| AVION
Trailer Maintenance - Fixing Leaks |
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Two
major trouble spots. Zip Dee Awning Brackets and the rail that supports
the stone guard. |
According
to Chuck Cayo, the Classic Avion has two places that are notorious
for leaks. One place is the ZipDee awning brackets. These brackets
are located near the roof line at each end of the awning. The
brackets lock the awning in place when it is in the "stored"
position. I found two rivets were drilled out to
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allow the awning bracket to fit snugly against the aluminum skin.
The rivet holes were not sealed. I removed the bracket (There
are three stainless steel screws holding the bracket to the trailer)
I cleaned both surfaces and used Parabond sealer to seal the rivet
and the screw holes. Then I spread Parabond sealer on the back
of the bracket and reassembled the bracket to the trailer. I also
filled the screw holes in the bracket with Parabond sealer before
installing the screws. After the bracket was screwed tightly to
the trailer, I spread a bead of Parabond sealer around the entire
border of the bracket. While you are at it you might as well reseal
the rear bracket as well. Removing and resealing the awning brackets
took about 45 minutes. It is an easy job and well worth the effort.
The awning will have to be extended position to remove the brackets.
Another place water is inclined to leak into an Avon is the rail
that supports the front window stone guard. This is an aluminum
strip that acts as one half of the stone guard hinge. Grab the
aluminum hinge that is riveted to the skin of the trailer and
try to move it. If it moves, water may be leaking though the rivet
holes that hold the aluminum hinge to the trailer. Cayo's recommendation
was, "do not remove the original rivets." He suggested
the best way to address this problem is to tighten the hinge by
using pop rivets between the existing rivets, then seal the entire
perimeter of the strip with Parabond sealer. Don't forget to seal
the new pop rivet heads. |
| Sealing
The Roof |
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To
finish my hunt for places where water might leak into my Avion,
I decided to reseal all the roof seams. I found a marvelous product
named Eternabond. Eternabond comes in 50 foot rolls and is a very
sticky, 4" wide tape that can be applied right over exiting
sealers (except silicone) as long as the edge of the Eternabond
extends past the edge of the existing sealer. It can even be applied
when the surface is wet and in cold weather. Not that that is
a problem in Florida. It works just as advertised. Eternabond's
normal color is white. |
Installation
Photos courtesy of John Wolfe. |
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In
my view white would not look good on the roof of a silver trailer.
I called the factory and found that Eternabond is available in
4" wide tape that can be covered with a silver UV protectorate
coating. This is a great sealer and should last many years. The
whole job cost less then $80.00 and took me about 2 hours to apply. |
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