Replacement of velcro (hooks) on walls

My wife and I just replaced all of the velcro strips on the inside walls of our 3124KS. Although our TM is a 1999 model, for some reason a few of the velcro strips were starting to come off. Therefore, we decided to change all of them. Scraping the old, rubbery adhesive off after softening it with paint thinner was the most time consuming part of the job. After removing all old adhesive, the new, adhesive backed velcro strips stuck on tightly.

Before doing this repair I looked in several stores for 1" wide velcro strips, to replace the 1" wide ones on our TM's walls. I couldn't find any of this width. For some strange reason the strips seem to be available only in 3/4" or 2" widths. Therefore I purchased a box of "Industrial Strength" velcro (made in Mexico) containing 18' lengths of both components. To facilitate cutting the 2" strips in half, I fabricated a wooden splitter, with a box knife blade, for this purpose. It resembles a leathercraft belt splitter. Splitting the 2" wide velcro strips then took all of 2 minutes to split 36' neatly into 1" widths.

Since I have no further use for this splitter, I am offering it to any TM owner who wants to change the velcro but can't find 1" wide strips. Packaged in a small box, the splitter will weigh 2-1/2 pounds. Just e-mail me if you want it and send me the amount of postage to cover shipping it to your address from my zip code, 93611. If there are several who might want to use it, perhaps you might send it on to another person after you're finished with it.

 ;D

[Denny_A]

Larry_Loo wrote;

>Since I have no further use for this splitter, I am offering it to any TM owner who wants to change the velcro but can't find 1" wide strips. Packaged in a small box, the splitter will weigh 2-1/2 pounds. <

Maybe you could post a couple of close-ups of the Splitter in the Forum. Then those interested can fabricate their own -or- realize the postage is worth the effort.

Just a thought 8)


Denny_A

Wow, I'm impressed with the effort.

Trailmanor uses a 3M product.  I'm certain they'd be happy to sell some of this, which of course is the hook side having the adhesive.

gosh, we just replaced our hook velcro this weekend with the industrial, after cleaning off all the sticky with elbow grease and alcohol.we made sure we went back over all the surface to clean it before application. we cut the 2" roll with sharp scissors, holding the roll up to the light and following the blue line on the underside for straightness.

we were so proud.

guess what--after allowing the velcro to cure for 24 hrs for max. strength, we fastened the hook and loop together.
an hour later, it had all come loose again. :'(where did we go wrong??! :-[

they do sell the 3M hook at TM--but it comes with a price--about 4.00 a foot, i think. :P that may be what we try next. or the aluminum strip idea. :-/

I found the TM 3M velcro superior in adhesion power to some other velcro material that I was using.  [I used the velcro to hold up flourescent lighting fixtures in the TM.]

Even so, something seems wrong with your Velcro.  The velcro stock may be old.

McMaster-Carr has all kinds of velcro including 1" white super adhesive nylon hook at about $0.50 foot.  They are at mcmaster.com, having about any type of hardware you can think of.   You should be able order with a $25min.

I just went in our TM to check on the velcro hook strips we applied over a week ago. I found one 3 foot piece (on the front slide) where the strip had loosened in two or three places. There is another 12 inch long piece above it with one end loosened (a piece that holds up the flap when TM is closed). All of the rest of the strips - perhaps 24 to 25 feet are still stuck on tightly. The brand that we used is labeled "Industrial Strength," "Solidite Industrielle" Velcro that is apparently made in Mexico by Velcro USA Inc. Manchester, NH, Velcro Canada Inc., . . . and Velcromex S.A. . . . Agua Prieta, Son, Mexico.

My experience with all sticky adhesive tape residues that I've removed in the past is that alcohol, at least rubbing alcohol, will not completely remove all traces of them. Only paint thinner or gasoline have done a satisfactory job. One possibility, therefore, is that you were not able to clean the surfaces sufficiently well before applying the new Velcro strips. My wife and I spent a total of about 6 hours scraping with knives and scrubbing with cotton rags dampened with paint thinner to get most of the residue off. We still had a very few spots where it was slightly tacky but decided that we'd spent enough effort on this part. After a final wiping of the cleaned areas, we were careful not to touch them with our fingers. Another good possibility is that the Velcro you applied was old from having sat on a shelf for a long while.

Jeober, I didn't realize that MSC Industrial Supply Co. sells Velcro - and I do quite a lot of mail order business with them. The Velcro they sell is slightly more expensive than what I paid for my box, and, it also may have been made in Mexico. One good thing about MSC, however, is that their sales volume is so high that you will probably obtain fresh stock from them. Their URL is:
http://mscdirect.com/default.htm
You will be able to order through their web site. :

:
2swans, I momentarily confused MSC Industrial with McMaster-Carr. I just looked at my McMaster-Carr catalog and see that they sell a much greater variety of Velcro than does MSC. If my velcro strips continue to loosen, I will definitely order the "Super adhesive" strips from McMaster-Carr as suggested by Jeober. That company also should have fresh stock on its shelves.

McMaster-Carr has quite an inventory of materials.  I noticed their yellow catalog in use at the Trailmanor factory when I was there last month.

more timely and thoughtf help from the TM brotherhood. thanks so much. 2swans

We replaced much of the Velcro 2 years ago.  I believe it was "heavy duty", from Wal-Mart.

By Fall it was coming off again.  Several pieces have fallen off this summer as well.

I'm sure we cleaned off the old adhesive properly.  In fact, at one point I realized the paint was softening.

I've toyed with the idea of using "Super Glue" in a few spots, but haven't gotten around to trying it yet.