what to do with a broken vent?

[rsmith]

hi

new to site and new to pop-up camping...  recently bought a very used, but nice '88 sunlite sable pop-up.  my three year old got on top while it was parked and put his foot through the plastic crank up vent.  i covered it with plastic but i don't want to leave it that way over the winter.

it is made by sunlite which no longer manufactures campers but i am wondering if i take a measurement of the cover, are they pretty standard?

the cover that broke, has two screws at opposite ends which holds it on to the opener.

let me know if this sounds fixable without having to rip out the whole unit.

thanks

[Tim5055]

You hit the nail on the head, most of them are standard; 14 inch square IIRC.

You should be able to pull it off and go by almost any RV dealer to match it up.

[mike4947]

Just to add: it's also an very easy DIY job to replace it. Have no fear, if you can operate a screwdrive without blood letting you can replace the vent.

 
In fact if it's just the cover that's broken you can even get replacement covers.
 
Over the years I've done my share of SPUT's (stupid pop up tricks) one being forgeting where the vent was when shoveling off snow, so It can even be replaced at -5 degrees F with the wind blowing.

[brainpause]

On some PU's they are 10"x10", and it is harder to find those, trust me. I hope yours is a 14" vent. Mine wasn't a 14" vent, and I couldn't find my size, so I had to cut:eek:  on my roof. But we got rained on last w/e and didn't have leaks, so I must have caulked it up good enough.
 
Larry

[luvourjayco]

My kiddos decided to play on the PU last winter too and broke the cover we patched it up with plastic and prayed to the pu gods to let it be ok till spring. There had been some water seep in and wet the canvas thankfully no damage. Replace the cover asap and be thankful thats all thats damaged. IIRC its about a 20 minute $40 job to replace the whole assembly. Our crank was tempermental so we replaced that too. Any dealer should have the parts and may even have several different brands to choose from we almost replaced ours with a fan unit but at the time the $$$ was too much for us to spend.

[maromeo]

If you are near a Camping World, they have covers and whole assemblies in stock. Here in AZ we keep a check on ours because the heat does a number on all plastic pieces.
Mary

[Diplomat]

Since you have to replace it anyway you might consider a Fantastic Fan.  They have a fan to move the hot air out and are designed to replace the existing roof vents.  Camping World has them starting at $140 or so.  You can see them here.  I don't have one but I have heard good things about them and they seem like a good idea, anything to get air moving.

[rsmith]

thanks everyone,

i must say that i think mine is 10" from the quick glance i took this weekend.

right now i covered with plastic and i think it will hold for a while until i can get to an RV store.  of course, right after i covered it, it started raining and will continue to for the next week straight.  let's hope the plastic works.

thanks again