slide out awning

[lapalma-xl]

hi, just had my slide out awning rip while coming back from camp. its about 3 feet rip. now if i take the awning out completely will it start to leak water when it rain? i have seen some slide outs without an awning? any input would be great. thanks

[FleetMan]

If the seal on top of the slideout is good, you should not have a problem. Just make sure you have all the leaves, sticks and debris off the top of the slide out before you retract it. That is standard practice for those who do not have a slide-out topper.

[lapalma-xl]

thank you

[NeilV]

Once you are accustomed to the topper being there, having to clean off the top of the slideout before you close gets old very quickly especially when it is wet or currently raining.

I put some Eternabond Roof/Flashing tape on mine when it tore as a temporary fix until I can get the replacement fabric for the topper.

[Tarheel]

If the fabric is ripped away from where it is attached to the MH, there is a repair kit you can purchase to repair it. We had a tree limb fall during a strong storm and it made a 2 ft. rip in one of ours. The repair kit consists of a needle and strong thread along with an epoxy that you coat the repair with. We kept that coach for 3 years and the repair was still good when we traded the coach. The repair kit is sold at RV supply stores and is also used to repair canvas tents.

If your rip is at the point of attachment to the MH, then that is a different story. On a coach that I just traded, we had two slide toppers rip at point of attachment during a storm on the Outerbanks and I tried everything suggested to repair them, but nothing worked. I then contacted my insurance company and they replaced both of them.

[RickO]

Again, depending on where the rip is you might have some success with the awning repair tape sold at Camping World...

I put some on a smaller rip on my slide topper as a temporary fix nearly a year ago and it's holding fine.

[lapalma-xl]

thanks for all the reply.

it used to have a tape fix but it didnt hold a strong wind driving back home. now its about 3 feet rip it ripped from the thread. i will try and get the repair kit with needle and heavy duty thread.

[J. Ingram]

Has anyone repaired the rip and then reversed the slide topper to use the part that is rolled up all the time? There is more than enough to do this instead of buying new material.