Kwplot has done the most extensive repair and upgrades to the front cap. He did a very detailed documentation in this thread.
https://www.thorforums.com/forums/f4...fix-28874.html
I followed a lot of what he did but I took a few short cuts with my repair. I didn't do the extensive cab-over tear out and rebuild. The bolts going through my cab roof were all still tight and larger than what was used on the sides and top. They also used some adhesive sealant as well.
Here is how I installed the bolts at a high level:
- I cut the outer trim where the front cap attaches to the house box on both side of the coach instead of pulling the trim off from the bottom up. I've never seen a front cap issue where the screws backed out or snapped off below 6' because that is not part of the front cap.
- I then pulled the trim up to about within 6 - 12 " of the roof and removed all of the screws up to that point. Some where broken off inside the front cap.
- I removed as much of the inside trim on the inside of the coach as I could around the front cap seam along the walls and the sealing.
- I used a drill bit for #10 stainless steel screws and drilled holes through the fiberglass and through the square metal tube and through the inner walls of the coach.
- I squirted some adhesive sealant into the holes and installed #10 screws. I then used fender washers and nylok nuts on the inside and tightened them snug.
- I installed between 8 - 12 bolts through the front cap on each side.
- On the roof I did not remove the trim. When I get a new coach I install Eternabond over all the Dicor so I never have to do roof sealing again. I didn't want to go through the hassle of removing all the Eternabond and Dicor so I decided to leave the existing screws in the roof even though I could see some screws heads pushing against the Eternabond. I just drilled through the Eternabond, Dicor and trim piece on the roof between the existing screws since you never see the trim or screws on the roof.
The roof of the SV34 is different than the XG32 where the front cap meets the house box. My SV34 had what looked to be a 2 x 2 piece of wood running across the coach and on top of a 1 x 1 square aluminum tube. Thor only put screws into the wood as far as I could tell and not down into the aluminum tube. The roof is crowned so I used 6" long #10 stainless steel screws that could go through the wood and both sides of the aluminum tube. I had to buy a 12" drill bit to drill through everything. After installing the washers and nylok nuts, I used a Dremel tool to cut off the excess screw flush with the nut. The ceiling trim covered it perfectly.
- The I put down a layer of Dicor over the bolts on the roof and then another layer of Eternabond Tape.
- I reinstalled the trim pieces on the side using Super Glue to reattach it where I had cut it with a razor knife. Then I used Geocel GC28100 Pro Flex RV Clear Flexible Sealant to reseal the trim on both sides of the walls.
Here is some more detail starting with post #251....
https://www.thorforums.com/forums/f4...-27773-13.html
I am pretty confident my front cap can now take the vibrations and bouncing it is exposed to while driving and the twisting of the chassis while leveling.
Hope to see you up here. Currently in Seward and I'm waiting for the weather to clear so I can do the same upgrade. I wanted to see how my larger bolts worked. So far, so good but, I want more assurance, hence the kwplot34 upgrade.
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