Roof repair question

[sprint]

Recently bought a 1993 Texson pop-up (same as a Northstar TC800). Even though I'm in the midwest and will be using it differently than most of you, this forum has been a huge help over the past year.

The back of the roof has seen a little water but is still in fairly good shape. The bolts on each side of the back edge of the roof are all a little skewed from the torque from the roof torsion system.

My plan to fix/stabilize the situation is to use a 2" wide, 1/8" thick piece of aluminum on the inside of the back side of the roof. One the outside, I would use a 6" long piece on each side. The two bolts on each side would then go through the outside piece, the plywood of the roof perimeter, the inside aluminum and then the roof bracket. My thinking is that having the inside piece of aluminum span between the two sides would take away the torque placed on the wood where the Heco lift mounts.

I'm undecided if there would be any benefit to adding a couple of bolts through the roof and new aluminum piece mid-span. I would like to avoid drilling a couple more holes through the back edge of the roof.

Also, I plan to use some epoxy/rot-fix wood stabilizer to make sure the plywood perimeter frame on the roof does not get any worse.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks for all the inspiration with all the build/repair threads.

 

[Sock Puppet]

My Northstar has done the same thing, and I've seen several others with the same issue. I plan to do much the same as you have outlined above, but plan on using a full-width piece on the outside to provide a more solid mount for my Fiamma awning. I've also considered making the pieces where the lift flanges are located into more of a "U" shape so they cradle that portion of the roof, but haven't seriously looked at it yet. I'm not sure it it will work with the aluminum trim.

I'm using mine too much right now to tackle it, so I plan on making it a late fall project. Please keep us posted if you do yours!

 

[BurtC]

My 2011 TC800 had the same problem. Apparently water seeps in around the bolt heads and dry rots the plywood behind them. Gosh NorthStar, A little caulking would of prevented this.
I spent a fair amount of time replacing the whole dry rotted ply with Marine ply. Then added an outer layer of composite siding all the way across. Mounted a backup camera up there too.
The backup camera is a must for launching a boat.