T1N Interstate - how exactly is the awning mounted?

[InterBlog]

I'm perfectly capable of figuring this out myself, EXCEPT, I really hate cracking good screw seals unless absolutely necessary, especially when they might penetrate the van body. I'm chasing a water leak and trying to rule in or rule out the awning as a possible source without pulling more stuff apart than I need to.

Have any of you removed your Carefree Freedom III manual awning, and if so, what can you tell me about it?

Airstream appears to have used the T1N Sprinter gutter as a de facto rail mount in a way that is not consistent with the manufacturer's instructions (per the OEM installation manual, Carefree's parent company was envisioning a more conventional awning rail or mounting plate). Most of the weight of the awning appears to be sustained by the gutter, but it must also attach through the body side to keep it from pivoting down due to gravity.

Here are two annotated photos of what I THINK is going on. Is this consistent with your observations, if you have worked with your awning?

BTW, when I use the word "compression", I'm referring to the DIY gear replacement instructional PDF that one of our sometimes-posters put together a few years ago.

TIA.

[85MH325]

I replaced the crank-gear mechanism under the plastic cap at the rear end. The most I can tell you is that there is nothing penetrating the van past the end of the aluminum awning body housing. The gear unit screws into the aluminum awning body, not the van body and the cap is just that, a snap-on cap.

I think you're spot on with your analysis otherwise, but I've not done any more with my awning than that either so I can't tell you anything else for sure.

[Lotus54]

I’ll look more closely at mine- but I have a Fiamma awning on my 2006, so perhaps quite different.
Mine appears it may indeed have through body mounts (but I could not really verify that so far).

Mark

[InterBlog]

I'm bettin' that Airstream placed three bolts through the awning body (two on the ends and one in the middle), but I never make assumptions.

But I still haven't confirmed my leak source - the awning may not have anything to do with it.

Yesterday I finished interim-patching up the most likely offenders - the rear roof rack feet - as best as could be done under the circumstances, but that, too, became a comedy of errors.

We had recently caulked a leaking hot water heater vent pipe on our stick-and-brick house - in fact, it was yet another lesson in why owning a welder is a good idea. We needed to create a roof bracket for our extension ladder, and the type we wanted is barely for sale in America due to the obvious product liability, and what ones ARE for sale are very expensive. So LB_3 designed and welded his own ladder bracket.

Anyway, mission accomplished - LB_3 successfully caulked the offending roof vent on the house, and I reserved the rest of that Sikaflex tube for the van.

Well, Sikaflex does not keep. By the time I got to it yesterday, it was the consistency of silly putty, and it was only 2 weeks old and had been properly capped during its short life. But even two weeks is too long for Sikaflex. I applied it anyway, but it was uncooperative. So hopefully I managed to seal the feet well enough for the time being, and we can test it during this holiday week's expected rainfall.