DesperateDan95
New member
While raising the mast on a new to me Eagle 525 the tabernacle began to lift away from the coach roof with lots of butyl in evidence. On investigation none of the tabernacle bolts were tight and seemed to have stripped whatever they were seated into I managed to get out three bolts easily (too easy for them to have been correctly secured) the final bolt took a lot of effort. I suspect that the bolts were originally connected to nuts that were somehow imbedded in a small raised block in the coach roof below the tabernacle and that they nuts have broken free from whatever they were imbedded in.
The tabernacle sits on a wooden block about and inch thick the bolts go through the wooden block but are not fixed to the block, then the bolts disappear into a raised area a little bigger than the wooden block and about the same thickness. Judging by the length of the bolts they are long enough to pass through the steel plate of the tabernacle, the wooden block and the raised area that looks like it is fiberglassed onto the coach roof . It doesn't look like the bolts are long enough to penetrate the coach roof so I am guessing that they are not accessible from inside the cabin (the cabin roof currently has a liner that I would rather not remove if everything is on the outside).
I think that 4 nuts are either imbedded in the material of the raised area and have been over stress and have broken free of the surrounding material, or there is steel plate imbedded in the raised area and the 4 threaded holes tapped into the plate have been stripped.
If anyone has definitive information on how the tabernacle bolts are secured that would be most helpful. Additionally does anyone have experience of this type of tabernacle configuration and advice in how to approach a repair?
The tabernacle sits on a wooden block about and inch thick the bolts go through the wooden block but are not fixed to the block, then the bolts disappear into a raised area a little bigger than the wooden block and about the same thickness. Judging by the length of the bolts they are long enough to pass through the steel plate of the tabernacle, the wooden block and the raised area that looks like it is fiberglassed onto the coach roof . It doesn't look like the bolts are long enough to penetrate the coach roof so I am guessing that they are not accessible from inside the cabin (the cabin roof currently has a liner that I would rather not remove if everything is on the outside).
I think that 4 nuts are either imbedded in the material of the raised area and have been over stress and have broken free of the surrounding material, or there is steel plate imbedded in the raised area and the 4 threaded holes tapped into the plate have been stripped.
If anyone has definitive information on how the tabernacle bolts are secured that would be most helpful. Additionally does anyone have experience of this type of tabernacle configuration and advice in how to approach a repair?
