Removal & Repair of A&E Elite FC Slide Topper Awning Assemblies

The slide topper material (original A&E) on two of our slideout rooms has seen better days and I will replace it. Three years of full timing and the 'fabric' is detaching from the coach at the ends and has many cracks all over. Cracks are patched with Eternabond as are the ends that attach to the coach.

In 2006 the Tour, Ellipse, Vectra, and Horizon had the A&E Elite FC (Full Cover) topper assemblies.

So the problems.

1) There is a set of A&E instructions floating around on the Internet about how to remove the components of this assembly. The instructions are dated 3/05. I have a copy. Winne did a few things different though. A&E says to remove the screws holding the brackets to the room. 'Bago used pop rivets to mount the brackets. Only 3 of the 6 rivets on each bracket are completely visible.  Also, the brackets are mounted upside down (left now on right and vice versa). This hides the brackets better under the full cover. Has anyone removed the cover and the brackets to change the topper fabric?

2) I intend to use aftermarket fabric which is heavier (read thicker) than OEM. Since there is only so much clearance between the roller tube and the cover, I am left with the question, "What weight (thickness) fabric will fit on the roller without binding against the cover when it is rolled up?" Leaving the cover off is not an option. I have already queried one manufacturer. Any ideas?

'Bago Service Administration was no help with any of this, as seems to be the case lately.

I replaced my Carefree slide topper awnings a little over a year ago. The originals lasted 5 years, most of it fulltiming, before the thread/sticthing holding them together rotted out. The fabric was brittle so I replaced it. After checking with Carefree, I elected to have a local awning company make the new toppers from similar fabric. The cost was roughtly 50% what it would have been from Carefree, and they were asking for info from paper labels on the awning tubes to ensure the right size, but the labels were long gone. Then the first quote they gave me definitely had the large awning much shorter than it really is -- I decided it was both safer and cheaper to deal with a local vendor. A year later I am guessing the replacement fabric will not last nearly as long as the original did -- next time I am inclined to use a fabric more like my patio and window awnings, more cloth-like and less vinyl-like. I was parked beside a Monaco for the past month and noted his toppers appeared to be idendical material to his window awning -- the toppers looked great.

While my toppers are Carefree and yours are A&E, perhaps some of my experience might apply.  I did not remove the brackets from the slide room walls, fearing that could lead to problems down the line. I removed the aluminum cover from the roller, pinned the end of the roller (on the left end on Carefree toppers), then removed the rollers from the brackets and slipped the topper out of the track on the MH roof.  In retrospect, it would have been easier to leave the roller in place and simply remove the fabric from both the roller track and roof track.  That basically is how I put the new fabric in place -- I put the empty roller tube in place with the left end raised slightly to provide access to the awning track. Then I started both sides of the fabric in the tracks, pushing from one end, or pulling from the other, until it was all in place. Both went into place fairly easily, especially the shorter bedroom topper.

Thanks for the comments Paul.

On the A&E version the torsion bracket assemblies at each end are large since they blend in with the cover. I think I can leave one end out so I can thread in the fabric. I assume then that after the fabric is in and attached at both ends, one pulls the cotter pins or nails and gently lets the fabric wind on the roller.

Did you do yours with the room in, out, or partial? I would think partial is good, but then there is more fabric to roll when you pull the pins.

Did you do yours with the room in, out, or partial?

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When I took 'em off, on the large slide I pinned the roller then retracted the slide a couple of inches to get slack. But in working with them I found I could pull the fabric enough by hand to get enough slack to pin/unpin the rollers and did the smaller slide with it fully extended. When I put the new fabric on, after it was in place I bolted that end of the roller in place in the bracket with the slides fully out, then pulled on the fabric enough to take the pressure off and pulled the pins, then released the fabric. Then I got the radio headsets out and stayed there on the ladder close enough to fully observe the operation while I had the DW run the slide all the way in, and then back out, just to be sure the fabric rolled and unrolled as it should.  Frankly, the most difficult part of the whole job was getting the aluminum covers back in place over the rollers without the helper I had when I took them off!!  I had to get creative to figure out how to get them up in place w/o bashing up the side of the coach!