John, I went and read the article you referred to in the August issue of "Highways", page 42.
According to the article writer, Thetford advised the Tmanor owner to replace the vinyl skirt every 1 to 2 years, depending on usage.
I am really wondering about this, because it would seem that Thetford would give a replacement guideline for this in their owner's manual, if this was a common replacement routine, as the article implies.
Bill has the Thetford manual posted here, which does show the vinyl skirt (#10 in the exploded parts diagram). The diagram shows the skirt to have it's own part number, whereas the article said it was part of a kit until they contacted Thetford about it.
http://www.thetford.com/Portals/0/PD...Magic%20OM.pdf
When cross-checking against the Thetford site, it is now in an high cost assembly, just as the article writer complained about. It's kind of a contradiction.
http://www.thetford.com/HOME/PARTS/P...8/Default.aspx
Thetford also gives instructions in the manual for replacement/repair of more common routines....but nothing about the vinyl skirt replacement.
Hopefully, your question will get answered in short by the great members here in the forums. You've got me curious now.