Need ideas to repair awning foot support bracket

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ASWilson
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:17 pm

Need ideas to repair awning foot support bracket

Post by ASWilson »

The front awning support bracket fell off the wall. Both lag bolts just stripped out of the body. I shored up the material with slivers of wood and glue to give them sometihing to bite into. It lasted a year but have no stripped out again. I suspect the support block behind the fiberglass is dry rotted, but I can’t see any way to get to it to replace. I’ve been thinking about using a turkey basting syringe to try to force in some epoxy, maybe over several sessions, to create some solid material to tap with the lag bolts.
Anyone have better ideas? Is there any way to get at the wood behind the shell to replace it?
Andy Wilson
2002 26RSB (E450 V10)
Somewhere in Texas (usually)
Felders
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2020 10:58 pm

Re: Need ideas to repair awning foot support bracket

Post by Felders »

I had the same thing happen to me today! Where did you try to add wood blocks? Did your epoxy idea work? My lag bolts look pretty rusted so I’m considering taking a chance on the wood being in decent shape and going up a size and length on the bolts but not sure how far would be too far on those lag bolts. Any help would be great!

Eric Felder
2001 26RB Diesel
ASWilson
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: Need ideas to repair awning foot support bracket

Post by ASWilson »

Hi Eric,
There are no support blocks as I eventually learned. Those bolts actually go into the edge of the floor. The floor is like an ice cream sandwich: it's a sheet of 1" plywood between two sheets of plastic. In my case the water got in through the vertical sealing strip in the outer body behind the awning arm. It ran down the inside and eventually rotted out the floor plywood in that area. The ultimate fix was to peel back the wall covering and floor carpet to expose the rotted section of the flooring. I tapped it with a hammer to map the extent of rotten plywood and then drilled 1/4" holes about 1/4" deep into the rotten plywood through the top layer of plastic on a 1" grid. You can then use a thin-set epoxy like this: https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/p ... 2QQAvD_BwE
You pour it over the holes and use a card to flow it back and forth over the holes until as much as possible is absorbed. That stabilizes the plywood and in my case added enough strength to hold the lag bolts for the awning arm.
While I was in there I found that the 2x2 structural members in the wall had also rotted, so I scarfed in replacement wood before buttoning everything back up. Then also resealed the outside seam and replaced all the screws with stainless steel driven through butyl tape to try to prevent it from happening in the future. It's held up for nicely through more than 10K miles of trips since then.

I ended up having to fix the same issue on the other side when I realized the generator was about to drop through the floor that had rotted out over there. Again, pull back carpet, drill a grid of shallow holes, fill with thin epoxy and then remount the generator (this time with a steel plate over the floor to spread the weight). It's time consuming, but worthwhile. My coach is very solid now.
Andy Wilson
2002 26RSB (E450 V10)
Somewhere in Texas (usually)
Felders
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2020 10:58 pm

Re: Need ideas to repair awning foot support bracket

Post by Felders »

Oh wow. I don’t have the time or know-how to do that at the moment. I’ve been doing some research online and I’m going to try the JB weld epoxy technique. I’m going to fill the hole with the epoxy and let it set then re-drill some pilot holes and put in some new lag screws into the epoxy/wood remaining. If it works on the front for our trip this weekend then I’ll do the same on the back next week because they’re starting to pull out too.

The other fix I saw online includes a tight fitting dowel and wood glue but from what I’m read the JB weld epoxy “should be” just as strong.

Thanks for the inputs and how the floor damage is occurring and can be repaired. I’m going to keep that in mind if I can find the time to do some serious repair work because I’m sure I’ve got some water damage in the same spots.
ASWilson
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: Need ideas to repair awning foot support bracket

Post by ASWilson »

Most of. the 20 year old coaches seem to have the floor rot issue to some extent or another. Depends on how diligent past owners were about keeping the seams sealed. Here's a few pics of the damage I found behind the wall and the grid of holes in the floor before spreading the epoxy.
Good luck with your Lion. They are great coaches and worth the love and effort.
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Andy Wilson
2002 26RSB (E450 V10)
Somewhere in Texas (usually)
Felders
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2020 10:58 pm

Re: Need ideas to repair awning foot support bracket

Post by Felders »

Man your work is impressive. Let me know when you’re ready to shore up coaches full time and I’m on my way.

Tried the JB weld. It was a mess and hard to get it to fill the gap behind the wall without just pouring back out. I really should have injected it with a syringe or baster like you mentioned. The front ones only had about 3/4 inch of real bite for the new lag screws once the epoxy dried. They’re holding for now but I don’t see this being a long term fix. I might make another attempt at filling in epoxy behind my current plugs to get more JB weld into the gaps. On the back footing I pushed little sticks of wood into the holes to push the epoxy deeper and then left them in to maybe reinforce it. I’ll drill the pilot holes and secure the lag screws tomorrow and hope it holds on our trip this weekend.

Spitballing my next option if these epoxy fills don’t hold (and while still trying to avoid tearing up carpet or opening walls) I might just move the footings up about 3 inches and put through bolts all the way through the walls into some secured “decorative” 2x4 moulding wood secured to the floor behind the front recliner. These would give me good backer boards against the walls for pull force and securing into the floor should give me good strength for pushing. I could do this on the back easily especially with that area being hidden from view and use a heftier 4x4. Sealing all new holes with butyl and caulk. Thoughts?
ASWilson
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: Need ideas to repair awning foot support bracket

Post by ASWilson »

If you move the awning arm up three inches, you would be going through the 2x6 right next to the roll bar. As you can see, in my case there was no 2x6 left, so that approach would just pinch the interior wall towards the fiberglass. If there is still wood back there, your approach might work, but you would have to shorten the awning arm by three inches. You might be able to take up that much in the telescoping awning arm section if you remove the little set post and put it in a hole lower down.
But you also might have gotten enough epoxy in there to hold it. But bring duct tape. The last time mine pulled out a hundred miles from home a lot of duct tape secured it to the fiberglass well enough to make it back.
Andy Wilson
2002 26RSB (E450 V10)
Somewhere in Texas (usually)
Felders
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2020 10:58 pm

Re: Need ideas to repair awning foot support bracket

Post by Felders »

Solution! Structural screws. I put a 12 inch GRK brand self drilling self tapping structural screw into the back awning bracket and it’s holding like a rock right now. My worry is that the wood is so rotted that it will eventually pull the good wood back into the rotted void. So since it’s the back and hidden (for a 26RB model it’s in external/internal compartment under the bathroom closet with the water heater), I went ahead and cut out a small (about 4x6) section of flooring and will epoxy in the flooring like you did on yours. Then once I let that dry I’ll drill in a second 12 inch structural screw and I can’t imagine that not holding forever.

Thanks so much for the tips and advice!
I’ll let you guys know if it doesn’t work.

Eric Felder
2001 26RB Diesel
Texas
WardPAW
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2014 10:03 pm

Re: Need ideas to repair awning foot support bracket

Post by WardPAW »

We had a similar issue with a loose awning bracket resulting from a water leak and rotten floor. Repaired the floor in the same manner with liquid epoxy (Git Rot). The water leak originated at the horizontal seam above the front cone window. Re-sealed the horizontal seam with 3M 4000 sealant/adhesive. The vertical seam was re-sealed with ProGel.

Installed a new style (alloy) Carefree of Colorado bracket. Cut a piece of starboard poly to fill the gap in the bracket. Drilled new holes in the repaired floor. Installed stainless steel lag bolts and used 3M 5200 sealant/adhesive to secure the bracket and seal the bolt and hole. The bracket is very solid and no leaks. Also replaced the plastic foot on the awning arm with an alloy foot. The rear plastic bracket and foot were eventually replaced as well due to dry rot from the Florida sun. See attached photo.
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Ben Ward
2005 26 RSB, Diesel
RV Name: Lion PAW
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