My 1988 (ABI Marauder) van has an full length awning rail up and over the van but no lower awning rail to attach awning skirt (there is a strip of aluminium but not a c rail). How do people attach awning skirts? I have a roll of sticky Velcro - but it might be a bit ugly when the awning is not up.
the skirt should be attached via an aluminium rail on the lower edge of the caravan, are you sure its not there? if not dont worry easy enough to get a length from a caravan dealer and then just screw in place, until then just use some suction cups if you have a flat side to put them on, until you get the right thing
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Hi Katy, I'd imagine it would be difficult to use much that wouldn't be noticed or need a bit of work to fit. I used some low profile self-adhesive YKK SNAD fasteners on my wheel arch cover, here is a link to them. This particular link is from the US, it will show you the idea and they are available in the UK. They are commonly used in the sailing/boating world to affix weathering covers etc. They are fairly expensive though but work extremely well and need no drilling.
Dave
------------- Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day,
Teach a man to fish and you can get rid of him for a whole weekend.
My only advice would be to not screw lengths of C Rail to your caravan, we all know that caravans can and do leak and any additional holes you make are a potential ingress point.
Better to either use something like what Pickled Onion has linked to, or the other solution would be to use Sikaflex and glue the C Rail to your van (Sikaflex is a glue and sealant that doesn't dry out and has to be mechanically removed, you cant use solvent)
Because the C Rail is only holding up the skirt it doesn't need to be screwed as their wont be much (if any) weight on the rail.
Quote: Originally posted by shaggy2000 on 14/7/2020
My only advice would be to not screw lengths of C Rail to your caravan, we all know that caravans can and do leak and any additional holes you make are a potential ingress point.
Better to either use something like what Pickled Onion has linked to, or the other solution would be to use Sikaflex and glue the C Rail to your van (Sikaflex is a glue and sealant that doesn't dry out and has to be mechanically removed, you cant use solvent)
Because the C Rail is only holding up the skirt it doesn't need to be screwed as their wont be much (if any) weight on the rail.
sikaflex can and does come off, it doesnt require mechanical means to remove it, just a scraper and some white spirit follwed by meths to remother the white spirit, you can screw the C rail on, aslong as you make sure all screw heads are well sealed
This is the only pic I have of that bit of the van. There is some kind of aluminium rail under the black/grey bottom of the van under the plate but it does not appear to be a C rail like the up and over rail. The skirt has the beaded bit like the awning to feed in. I’ll have a wee look again tomorrow when we finally stay over. It is not the end of the world this trip as no one is sleeping in the awning but in the future it would be nice to fix.
We have a rail at the bottom for the skirt but a gap where the wheel is. We saw advertised a caravan wheel arch draught stoppa which is polypropylene which is very light. It is made by a company called Jaid Designs. You get a plastic bar which goes through the skirt which clips on to it. A video on utube will show you it and how it works. We are very impressed. It does a good job.
Quote: Originally posted by shaggy2000 on 14/7/2020
My only advice would be to not screw lengths of C Rail to your caravan, we all know that caravans can and do leak and any additional holes you make are a potential ingress point.
Better to either use something like what Pickled Onion has linked to, or the other solution would be to use Sikaflex and glue the C Rail to your van (Sikaflex is a glue and sealant that doesn't dry out and has to be mechanically removed, you cant use solvent)
Because the C Rail is only holding up the skirt it doesn't need to be screwed as their wont be much (if any) weight on the rail.
sikaflex can and does come off, it doesnt require mechanical means to remove it, just a scraper and some white spirit follwed by meths to remother the white spirit, you can screw the C rail on, aslong as you make sure all screw heads are well sealed
I think when Sikaflex advertise "mechanical only" they basically mean that using chemicals alone wont work, so technically using a scraper can be classed as "mechanical".