I just rehabed my slide toppers and save $$$$$$$$
Last spring I noticed that one of my slide toppers was separating from the MH. The stitching had sun rotted and the fabric had pulled away from the channel. I did some research and found out that some people said Carefree had a problem with thread in late 2006 and early 2007. It wasn't UV resistant and rotted before the topper material.
I inspected my other slide toppers and found the other three had rotted stitching although the fabric was still sound. I checked the price of replacement toppers and took a deep breath.
Decided to dive into the rehab with NO experience. Not a hard job if you have help. Extended the slides, removed the roller covers, inserted a cotter pin to lock the roller, removed the hex head bolt from one end, had my two friends hand me the roller up on top of the bus, slid the awning out of the channel on the roller and then slid the other end of the awning out of the channel on the roof. Removal of the four slide toppers took about 2.5 hours.
Took the toppers to a local upholstery shop and he re-stitched all four for $120. It took us about the same amount of time to replace them.
Now that I know what I'm doing, I could cut the labor time to four hours for removal and replacement.
Before doing the rehab, I priced cost of replacing the toppers. Figured I saved enough to pay for fuel to get to AZ this winter and probably back if I paid someone to do it.
To top it off, the upholstery shop said when my topper rot out to bring them in and they can make new ones at a better cost than the Internet!
I inspected my other slide toppers and found the other three had rotted stitching although the fabric was still sound. I checked the price of replacement toppers and took a deep breath.
Decided to dive into the rehab with NO experience. Not a hard job if you have help. Extended the slides, removed the roller covers, inserted a cotter pin to lock the roller, removed the hex head bolt from one end, had my two friends hand me the roller up on top of the bus, slid the awning out of the channel on the roller and then slid the other end of the awning out of the channel on the roof. Removal of the four slide toppers took about 2.5 hours.
Took the toppers to a local upholstery shop and he re-stitched all four for $120. It took us about the same amount of time to replace them.
Now that I know what I'm doing, I could cut the labor time to four hours for removal and replacement.
Before doing the rehab, I priced cost of replacing the toppers. Figured I saved enough to pay for fuel to get to AZ this winter and probably back if I paid someone to do it.
To top it off, the upholstery shop said when my topper rot out to bring them in and they can make new ones at a better cost than the Internet!
