Our 10 year old camper has been exposed to Colorado sun for most of its life and the upper shell bag seal had badly disintegrated. The rest of the bag seals are in good shape. We looked at having the upper bag seal replaced at the Trailmanor dealership in Colorado Springs, however there was a two month waiting period before they could get to it. So we tackled it ourselves and thought I'd share some pictures for others to see what is involved.
Materials - 8 feet of Top Seal Material Fabric and Seal Foam was less than $40 from The Car Show dealership in Colorado Springs. One tube of Silicone Caulk Seal - $8.
Tools - phillips head screwdriver to remove trim; straight head screwdriver and hammer & pliers to remove staples. Staple Gun T50 for fabric to wood stapling. Pneumatic stapler for Fabric thruough aluminum skin and wood (regular T50 did not have enough power). There are probably other hand powered staplers that would do the job through the aluminum skin. Also need a ladder to getup to the camper shell and plywood piece to protect camper shell.
Procedure - It took us most of a full day to remove, clean off silicone sealer, remove old bag seal, cut/trim new bag seal material, install bag seal with seal foam, and remount trim with Silicon sealer.
1) Remove aluminum trim pieces, being careful not damage as they are not only screwed in but also heavily sealed with what seems like Silicone sealer. We removed not only the top aluminum trim, but also the two side trim pieces. Remove old silicone caulk from aluminum trim and camper shell.
2) remove old bag seal by removing staples with screwdriver/hammer and pliers. Try to keep bag seal in one piece so you can use it as a template for trimming Top Seal material. You may have to bend up the roof aluminum skin to get to the staples - do so carefully as it can easily break off. Examine the wood behind the seal - ours was solid and did not need to be replaced. I expect a more wet climate may have rotted the wood.
3) Use old seal material fabric to mark outline onto replacement Top Seal Material Fabric and trim with scissors. Be sure to also trim the material to allow antenna cable to come thru the trim.
4) Center the trimmed Top Seal Material onto the upper shell and staple material through the inside aluminum skin and into the wood trim (back side of seal first). We needed a more powerful stapler as our T50 Swingline did not have enough power to go thru the aluminum skin consistently.
5) Staple in seal foam - double layered. Staples are placed around every 10-12 inches.
6) Wrap seal around foam and staple to wood trim; working from center to edges trying to keep seal material evenly taught to avoid bunching of seal.
7) We also replaced the corner bag seals, re-using some of the better portion of the old bag seal as material.
8) Before re-installing the aluminum trim pieces, be sure and make sure they are clean and straight. Heavily caulk with Silicone Seal before re-installing the trim pieces (it helps to have a helper with this). Wipe of excess Silicone sealer. check to be sure all edges of aluminum trim to outer shell are properly sealed to avoid water getting behind new bag seal.
I've posted some of our pictures in the link below. Most of the pictures are before installing the new trim showing what is behind the old seal with a few after shots.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ny4prbkhw...%20Replacement
Hope this helps.
Pat
Bag Seal Replacement
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