Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete'sMH
So this thread got me to thinking about slide toppers. How vulnerable are they to wind or storm damage? They obviously don’t stick out so far and are supported at both ends but I can imagine some wind whistling through there! Anybody heard of problems with them?
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Yep, I bent all the brackets on my big Carefree of Colorado topper. I was wondering north along US-283 headed to Fort Griffin (Albany, TX) in a fine Texas breeze of 40 mph blowing from the NE when a gust of wind overrode the gust locks and totally unfurled the topper bending the brackets against the slide. The topper spring was enough to overcome the friction of the topper against the slide and the topper and it re-rolled shaking the slide and coach. The topper fabric and the roller were undamaged, but we were unable to use the slide for the rest of the trip (8 days) as the topper would not unroll. I ziptied the bent and broken brackets to the topper's track on the side of the coach. Fortunately I was able to purchase new brackets on Amazon for 1/3 what CofC shows on their website. I made sure the new gust locks properly engage when the slide is in (4 complete turns of the lock bolts after touching the slide).
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