Journey Annexe support strut torn away?

Hitting the road

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Jan 14, 2022
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Just got back from a week at Burrum Heads then 1770, had a great time, beautiful weather But as I was rolling the awning away I saw the upper front awning strut support had torn out of the side of the van totally.

The 4 large screws that secure the bracket to the the van really don't go in very deep at all and appear to just screw in to timber as there were fibres on the screw threads, the 4 had totally pulled out. I glued it with some heavy duty all purpose adhesive, and put the screws back in and appears to be holding fine. But it had pull a small bit of the glass coating off the side of the van as well where the bracket screws on. I didn't want to put bigger screws in for fear of breaking through inside. It didn't have any extra pressure on it at all, either way it should not have pulled away.
As I was packing away I also didn't have time to spend trouble shooting, just needed to get on the road.

Has anybody had this happen to their Jayco? It's 4 year old Journey Outback, so not like it is old and worn out. I do find the whole set up not really robust at all.
Does any one know of a repairer in Brisbane that would repair the awning structure / attachment, not the awning itself?
 

Drover

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Nov 7, 2013
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The general repair to this problem is to make 2 alloy backing plates of about 150mm x 150mm x 5mm, bigger the better actually for load bearing, bogg the hole in the wall first then using a good marine adhesive glue and screw the plates onto the wall so that when all set the bracket can be screwed centrally onto the plate, I think you will find it will hold very well in the future.......... the screws are to hold the plate in place while adhesive dries I just used about 8mm stainless ones,

Big Mal while a tin van the fitting wasn't very robust, bracket screws kept coming loose, they used roofing screws so I have done a similar set up on it, has worked well..... Think I did the same on my old 14.44 way back have done it on another van as well.
If the awning has been set up properly the load on this arm is against the van, a loose flapping awning will cause the load to pull against the mount and stress it out.
 
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Hitting the road

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Jan 14, 2022
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Brisbane
Thanks Drover...a mate was with us and his larger van did have aluminum plates screwed / glued on where the awning brackets bolted up. I'll have to upgrade both the upper brackets with alloy backing plates as you write, or the thing will likely tear itself off again in a light breeze...
It is pretty ordinary how they attached the brackets to the van as standard fitting given the stresses they could incur, surprised they hadn't torn out before now...
 
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Drover

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Nov 7, 2013
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You will continue to be surprised as you go along at how the van holds together with some of the professional fitout on these things.... My van is near 11 and I still do design upgrades few and far between now though. ............ it pays to carry a small tube of No More Gaps, its the best stuff for making screws stay in place or just making things stick together I have found, works well as an adhesive, bog or sealer for emergencies .

Be some pics on here somewhere of the plate refitt..
 
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Hitting the road

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Jan 14, 2022
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Brisbane
Drover, spot on as usual. Sorted out the bracket supporting the annex strut with some serious Sikaflex adhesive on the screws. If that does fail I'll resort to the aluminium plate fix.

Anyways, one of the 4 little brackets that the pop top latches hook on to when locking down had come loose, I'd noticed that when the support bracket pulled out but didn't have time to stuff around. This trip I had a look at the bracket where I saw one of the screws was totally hanging out and the other was barely finger tight.
On looking more closely there was adhesive smeared on to the bracket, so this I think may have been as issue for the previous owner. (or was it a Jayco fix?) But the screws holding the bracket on being self tappers about 10mm long, were screwed in to the fibreglass roof, but the screws have about maybe 5mm of "glass" depth at that point to screw in to and hold....of course they would fail...really Jayco?
Of course structural warranty is not transferrable...this van is just 4 years old....but then I'd prefer to fix myself as I then know it IS fixed.

So I replaced the two useless screws with decent stainless nuts and bolts with spring washers, which they should have been in the first place. It looks no different from standard, but will not fail. I guess I'll just have to do the others as they fail going forward...