King Dome almost turned into a flying missle today

John_Canfield · 05-29-2008, 12:55 PM

We have been hearing a thumping noise on the roof for a couple of days and it was really getting louder late this morning. I thought it was the TV antenna thumping up and down, or maybe our Internet dish.

At our fuel/lunch stop, I got on the roof and started inspecting roof hardware. To my complete and utter disbelief when I grabbed the King Dome it moved up and down about 1/2" perfectly replicating the noise we heard.

It was obvious almost right away that the screws that fasten the mounting tabs to the bottom of the dome has worked their way loose, so loose that two or three of them were completely out.

I took the dome completely off and turned it upside down and refastened the mounting tabs. Unfortunately I didn't have any Locktite with me on the roof (and I was in a hurry), or I would have used some on the screws. When we get a break from being on the road, I'll take it off and use Locktite.

If you have a King Dome, I strongly recommend you inspect yours - grab the lip and see if you can move the entire dome up/down. You might even consider doing the Locktite thing as good preventative medicine.

We were probably a few hours away from the dome coming completely loose and flying off the roof - wow, what a dangerous situation

Edited to add the following:
If anybody is going to use a threadlocker on their dome screws, King Controls mentioned that Locktite is not compatible with plastic. I build RC aircraft out of foam, so I have some foam safe (should be plastic safe) CA (super glue) that I will use. Whatever you decide to use, test it first!

[Moderators - you might want to cross-post this]

John_Canfield · 05-29-2008, 12:55 PM

We have been hearing a thumping noise on the roof for a couple of days and it was really getting louder late this morning. I thought it was the TV antenna thumping up and down, or maybe our Internet dish.

At our fuel/lunch stop, I got on the roof and started inspecting roof hardware. To my complete and utter disbelief when I grabbed the King Dome it moved up and down about 1/2" perfectly replicating the noise we heard.

It was obvious almost right away that the screws that fasten the mounting tabs to the bottom of the dome has worked their way loose, so loose that two or three of them were completely out.

I took the dome completely off and turned it upside down and refastened the mounting tabs. Unfortunately I didn't have any Locktite with me on the roof (and I was in a hurry), or I would have used some on the screws. When we get a break from being on the road, I'll take it off and use Locktite.

If you have a King Dome, I strongly recommend you inspect yours - grab the lip and see if you can move the entire dome up/down. You might even consider doing the Locktite thing as good preventative medicine.

We were probably a few hours away from the dome coming completely loose and flying off the roof - wow, what a dangerous situation

Edited to add the following:
If anybody is going to use a threadlocker on their dome screws, King Controls mentioned that Locktite is not compatible with plastic. I build RC aircraft out of foam, so I have some foam safe (should be plastic safe) CA (super glue) that I will use. Whatever you decide to use, test it first!

[Moderators - you might want to cross-post this]

smlranger · 05-29-2008, 01:00 PM

Same or similar issue I found with mine...the screws had rusted into small nubs and the dome was ready to fly! Apparently, there is no reinforcement in the roof where my dome was mounted because when I replaced the screws with stainless, I had to increase the size significantly to get any 'bite' in the thin glass roof skin. I used 3M 4200 sealant on and around the new screws.

Doula · 05-29-2008, 01:26 PM

Eek! Thanks for the warning, John! I will check ours today or tomorrow (we head out on a trip on Sunday).

~Lori

rvten · 05-29-2008, 01:54 PM

Yes one more thing to check on the Rolling Condo. Thanks!!

campernut2 · 05-30-2008, 01:30 AM

ISH! Sure will check on that too..
How long has yours been on?

John_Canfield · 05-30-2008, 04:13 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by campernut2:
ISH! Sure will check on that too..
How long has yours been on? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>This one, a second replacement, was installed October of 2006.

Cruzer · 05-30-2008, 05:23 AM

I'm not a big fan of screwing things to those thin fiberglass roofs. There's just not enough meat there to allow the screw threads to properly bite. Screws are okay for small brackets but not for large items. When installing solar panels I used 3/16" stainless steel pop rivets. The advantage to a rivet is that it balls up on the backside of the fiberglass and doesn't rely on threads in a thin material to hold it. They've always been rock solid for me.

John_Canfield · 05-30-2008, 01:10 PM

Mark - the problem was not with bracket to roof mounting; there is a two part, two tab mounting system. There is a tab that screws to the plastic dome. There is a metal tab with a stud that is mounted to the roof. Tab "A" mounts on tab "B". The roof mounted tab was fine - nice and secure. Dome mounted tab was not fine - loose screws.

I made Winnebago aware of the problem and they were concerned and contacted King Controls and I just got off the phone with King.

This is the first report King Controls has heard of of this kind, so maybe this is a fluke due to who knows what, but better safe than sorry, so I still think it's a good idea to check yours.

Since the last replacement, our dome has preformed flawlessly; having a mechanical problem was completely unexpected.

Regarding screws into the roof material - I agree with you but with a proviso. Screws into the thin roof material by themselves provide extremely poor fastening. Screws into the roof through some kind of a mounting bracket with liberal amounts of Dicor between the bracket and roof provides great mechanical adhesion. No doubt the screws serve to hold things in place while the Dicor sets up. We have a 100 pound Datastorm dish (F1) on the roof that has survived 30K miles of whatever that has been thrown at it in fine fashion and it is screwed to the roof with #12 sheet metal screws but lots of Dicor between the mounting plate and roof.

SCVJeff · 05-31-2008, 09:36 AM

It's amazing they they're using non-stainless for that antenna!
Scotch VHB is what I have my 3 solar panels held with, and they are rock solid. Might not be a bad replacement or augmentation to the screws.

Thudman · 05-31-2008, 11:33 AM

While washing my roof today, I noticed the two Fantastic Vent covers were a tad loose. Snugged up with a wrench. Thx for the heads up, John.

Thudman

John_Canfield · 05-31-2008, 12:44 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Thudman:
While washing my roof today, I noticed the two Fantastic Vent covers were a tad loose. Snugged up with a wrench. Thx for the heads up, John.

Thudman </div></BLOCKQUOTE>You betcha! BTW - I noticed the Fantastic vents used ferrous screws for the hinge (as in the rusting kind) quite a while ago and replaced them with stainless.

If anybody is going to use a threadlocker on their dome screws, King Controls mentioned that Locktite is not compatible with plastic. I build RC aircraft out of foam, so I have some foam safe (should be plastic safe) CA (super glue) that I will use. Whatever you decide to use, test it first!