Hello everyone we have been using the forum for troubleshooting and as a reference for a few years now , we have an old 1994 Windsor Sunseeker pop top that we have been restoring but have a few problems that I cant seem to find an answer to .
1 - When the awning is fully extended to its right length the tensioner arm on one side appears to be too short and comes apart , almost looks like either awning is too long or one half of the sliding arm is too short .
We have just replaced the awning with a new one and we still have the same problem so wondering if anyone has had a similar problem and how did you fix it ?
2 - When we pop the top down the top tends to favour the awning side , so sticks out about 30 mm on awning side , I notice this model doesnt have the scissor gadget on the front or back just 2 gas struts either side .
The bars inside that you raise or lower the top with I guess is supposed centre the top to the van when lowering but dont appear to be bent although I have a feeling this van spent a long time fully setup maybe even a few years judging by the water damage inside .
Any help will be much appreciated and I must post a few pics when finished because it may interest some with what we did to the old girl , 230 litre Invritigo fridge freezer , new oven , 280 amp 24 volt lithium battery system , split system aircon (cooling only) that I run purely off the batteries via an inverter , 2 Sirrocco fans etc etc .
watsea said
05:32 PM Jan 20, 2025
I can offer suggestion regarding getting the top to centre.
Do you lower the roof while the awning is in tension for closing it?
When we close our roof, we set the awning near to the van without any closing tension on the fabric. Then we close the roof and latch it down. One of the latches is hidden by the awning, anyway, when the awning is fully retracted. Afterwards we fully allow the awning to roll up to its closed position.
We do not have any scissors supports at the ends only the rectangle lifting frames, and gas struts along the sides.
We have owned the van since near new and always closed that way. Opening is reverse of that closing procedure.
Maybe the set of rams on the awning side has less pressure than the other side and it roof closes against the awning side first and towards that side.
Robert and Sharon said
06:04 PM Jan 20, 2025
Its ok both problems are related, lifting arms are bent favouring the awning side and for whatever reason the front lifting bars are bent more than the rear .
This means the awning hangs out further than designed, had a look online but cant find new replacements so will bend the existing ones back into the original position.
Robert and Sharon said
06:06 PM Jan 20, 2025
Thanks for the response and no I make sure no tension on the awning , Ive just worked it out per my response above.
-- Edited by Robert and Sharon on Monday 20th of January 2025 06:54:49 PM
watsea said
08:00 PM Jan 20, 2025
The bending of the lifting bar frames should work. One end of our roof was out of alignment by about 10mm. Enough to make the hold down latches difficult to use. Following the suggestion by another caravaner, I measured the misalignment, took the frame off, marked the misaligned frame on a template, then bent the frame arms to the new measurement. Worked great.
Hello everyone we have been using the forum for troubleshooting and as a reference for a few years now , we have an old 1994 Windsor Sunseeker pop top that we have been restoring but have a few problems that I cant seem to find an answer to .
1 - When the awning is fully extended to its right length the tensioner arm on one side appears to be too short and comes apart , almost looks like either awning is too long or one half of the sliding arm is too short .
We have just replaced the awning with a new one and we still have the same problem so wondering if anyone has had a similar problem and how did you fix it ?
2 - When we pop the top down the top tends to favour the awning side , so sticks out about 30 mm on awning side , I notice this model doesnt have the scissor gadget on the front or back just 2 gas struts either side .
The bars inside that you raise or lower the top with I guess is supposed centre the top to the van when lowering but dont appear to be bent although I have a feeling this van spent a long time fully setup maybe even a few years judging by the water damage inside .
Any help will be much appreciated and I must post a few pics when finished because it may interest some with what we did to the old girl , 230 litre Invritigo fridge freezer , new oven , 280 amp 24 volt lithium battery system , split system aircon (cooling only) that I run purely off the batteries via an inverter , 2 Sirrocco fans etc etc .
Do you lower the roof while the awning is in tension for closing it?
When we close our roof, we set the awning near to the van without any closing tension on the fabric. Then we close the roof and latch it down. One of the latches is hidden by the awning, anyway, when the awning is fully retracted. Afterwards we fully allow the awning to roll up to its closed position.
We do not have any scissors supports at the ends only the rectangle lifting frames, and gas struts along the sides.
We have owned the van since near new and always closed that way. Opening is reverse of that closing procedure.
Maybe the set of rams on the awning side has less pressure than the other side and it roof closes against the awning side first and towards that side.
This means the awning hangs out further than designed, had a look online but cant find new replacements so will bend the existing ones back into the original position.
Thanks for the response and no I make sure no tension on the awning , Ive just worked it out per my response above.
-- Edited by Robert and Sharon on Monday 20th of January 2025 06:54:49 PM