Installing sail track

Tezzaworth · Member

Installing sail track

valiant81 · Guru

Hi Tezzaworth;

I would contact the manufacture of your caravan as to the wireing placement in your caravan, so as not to drill holes were the cabling may or may not run. I did the same with my Jayco pop top caravan when i whent to drill a hole in the roof for the solar panels.

As for the shade cover along the length of your van, providing the sail track is up near the top of your roof and the bottom of the sail is at least 1Mt off the caravan i would think that there would be enough clearance for the fridge to exspell the heat, others may have a better idear, or maybe a couple of 12 Volt computer fans may help with the heat.

deverall11 · Guru

Hi Tezzaworth,

You may find that a better way is to attach it to the roof line and have it go the length of your van. This way you protect the fridge as well as the side of the van that the awning would shade. A must if you are doing the top end.

Larry

Tezzaworth · Member

Thanks for your response Valliant. The reason I asked the question was that the guy who built my van has retired. And I was hoping the shade on the side of the van would keep the van a bit cooler as well as cool the fridge. What I was after was whether there was some kind of meter/located that could give me a line on where the active power circuit ran.

Tezzaworth · Member

Thanks Larry, went up through the red centre during the middle of the year & and heading further north later this year but never stayed in the same spot long enough to worry about this issue. The fact we will be in Tamworth for 10 days camped in the middle of an oval is what prompted me to try and do what I'm asking. Your idea of putting the track at the top has merit but I would still like to know where the power wires are Before I screw the track through the aluminium siding.

Bunkerbob · Senior Member

If you are worried about depth go to a tool supplier or even possibly Bunnings. There are things that you attach to the drill bit to limit the depth of your drill hole. Setting this to 1 or 2 mm would/should prevent a nasty accident by not piercing a cable. You only need the hole big enough to take a small screw and hopefully you are into the frame anyway.

Wombat 280 · Guru

I mounted my additional shade screen at roof level and just screwed it to the upper edge (not on top ) and also put stikaflex silicon behind the sail track to seal the hole , don't over do it with the silicon bugger to get excess off after dust settles on it . To fix the track to the van I used stainless steel self tapper screws from BCF 8 gauge 15 mm spaced at 500 mm . When pegging it out at the angle I used elastic cord also from BCF, never had any problems with wind pulling on the screen.

When buying the screws see if you can get the ones with the built in washer head gives better bearing surface lessening the possibility of pulling out under pressure .

There shouldn't be any wiring in that area but it all depends on the frame construction (Alloy or Timber) Although dealers like to think all vans are wired to a per determined plan that's not necessarily the case, a bit like Rafferties rules, near enough good enough

-- Edited by Wombat 280 on Sunday 5th of January 2014 10:40:18 PM

Olley46 · Guru

Try this one ,I have put aluminium gutter strips over my windows to stop water leaks and successful ,attached to the van with double sided tape from Repco, the gentleman that told me about this has them on his van,I asked him how do they go in the heat ,he has been in 40plus degrees and they haven't moved,just a sugesstion you could try double sided tape for your sail tracks. PS you only get one go at sticking them on make the the first hit the last hit,it sticks like s!!t to a blanket.

lance C

-- Edited by Olley46 on Sunday 5th of January 2014 11:07:33 PM

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

I attached sail track to the fibreglass skin of the OKA using Sikaflex 11FC. Been there 8 years.
No holes.

Cheers,
Peter

brian · Guru

Peter's method with just Sikaflex should be quite adequate. If you really want to use mechanical fasteners, then a small piece of dowel cut to the appropriate length and fitted to the drill bit will prevent you going too deep ( I saw a chap at a bush camp fitting some outside speakers, he drilled right through into the inside shower cubicle with a 1/2" bit). Use sealed blind rivets instead of screws, no sharp points that way. There are a miriad of wiring detectors, both live and induced signal, that you can use, but it really shouldn't be necessary to go that far.

Cupie · Guru

brian wrote:
Peter's method with just Sikaflex should be quite adequate. If you really want to use mechanical fasteners, then a small piece of dowel cut to the appropriate length and fitted to the drill bit will prevent you going too deep ( I saw a chap at a bush camp fitting some outside speakers, he drilled right through into the inside shower cubicle with a 1/2" bit). Use sealed blind rivets instead of screws, no sharp points that way. There are a miriad of wiring detectors, both live and induced signal, that you can use, but it really shouldn't be necessary to go that far.

Well said Brian ... excellent approach.

I have been intending to do this job for some years.

I will probably use both Sikaflex 11FC plus the sealed rivets.

A good job for today is to get out my stud locator & see if I can locate the aluminium studs on my Jayco. They should be at regular spaces.

Will first check with my old mate 'The Awning Man' who does this sort of thing for a living.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Cupie wrote:
I will probably use both Sikaflex 11FC plus the sealed rivets.

I strongly suggest you don't use rivets. They apply point loads and provide leak risk.

After cutting to length, clean up the ends of the sail track with a small round file to give a nice clean entry. It is harder to do this after it is fixed to the side of the van.

Apply small squares (say 10mm x 10mm) of double sided self adhesive foam tape (1.5mm thick) about every 300mm to the van side along the line where you want the sail track. Pick a line close to where the sheet is attached to the frame. Keep the end patches about 75mm from the ends of the sail track.

Then apply a bead of Sikaflex 11FC between the tape patches for the full length of the sail track.

Press the sail track onto the tape patches and squeeze the Sikaflex out. The tape will hold the sail track in position until the Sikaflex sets (allow 24 hours minimum before "testing").

Clean up any excess Sikaflex immediately with clean rags and turps.

Job done.

Cheers,

Peter

brian · Guru

Peter_n_Margaret wrote:

I strongly suggest you don't use rivets. They apply point loads and provide leak risk.
Cheers,
Peter

Are you suggesting that rivets will do that more-so than PK screws?

Tezzaworth · Member

Thanks Peter & Brian.

Peter I like your thinking as I was thinking of screwing through the aluminium into the Meranti frame as i feel that the shade awning could get a fair bit of flap at times with wind getting between it and the van. I wouldn't like using rivets as they could pull out leaving holes. The double sided tape and sikaflex sounds good and as you say fitting it to the firm part of the aluminium where it is fixed to the frame would stop any flexing in the sheet. Also there wouldn't be any penetrations that could cause water leaking into the frame.

Thanks for your posts, Terry