Sikaflex/Awning channel fit.

S

steve 6644

Joined
Sep 22, 2017
Posts
649
Likes collected
2,547
Funster No
50,633
Just bought one of these...

I have a Rapido 9048 and don't want a wind out awning or a drive away with straps over the top.
So, I have decided to fit an awning rail to both sides of the van to allow us to use it either side. The guy I spoke to assured me that the 12/13mm wide rail profile would be perfectly okay to be just stuck to the van side using Sikaflex 512. He also said that there was no point in screwing the profile to the van wall as the Sikaflex is completely capable of attaching the rail on its own. This awning weighs 33 kg and I am just a little concerned about the strength of these adhesives. The surface area that will be mating to the van wall will only be around 12/13 mm. I didn't want to use a larger profile as I wanted to keep the rail as small and unobtrusive as possible but I am having second thoughts now.

What do you think, will a full width bead of Sikaflex 512 be sufficient to stick such a thin rail permanently and withstand the forces of a 33kg awning attached to it??

Its the area of contact that concerns me the most, The Aluminum rail will be 390cm long with only the adhesive as a bond.
 
Can only state my 150W solar panel is held on the roof with Sikaflex 512 only for the past two years so i think your awning rail should be secure
Ian
 
IanF said:
Can only state my 150W solar panel is held on the roof with Sikaflex 512 only for the past two years so i think your awning rail should be secure
Ian
Click to expand...
As would I. Once you have experienced Sikaflex removal you'd never question its ability to attach a mere awning.
 
Your biggest problem is getting the awning up there in the first place. If you look at the way the Caravaners do it they have a rail that comes down the front which they feed the awning into and then pull it up and along.

We have the same awning on ours at the moment. It fits to the wind out awning. You wind out the awning attach the blow up one and wind the awning back up. Then just a case of pumping up the tubes. Great awning we can get ours up in about 30 minutes. Comes down very easily as we can pull it along the chanel without winding out the awning.

As for fastening it on with Sikaflex all you are glueing to is thin aluminium that may / may not have any support behind it. The ends are going to be the weakest part as they will have to take the weight of the whole awning as you try and pull it along. The ends will also need some sort of opening piece to allow the fabric to enter without jamming.
 
Last edited:
I am sure 512 will do the job. I equally sure I would prefer a wind out awning as we have on our 9048 it takes up no storage room and is very easy to wind out and in.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
We have often thought of getting an awning channel fitted but had the same reservations as you. So we decided to have wind out Fiama again as the current van has it is mounted to roof brackets so it brings any attached awning closer to the van. The gap it left on the old van was a reason for us wanting an awning rail fitted. However we are still considering getting one fitted to offside to fit a sun awning to keep the heat down in our rare hot summers and also abroad. Going on the advice you have recieved I may do it as the it would not be a full awning and weight would be quite light.
 
image.jpg
image.jpg
You mean like this, the one I fitted is a slightly different profile but I had to put a few small screws in to hold it as it would sag until set it is 5 mtrs Long made from two lengths.
 
QFour said:
As for fastening it on with Sikaflex all you are glueing to is thin aluminium that may / may not have any support behind it.
Click to expand...

That's a very good point and got me a bit worried now. Perhaps I'd better have a word with a Rapido dealer before fitting the rail just to make sure.

Cheers for the comments guys
 
QFour said:
Your biggest problem is getting the awning up there in the first place. If you look at the way the Caravaners do it they have a rail that comes down the front which they feed the awning into and then pull it up and along.

We have the same awning on ours at the moment. It fits to the wind out awning. You wind out the awning attach the blow up one and wind the awning back up. Then just a case of pumping up the tubes. Great awning we can get ours up in about 30 minutes. Comes down very easily as we can pull it along the chanel without winding out the awning.

As for fastening it on with Sikaflex all you are glueing to is thin aluminium that may / may not have any support behind it. The ends are going to be the weakest part as they will have to take the weight of the whole awning as you try and pull it along. The ends will also need some sort of opening piece to allow the fabric to enter without jamming.
Click to expand...
I tend to agree with all of that. Lifting it up into the awning channel will be no mean task without a vertical (or nearly so) section at each end. Inflatable awnings tend to be pretty heavy which won't help.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
I made enquiries about this recently at the new location of spinney mh in flint. I was told categorically that the strip would need to be screwed on, due to weight and movement of the air awning whilst up. So have decided not to bother. We’re getting concerned as the wind out was difficult going back into its casing the last time we used it. We’ve had ours two years and only use it for long stay of week+. I agree with what others have said, getting a heavy lump of material up at the height required, unless your going to carry a set of steps, would be very challenging. I’m sure @scotjimland has done something similar, but could be dreaming that!
 
Also how long would you have to hold the rail before the adhesive sets it’s ok with solar panels as they have weight holding them down but without any other fixing I think it would be impossible
 
denisejoe said:
Also how long would you have to hold the rail before the adhesive sets it’s ok with solar panels as they have weight holding them down but without any other fixing I think it would be impossible
Click to expand...
Duct tape.
 
tonyidle said:
I tend to agree with all of that. Lifting it up into the awning channel will be no mean task without a vertical (or nearly so) section at each end. Inflatable awnings tend to be pretty heavy which won't help.
Click to expand...

Hi Tony, my thinking was that as the awning is 300cm deep and the rail will be 250cm off the ground, there would be 50cm of the awning resting on the ground. This should include the weight of the whole of the front section and a percentage of both ends and some of the roof. The awning weighs around 30kg and I was hoping that the actual hanging weight as it was fed into the rail could possibly be kept below 20kg in total, if done with care. On top of this I could detach the two end panel doors in advance and reduce the initial weight on me and the awning strip still further.
I would assume once the the thing is inflated it will be self supporting and that there will be little or no weight on the actual awning rail, the main concern being the effect of wind catching the whole structure but would hope that the rail and appropriate tie downs would cope with this easily.

Caggsie1 said:
I made enquiries about this recently at the new location of spinney mh in flint. I was told categorically that the strip would need to be screwed on, due to weight and movement of the air awning whilst up. So have decided not to bother. We’re getting concerned as the wind out was difficult going back into its casing the last time we used it. We’ve had ours two years and only use it for long stay of week+. I agree with what others have said, getting a heavy lump of material up at the height required, unless your going to carry a set of steps, would be very challenging. I’m sure @scotjimland has done something similar, but could be dreaming that!
Click to expand...

Hi Caggsi, I looked at a wind out and I didn't fancy all that weight hanging off the mechanism for those reasons, plus the added cost, weight and leaks to the van side, so decided to go the awning rail route. I think the actual awning when up will fit to the van much better if threaded through an awning rail and be pretty much weather tight from above too.
I will have to get a ladder as this is all at 250cm off the ground, plus I just want one of those collapsible jobies.

denisejoe said:
Also how long would you have to hold the rail before the adhesive sets it’s ok with solar panels as they have weight holding them down but without any other fixing I think it would be impossible
Click to expand...

If I go ahead, this is how I will do it.
Obviously prepare both surfaces, snap a line at the height of the rail, stick a small piece of duct tape say every 600mm below the line, superglue a small block of wood to the duct tape so as to just touch the chalk line, clean off the chalk, load the rail with Sikaflex, place on top of the blocks, pull the rail onto the van side with duct tape strips, clean away any squeeze out and let it all set. When this is all hard, remove all duct tape and blocks then apply the widest and neatest bead of Sikaflex (cosmetically) to the top and bottom of the rail to hide any minor gaps etc plus add additional strength to the fixture as a whole.
The rail is about 12mm wide so the two beads will add another say 7mm of contact each so in total there would be around 25mm ish of contact between rail and van side.

That's the only way I can see of doing it single handed off a ladder.

tonyidle said:
Duct tape.
Click to expand...

Oh yes(y)
 
steve 6644 said:
Hi Tony, my thinking was that as the awning is 300cm deep and the rail will be 250cm off the ground, there would be 50cm of the awning resting on the ground. This should include the weight of the whole of the front section and a percentage of both ends and some of the roof. The awning weighs around 30kg and I was hoping that the actual hanging weight as it was fed into the rail could possibly be kept below 20kg in total, if done with care. On top of this I could detach the two end panel doors in advance and reduce the initial weight on me and the awning strip still further.
I would assume once the the thing is inflated it will be self supporting and that there will be little or no weight on the actual awning rail, the main concern being the effect of wind catching the whole structure but would hope that the rail and appropriate tie downs would cope with this easily.



Hi Caggsi, I looked at a wind out and I didn't fancy all that weight hanging off the mechanism for those reasons, plus the added cost, weight and leaks to the van side, so decided to go the awning rail route. I think the actual awning when up will fit to the van much better if threaded through an awning rail and be pretty much weather tight from above too.
I will have to get a ladder as this is all at 250cm off the ground, plus I just want one of those collapsible jobies.



If I go ahead, this is how I will do it.
Obviously prepare both surfaces, snap a line at the height of the rail, stick a small piece of duct tape say every 600mm below the line, superglue a small block of wood to the duct tape so as to just touch the chalk line, clean off the chalk, load the rail with Sikaflex, place on top of the blocks, pull the rail onto the van side with duct tape strips, clean away any squeeze out and let it all set. When this is all hard, remove all duct tape and blocks then apply the widest and neatest bead of Sikaflex (cosmetically) to the top and bottom of the rail to hide any minor gaps etc plus add additional strength to the fixture as a whole.
The rail is about 12mm wide so the two beads will add another say 7mm of contact each so in total there would be around 25mm ish of contact between rail and van side.

That's the only way I can see of doing it single handed off a ladder.



Oh yes(y)
Click to expand...
Sounds like a good plan. I would in addition run masking tape above and below 6mm clear of the rail. Form a neat bead with a gloved finger tapered to nothing against the tape runs. Give it 30 minutes then peel off the tape other than where the support blocks are placed. That way you end up with a neat and straight edged bead. Minor tidying will be needed when the blocks are removed. An alternative to the blocks is to use a small square of decent double-sided tape at, say, 300mm intervals. Keep the Sikaflex clear of the ds tape then include those locations as you form the bead. The ds tape will not cause any weak spots, is easier to do than affixing wooden blocks, removes any risk of the rail tilting before the Sikaflex sets, and will allow a neat bead formation over the full length.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
don't be tempted to push the bead on to hard as this will displace the sikaflex. you need 3mm of sika at a minimum to form a good bond
 
Brill, thanks. It’s something I want to do.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Brilliant! thanks Steve,(y) I actually put it on hold because the only rail that I could source locally was the type where the holes have been pre-drilled through the center of the profile and so were quite rough and needed de burring at the very least. I didn't fancy putting an expensive awning through it and hung fire. That profile you used looks to be spot on and a little wider than the 12mm I was looking at. Where did you source it please.
 
I bought it from Pioneer Caravan’s Peterbough it comes in 3 mtr lengths
 

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Join us

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Back
Top