AFT re-enforcing plate advice

[Darkstar]

Hi all,

Had a stressful drive up to Northumberland from Norfolk, with something banging about under the freetop, everytime a lorry went past the opposite way, after stopping to check that the freetop was secure carried on to destination, after checking the roof motor covers were inplace properly, as one had come loose, i thought i had solved it, but no, whilst driving along a rough bit of road the missus thought it was coming from over the front, could have sworn it was behind me, any way on returning to camp i had look at the front of the AFT and found the black 4 inch wide piece of metal which looks like it is strenghtening the front leading edge has come loose, just a nip up of the screws i thought, no all the rivitnuts had come unfixed,

my question is it ok to drive until i get home or will the lack of strengthening cause any issues?

[Simon Jones]

I've seen a few come loose and the later AFTs don't have them fitted, so I reckon you could safely remove it.

[Darkstar]

cheers for that Simon. could'nt get the screw out holding the tent to the roof so will have to pad it out to stop it banging, looks like i'm going to be doing them all, as i see some of the ones at the rear have also come away.

[Rebiam]

I had the same - had to wedge a tea towel under the AFT to stop the banging. Soon sorted by raising the roof slightly, and applying pressure to the rivitnuts with a rubber mallet. That was last year and the roof has been up countless times since and they are still intact.

[Darkstar]

yep thats what i did in the end, put the fear of god up me it did , every time we went past a lorry i was expecting the roof to take off, it must of been air forced under the seal causing the tent frame to flap. got it all stripped out at the moment, all but two captive nuts came loose when removing frame.

[Dodgey]

Time for lots of araldite. They will never come out again

[Darkstar]

Right AFT canvas dropped all loose captive nuts and holes cleaned, Araldite mixed and applied (God i hate the stuff) all replaced where they should be. next, fight to get the canvas back tomorrow weather permitting.

[Dodgey]

I guess it went well? It's easier to refit than it looks....

[Dodgey]

Ant - I've taken this from the PM and put it here so others can read it - it's a lot of typing and I think I've gone through this once before somehwhere

"Having just been to our first Bongo Bash and examined everyone elses green tents in the field I realised our's isn't fitted properly..the tent doesn't go round the top end corners (it cuts across about an inch short of each corner) and I originally thought that was by design as it's an even amount each corner but realise it's not now (and we had to stuff the corners with tissue last year to stop the mozzies getting in !). I can't see any slack around the tent anywhere, so nothing obvious as to why a previous owner needed to skip the two corners...is it just a tight fit and needs a good stretch when refitting ? Also wondered whether it was done to help the roof go up by providing a little more slack...

what's the procedure for decoupling the tent (just the join to the AFT) so I can try to refit it correctly ? - Thanks Ant"


Hi - the corners shouldn't be skipped, though they will not always go across perfectly. The tent has a "plastic wire" seam around it's top and bottom edges. This "wire" threads into a slot in the aluminium(ally) frame. When you take the tent out of the frame (you only need to do this for major repairs / cleaning - as the ally frame starts to get in the way) you slide the "wire" edges out.

Sliding them back in is a challenge as the "wire" seam is continuous for the entire perimeter of the tent, going round the two front corners of the tent. When you slide the wire seam back into the ally frame you do the front end piece first. This is darn tricky as this piece of ally has to be slid round one of the "corners". It just takes perseverance. Once done sliding the two long ally side pieces up is easy as they are straight runs.

It sounds like when someone slid the short end ally piece into position they didn't make sure the plastic wire trim was in the slot perfectly. OR, the trim has just slowly come loose. There is zero slack in the system but if the corners were tightened up then you'd probably take a little from the rear end of the tent.

If you want to try refitting it properly (and it's not a tricky task) you will need a rivet gun and some rivets (this can be had for under a fiver at a toolzone shop or similar) and the correct sizes philips bit for removing the screws. Along with a power screwdriver/drill, you will need a stubby screwdriver as well. You may not need the rivet gun it you fix the tent in situ.

- Remove all the roof screws with your drill/driver - put lots of pressure on the drill and use the right sized bit - the screws are soft and will blunt easily with the wrong bit. The rear ones will need doing with a stubby screw driver as there is no room for a drill. The screws are threadlocked so it takes a big initial force, but then they come out easily.

- If any wont come out, force them out by pulling the ally down. They will araldite back in later no problem. If you end up with screws still inserted in the black metal sleeves, that have popped out of the AFT then clamp the black sleeve with mole grips whilst you unscrew.

- with the top dropped you can attempt to remedy the front corners. If you cant then you will need to remove the whole thing.

- For the rest - remove all the lower plastic fasteners and any screws you find. For the fasteners - force a thin flat headed screwdriver in the slight recess of the inner circle, this will force the middle bit to pup up. You just pull them out then. After a couple you will find it easy.

- Disconnect the springs.

- remove the tent being ultra careful - there are sharp corners up there that WILL tear the tent mesh if you are not super careful - get someone to help.

- Lay the tent on the ground/lawn and inspect it - you will see that you have to drill out a few rivets to take it apart. Just re-rivet these when you put it back together. I took photos as I took it apart so reassembly was easy enough.

- Once the rivets are out it's obvious which bits slide off.

[cookan]

thanks very much mate..took a photo 'before' and I am now going to start project "no mozzies france 2013"...will report back but there does seem to be 'just' enough give in the ribbing to stretch it back in...I'm going to drop the front aluminium channel to refit that and hopefully give enough run up to pop it back into the long channels either side without having to drop them as well...cross fingers...

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1-Cw4u ... sp=sharing

[cookan]

thank you very much for the instructions ! Project complete (for now..)

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1-Cw4u ... sp=sharing

there you go...a month of kids complaining of visiting mosquitos in france, and it took all of 45 minutes to fix it !

I dropped the front aluminium channel and found I still couldn't get the ribbing in, so remove the first 3-4 screws on one long rail, slid the short channel off and slid it back on again (bit of pants wetting moment wondering whether i'd get it back on after some fiddling, but it did go eventually)...with the short channel on but still detached from the AFT, I tried tugging the long side to get them back on but one side just didn't have enough give so I removed 2-3 screws from the rear short channel and that gave it enough slack to pop the ends of the long sides back in...screwed them all back and roof still locks up...which is good

I'm hoping this will also fix my flapping straps now that there's more tension in them..but i suspect that's more to do with the missing mosquito net...fingers crossed the corners stay in place now !

cheers,
Ant.

[Dodgey]

Nice one - looks perfect

[Darkstar]

I guess it went well? It's easier to refit than it looks....

all back together now well see if anything bangs on next outing.