up, I will probably go ahead with this project anyway.  I wasn't to worried about water per-say, but more about sticks and stuff getting caught up there and tearing the seal when I draw the slide back in.