Awning Seam Separation

[melnoelhorn]

The thread and several of the seams on my awnings has come loose or separated. Is there a glue or seam sealer that will repair this or must I have the awnings removed and resewn?

[wolfe10]

Welcome to the FMCA Forum.

Best advice because of the several different materials used in awnings is to contact the maker of your awning and ask them.

And if restitching is an option look for a boat canvas shop-- they stitch awning material for a living. And that would be my "second best" advice-- run the coach by a boat canvass shop and let them take a look at it.

Brett

[tbutler]

We had seams separate and tears in our slide toppers and took them to American Awning in Wheat Ridge, CO several years ago. They reinforced the seams and resewed them per my specifications. I was very happy with the result. Any awning company should be able to do the job for you.

If these are seams that are exposed when you are driving, I suggest that you have them reinforced. I had a layer of fabric folded over the area that was exposed to the wind when driving and then had the seams resewed over this so now there are actually three layers with the outer layers being much wider than the original seam. Since I had this done only in the area that was exposed when driving, it doesn't wrap around the roller when the awning is retracted and the extra layers cause no problem with their additional thickness.

[rorr1821]

I have a 2008 Monaco Diplomat and had a similar problem with all four of my awning slide toppers. The manufacture of the awning's , Carefree, replaced all the toppers under warranty. That same year we drove to Alaska and put around 13,000 miles on the coach. After returning from that trip I started to see threads coming loose and the material was showing signs of wear.

Having just 6 months earlier gone through a complete awning change out I decided to investigate this more closely. What I discovered is that the metal cover which is over each awning had a lip which was approximately 3/4 " wide which ran the full length of the awning. I believe this lip was there to minimize trash from getting under the cover but it did more harm than good. The edge of this lip was rubbing on each side top edge of the awning material causing it to wear the fabric and threads. Keep in mind that on the awning edges the material is double thikness which may not seem like much but it doubles the overall thickness as the awning's roll up. I went back to Carefree through the dealer and they again changed the awning material under warranty and also sent some rubber edging material to minimize the rubbing.

This suggested to me they had this problem before. I did not agree with there fix. So I had the dealer replace the awning material but not install the rubber. My fix was remove approximately 7/16" of the metal material from each awning cover. Keep in mind this is aluminum so rust is not a problem. You can not see this area once the cover is installed on the awning because it is on the back side between the awning cover and the exterior side of the coach.

Cutting this excess metal from awning cover is rather tricky. I purchased a saw blade made to cut aluminum for my table saw and then built out of wood a simple guide jig. Then it was a matter of running each metal cover through the saw. After installing the covers the clearance between the fabric and the metal cover edge was sufficient to prevent any rubbing and now I have no problems with awning wear. This was a complicated fix, I must admit, but as long as the metal edge of the cover came in contact with the awning material the vibration from traveling down the road was going to wear the material. In my mind this metal awning cover had a design flaw.

[DaveLindaSC]

I just had and alterations shop double stitch one of my toppers. Working great cost was $20.00.