[Brantel]

I am planning to use the gasket on the side rails that Dan Checkoway recommends from McMaster Carr. It is the one that has an edge gripper with the seal below that allowing it to be pressed onto the side rails.

It looks like Rudi used the same one. in this pic:

My question is this:

Do you just cut the edge away from the gripper part around the strut brackets to allow the seal to go around these areas?

Does the seal have enough puff to also seal the area up in the front under the frame weldment? My frame weldment has more gap than the 1/8" that I have at the side rails due to the geometry of the entire assembly and the fuse canopy decks.

I also have seen that the struts push the side rails up slightly at the front of the side skirts when I use the jam bolts that everyone is using these days to prevent the canopy from being pushed forward by the struts. This is leaving me with a gap at the front of the side skirts and none at the back.

Maybe this will go away once the front top skin is riveted on because at that point less stress will be on the jam bolts and the face of the frame and more of it will be on the hinge points and sub panel structure where it belongs.

 

[647jc]

Brian,

What are the 'jam bolts' you referred to? Could you explain or direct me to a previous post? I have searched the forum and can't find anything on this but am interested in anything that will help make my tip-up fit and work better. Especially some way to reduce the forward push on the canopy that the struts impose.

Thanks,

 

[trib]

Pics

Some pictures of the jam bolts would be nice

 

[Brantel]

Here is a pic that someone donated:

Here is step by step directions donated by Bob Collins:

http://home.comcast.net/~rvnewsletter/articles/2008/frame_brace/

This works better than great but I did see a little lifting of the side skirts in the front but I think that will go away once I put the front top skin on perm. Right now these are taking the full load of the struts when closed because the sub panel and the hinge area is flimsy without that top skin.

 

[647jc]

Brian,

Thanks for the additional info. I've also seen where people use basic hardware store screw-in rubber feet mounted through the tooling holes in the canopy frame on each side to help push the canopy rearward when closed. My problem is the canopy tends to get hung up on the foreskin when opening, this doesn't happen until the canopy is several inches open so the jam bolt approach would probably not improve the situation. There is already a pretty good gap between my canopy skin and foreskin and I'm reluctant to widen it much more. I'm waiting to rivet on the foreskin before I make any more adjustments, it all fit and worked quite well before I attached the struts. I wish the geometry or hinge arrangement of the tip-up was a bit different to minimize this problem that seems to plague many builders.