Slides awnings need replacing

We had a rotted-out topper on the living room slide that we didn't catch during pre-delivery inspection. A few weeks into our ownership we got a substantial leak into the cabinets above the dinette.

We decided to replace both the LR and BR toppers and it cost about $800.

Due to a moldy smell, I built new cabinets in the dinette - about $75 and 20 hours carpentry. I re-purposed the original cabinet hardware and it's difficult to tell they were replaced.

I had Carefree toppers on my Journey. X8 for Tough Top. Read the Carefree instruction and realized they are to deter not help, RV'ers do their own. Read and followed the greatly simplified instructions from Tough Top and replaced both including a 19 foot one in less than 2 hours with the wife helping as "Ground man".

Used the tough top awnings on our '02 Itasca Sunrise last summer. watched the video and did the job with my neighbors help. Took us about 1 hour to do both the bedroom and the living room slide toppers.

X4 for Stone Vos, I replaced my toppers last week with stone vos. Great quality....Bruce

X3 on Stone Vos. Contact Chris and he will make the toppers for you based on your measurements. He uses top quality fabric and stitches them well. His prices are reasonable and he will ship them to you and you can install them yourself or have someone do it for you.

www.stonevos.com

Deuceofspades wrote:

othertonka wrote:
X6 Tough tops not only has replacement fabric but tells you how to measure, order, and shows you how to do the replacement. Even if you buy somewhere else, take a look at their instructions if you plan on DIY.
Tough Tops

Best to have 2 or 3 helpers

All above sounds good... So that I understand how this all works, If I was to go with Tough Tops, does that means i would have to replace my current awnings altogether (as opposed to just replacing the fabric)? Or will a Tough Top fabric go in a Carefree of Colorado awning hardware?

Tough Tops is just a fabric replacement that slides into the original awning slots. You tell them what brand you have and they make it so it fits that brand, you keep everything as it is. Read all of their web site liteture and decide if you can do the job or not

I took my old topper to a local boat shop and they just matched it with the same type of fabric. Cost was about $150 each. I did the removal and install, which involves removing the endcap and sliding the old topper off. Not the easiest to do but I did this alone working off of a ladder.
Before you change fabrics, make sure that if you go thicker that you will still be able to slide the topper fabric in to the upper groove and the grove on the slide roller.
Since I had a broken spring on one topper, I changed the spring at the same time and coated it with wheel bearing grease to try to extend the life of the spring in the future.

othertonka wrote:
X6 Tough tops not only has replacement fabric but tells you how to measure, order, and shows you how to do the replacement. Even if you buy somewhere else, take a look at their instructions if you plan on DIY.
Tough Tops

Best to have 2 or 3 helpers

All above sounds good... So that I understand how this all works, If I was to go with Tough Tops, does that means i would have to replace my current awnings altogether (as opposed to just replacing the fabric)? Or will a Tough Top fabric go in a Carefree of Colorado awning hardware?

OK, the details on my slide awnings are:

BRAND = Carefree of Colorado
MODEL = Summit
SIZE = living room is 12'1"
bedroom is 5'9"

Executive wrote:
And for comparison, I had all four of mine replaced in Texas last year at a cost of $1200 for all four. Took them one day to measure and make the toppers and about 4 hours to install them the following day. I had all of them triple sewn with UV resistant thread as that's what goes first. Insurance paid for them and the adjuster jumped on that price, I was shocked...FYI....Dennis

I was told RV insurances don't cover awnings... What insurance co do you use?

I'm going to call Monaco to ask them for the details on my awnings (brand, size etc)then I guess i will call my insurance company,since I am still covered to see if they cover that.