im going to look at a camper tomorrow

hydetherat · 08-31-2009, 05:55 PM

i am going to look at a 1979 bethany pop up camper and the person im buying it from says the roof sags and there is some stiching coming out of the canvas how do i fix it

Superslif · 08-31-2009, 06:27 PM

As far as the canvas, "dry rot" is hard to repair. It's very common for the canvas around the area where the 4 lifting supports rise and fall to be worn out or ripped. A sagging roof, is another ? You want to make sure the underlying structure is solid. When the roof is lowered, does the gasget on the bottom edge of the roof unit seal the unit when lowered, or does it over-lap where water can enter when traveling in the rain. You can always replace the gasget, but if there is a large gap, water will enter. As far as fixing the canvas, I know my brother on his old 77' pop-up used flexible hot glue to make small patches. You have to kind of sample different types of glue to see what holds.

Doing a Goggle search, it looks like that year of pop-up has a one piece roof. Check this out Bethany Blog

hydetherat · 08-31-2009, 11:33 PM

so if it is a solid top its o.k it could be fixed how about if it is not what do i look for pop ups are totally new to me

Superslif · 09-01-2009, 06:34 PM

I would say the 2 main things to look for is the shape of the roof. Unless your handy, fixing a sagging roof where it doesn't seal very well can be a deal breaker. Water damage is the #1 thing to look for......Look under the trailer to see if the floor is soft. (dry rot). How does the lift system run up and down. What price point are you looking at? I'm starting to see some older Colemans (97' - 99') going in the $2000-$3500 range.