Awning Punched Hole In Fiberglass

87Itasca · November 04, 2016, 06:10 PM

Hi all,

The points where my awning bolts to/through the fiberglass on the sides of my RV (the "legs", per se) have had a bit of flex to them as long as I've owned it, but I had a disaster last night.

At some point overnight, we got a lot of rain. Wasn't scheduled in the forecast, but I always keep one side of the awning two positions lower to be on the safe side. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough for this particular rainstorm. So much water had collected in the awning, I had a hard time opening the side door it had sagged so much. I got all the water out, but then I noticed the damage. The point where the rear leg mounts to the fiberglass has punched a hole in the fiberglass on the camper. There's now a big hole where it has split. I will upload photos when I get the opportunity. What's my option for a repair here?

I thought about a stainless steel plate bigger in diameter than the damaged area, on both the inner and outer walls with carriage bolts reinforcing the area, but I don't know. I'm pretty disappointed by all this.

Again, I'll upload photos as soon as I can.

87Itasca · November 04, 2016, 06:13 PM

http://m.imgur.com/qq4gWHU
http://m.imgur.com/GaaSut1
http://m.imgur.com/0QEVXdQ

Rickf1985 · November 04, 2016, 07:04 PM

It looks to me like that bracket on the body is upside down, the arm should be centered on it not hanging from the bottom. That leveraged all the weight against the bottom of the bracket. I will have to look at mine in the morning since they are similar but when the arms are locked in the arm is centered on the bracket and I am sure the latch is below it.

On edit,, I just dug up a couple pics of mine and it does look the same as yours. I think what is throwing me of is that the bracket has rotated and that pivots the arm down. There is a fairly large metal plate covering that whole area on mine. Have not removed it to look under it but I can guess why it is there.

EldoradoBill · November 04, 2016, 09:01 PM

Mine is oriented the same way, but is mounted to what, at first glance, appears to be a trim piece but in reality is a heavy metal angle behind the skin, that runs the length of the passenger side. Long lags hold it secure. You may want to back it with something similar when you repair the damage.

TerryH · November 04, 2016, 11:53 PM

That trim piece actually runs along the steel framing for the floor. It works as a delineation between the coach sidewall, floor and underfloor sidewall and as a fastening point. As such it is a very strong and secure fastening point - hence the awning brackets being fastened thru it.
Orientation of the brackets on mine are as per the photos.
Somewhat surprised that an Itasca of that year would have such a weak mount. Is it possible a PO may have changed it?
Your idea, 87Itasca re the plates is sound. If it were me I would router out the damaged fiberglass, then remove the insulation, cut and glue in a hardwood block of proper thickness as a spacer, and then go with a larger and sealable outside plate. Awning bracket would be thru fastened thru the plate, spacer and inside wall as you suggested. Plate would be sealed to the fiberglass and held in place by the bracket - no additional holes required.
Possible problem could be the relation of the bracket to floor. Your entry door may help to determine this.
Suggestion - regardless of what your solution may be - do it for both arms. You have determined one weak point of two. Beef up both.

CapnDirk · November 06, 2016, 05:50 PM

Just fixed one of my legs last month. Was about to fall off. What surprised me was that Winnebago or a PO had stuffed plastic anchors in the side of it and then lag bolts. Nothing there to grab. The level of the bolts was lower than the floor so I got some 3.5 inch 3/16 self drilling/threading bolts and ran them through to the steel structure behind. You could hang your car on it now.

For cosmetics, Id go with some 1/8 aluminum diamond plate maybe twice the size of the foot. Pre drill the diamond plate for the leg bolts, silicon it to the side
(sealing AND covering your split fiberglass) and run the self drilling bolts through.

87Itasca · November 07, 2016, 09:05 AM

When I first got it, the PO said he never used the awning, and had no idea if it worked. The first time I used it, I noticed there was some movement where each leg attached to the coach, but not really enough to be concerned about.

The issue was, with each time I used it, the movement was slightly more noticeable in the rear, because you have to use a bit of effort to "pull" on the leg to get it to start sliding out to raise the awning. Last time I used it, it was getting pretty sketchy. I hoped it would last for this first outing, then I would figure out what I needed to do to repair it when I got home.

The rain didn't allow that. I'm still surprised it all collected with the slant I had on the awning. Amazingly, the 30 year old vinyl not only didn't tear (as there was what looked like a good 30-40 gallons of water in it, I couldn't even open the side door it had sagged so bad), but over the course of the next two days, it stretched back to its original shape.

I'm going to have to do some measurements Dirk, as I would suspect our units are designed the same way. I would think multiple bolts would be needed, as only two are run from the leg support through the coach. Use those, then two more on each side, going through the aluminum plate. I can try to track down some, I don't think diamond plate would be the best route, just due to the 'unevenness' of the surface.

Unfortunately, the worst part of all of this was in the process of getting the water off the roof, the majority of it drained off the rearward edge, flooding down the arm, right into the new hole, lol.

There's a decent gap between the fiberglass skin and the inner structure, maybe an inch or so. I'll find out when I cut it out I suppose.

CapnDirk · November 07, 2016, 10:32 AM

Diamond plate or stainless, something that won't rust. But I think anything larger that may spread out some of the load would be a good thing.

When I pulled my leg loose, I believed it was below floor line, and ran an 1/8 drill bit through to confirm I was OK on the back side.

Have you pulled either of the bolts? I'm curious to know if just running them shallow was a factory decision. Two long legs and a large sail in the wind can have a lot of leverage.