[rich2468]

Daniel,
I haven't done what you're proposing to do- raise the roof crown rear of the air conditioner, but I did build an aluminum box frame for my rear solar array and bent the box frame to be elevated above the crown.

I used rivnuts installed into the aluminum corner trim (at the edge of the roof and side panels) to fasten the aluminum box frame so that my six glass panel solar array "floats" a few inches above the rear shell.

With that experience in mind, I believe you should be able to accomplish what you've proposed, but I'd suggest keeping a few things in mind:
1: How much "lift"/ tension will you need to create to restore the roof crown? I'd try to get some kind of measure of the lift needed.

2: Will the above amount of lift be able to safely be transferred to the aluminum corner trim? You want the weight safely pushing down on the corner trim vs. pushing the walls out.

3. In consideration of the above amount of lift; you may want to consider a ladder type support to spread the lift force across multiple mount points on the front shell...but you also (obviously) need to be conscious of the support frame weight.

I have three aluminum box cross bars supporting about 85 pounds of solar panels; so each box frame bar is supporting approximately 28 pounds (or 14 pounds on each side) and that weight plus the box bars on the aluminum corner trim. These figures are all approximate, as my solar panels are arranged with the front two panels in a landscape orientation and the rear four in a portrait orientation.

The reason for sharing my array weight is to hopefully give you some kind of baseline of the amount of weight you may be able to support with a single c channel bar and help if you decide if you may want to try to spread the load over a couple of c channel bars.

For clarity, my TrailManor is a newer model (2021) and my solar array is mounted at the very rear of the rear shell. I'd consider the very front of the front shell and the very rear of the rear shell to be the most structurally sound parts of a TrailManor's roof due to the two sides being tied together by the front and rear end sections of shell.

Given that your roof AC unit weighs around 100 pounds, it might take 30 to 45 pounds of upward force to correct the sag at the front shell rear crown.



Rich and Lynn
2021 2922KB