Sunline Solaris 2006 T-30

[Kreid1321]

We just purchased our camper. It needs a little bit of work. We need a new awning, I think the entire thing, and new door latch. Anyone have any suggestions where to look for parts? Used or new?

[JohnB]

Hi and welcome! Congrats on your T-30,

That model number is different then the other 2006 models. I wonder if your is a FEMA trailer? Sunline made a bunch of campers in late 2005 (would be 2006 models) for temporary housing when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans years ago.

They are still good campers, but we may need some help from you on what exactly you have.

On the awning, I'm assuming you have no awning now, is that correct? Meaning no awning arms, frame or awning fabric?

We can help you on where to buy an entire new awning, but we do not know the length for the floor plan of your camper since the FEMA trailers do not show up in our 2006 brochures. Or how long the awning would need to be to work with your floor plan.

By chance can you post a few pics of it and we can help suggest a length to fit?

Also, look up at the roof line on the door side of the camper. There should be a gutter molding at the roof line. See if there is a cord slot on that gutter. The non door side had no cord slot, the door side on standard model did have the cord slot. If yours has no cord slot on the door side, you have to overcome that issue as the awning fabric slides into that cord slot. We can point you to where to buy a new gutter rail if needed. Take a pic of the profile of the gutter if you are not sure what I am referring too.

The door latch, best in this case to post pictures of what you are looking for. Sunline may have changed the latch on the FEMA campers. And are you asking about the main entry door latch or the screen door latch? Both are available pending which you have.

Hope this helps

John

PS. if you need help on how to post pics, just ask we can help.

[Kreid1321]

This is amazing information. I have had such a hard time finding this model anywhere so that does shed some light for me. For the most part the trailer is in good shape.

We have an awning it’s just broken. And yes I’m speaking of the door latch. I took some pics so let me know if you need more. Hopefully this will help some more.

Thanks so much! This has been super helpful.

[JohnB]

Hi,

Have you ever yet had the awning open? Does the back side of the camper awning have any damage or is it only contained to the front awning arm area?

It is hard to tell from your pics, but it looks like you have a Dometic Sunchaser 8300 series awning. That would be what Sunline was installing at the time your camper was built. They vary in lengths, but the hardware is often the same in may cases across the lengths of them. Many parts are available, just need to know which ones needed.

I tried to zoom in on your pics, but they were too far away to tell for sure the damage.

From these 2 pics of yours, it seems like these areas have damage:

- The front awning arm bottom bracket that attaches to the camper may be missing.
- The top front awning arm up top, the spring end cap, the spring shaft assembly inside the tube maybe bent and damaged
- Maybe the top awing arm inner bracket area has damage.

There may be more damage, can't tell from the pics.





If it is only that front arm and the awning tube spring shaft etc, odds are favorable you do not need a whole new awning. They sell parts for that awning still and you can replace only what is damaged to compare to the cost of a entire awning. See if you can get some closer pics at the top and bottom of that front awning arm and we may be able to see better what you need. And check if the rear awning arm has damage.

We were out camping this week and I took these pics today. These can show how it is supposed to look to compare what you have to what is normal looking and what is not. This is also a Dometic Sunchaser 8300 patio awning, in this case a nominal 21 ft long one. I am not sure of yours. You can measure the awning fabric itself to tell the nominal length size.

The awning closed up ready to travel.


The top looks like this closed up


This is the bottom support bracket with the awning closed


The bottom with the awing open


Here is the awning setup up, (open)


The top bracket to the inner awning arm when the awning is open



The roller end of the awning with the awning is. You will also see the awning model number sticker on the end of the awning tube at the front of the awning. The awning has to be out to see that label.


And a pic of the awning label to show what it is you have. This is the label off of mine, yours will be slightly different numbers


If your awning spring and end cap are bent/damaged, those parts look like this when apart.








A caution if yours has to come apart to be fixed. That spring can hurt you if certain precautions are not done when taking it apart. We have a post showing how to do that, but it will take someone familiar with mechanic hand tools, and works on some type of machinery to deal with that spring. This is not for everyone to fix, if that spring needs to be replaced. But lets see what you need first.

There are mobile RV repair folks or you can take it to a dealer if this becomes a project too much for you.

Have a look at yours, take some more pics and we can help better on the parts.

On the door striker plate, I need to check on that tomorrow. Sunline changer doors between the 2004 models and the 2006 models. The striker plate that needs to be replaced is different between them. I'll get back to you on that.

Hope this helps

John

[JohnB]

After a good deal of digging, I found some information on your entry door striker plate.

The easy part, this pic of yours shows the striker plate installed backwards and without any screws holding it in place. I assume the door will rattle and not close tight the way it is.


Not sure how it ended up that way or bent up.

See here for what yours is supposed to look like. Note that there a bent inward tab part of the plate that the door latch plunger is supposed to work against. That bent inwards tab is supposed to be towards the outside of the camper.

These pics are off of a 2006 T264SR




I dug and dug to find a replacement striker plate that is the exact size to match your 2006 Sunline door. Unfortunately that digging turned up a lot I never knew, but it did not turn up a source of parts for that style door.

Somewhere in between the 2004 models and the 2005 models, Sunline changed brands of entry doors. The 2004 and prior until the last revision used Philips brand entry doors. I'm not totally sure, but believe Phillips went out of business and may have been sold. Not sure if someone bought them out. But I can find parts for the Phillips doors.

The next entry doors starting to show up on the 2005 models changed to the Creation brand entry doors. Creation was a division of Atwood Mobile who made the water heaters, furnaces and ranges used in our Sunlines. Creation was sold off in the 2007 time frame, to who I am not sure. But I cannot find who bought them or parts that show up available for that Creation brand. Someone else on the forum may know.

With this, many of the 2005 Sunlines, the 2006 and 2007 Sunlines had the Creation brand doors.

At this point, I suggest you try and take the exiting plate out, straighten it out if you can, and put it back in correctly. If that works, then the problem solved. You may have to use longer screws and screw into the door frame wood to hold the plate in. Normally that plate is put in with the entire door out of the camper can placed in from the back side. Pulling the entire door frame out of the camper is an option, but it is a lot of work verses using longer screws into the wood door rough opening.

If the plate is too far damaged, the Phillips door plate which is available, could work. But would need a slight modification to your door frame to drill a new screw mounting hole. The mounting hole centers are different distances between the Phillips plate and the Creation plate.

Let me know if you need the Phillips striker plate and what that entails.

Hope this helps.

John

[Kreid1321]

Okay! This is awesome!
My husband pulled the striker plate out and at least for it set in right. We ordered a generic door latch hoping that it will fit bc the entire mechanism needs to be replaced. The lock won’t come out. And one of the key holes is bent. On the outside of the door it looks like someone tried to break in or got locked out and tried to pry to get in and that’s what I am assuming messed everything up.

I’m still working on going over the awning information. It was a lot of info so I’m still processing it and figuring things out. Once I do I will respond with more info on that and more pics! Also, I forgot to mention originally, our trailer is 28ft.... if that helps with awning length. I know you asked in your original response and I forgot to include that info!

Another issue we ran into is our fridge. Keeps freezing everything! From the research I have done it’s the thermistor and I want to replace it just not sure exactly which thermistor to get. Any suggestions which to get and where to order??

[JohnB]

Glad you have the door latch working. Good!

On the awning, you will need to measure the awning fabric length as camper length is not enough to know the awning length. Sunline puts different length awnings on camper partly by camper length, but more so, by floor plan and where it came mount and not block certain things, like a door or cargo hole, etc with the awning arms.

On the fridge, you did some good hunting. Yes, if the thermistor is bad, then the fridge goes into limp mode and will cool non stop. But, the PC board can also cause the failure or the connection to the thermistor. The control board is not getting the right signal, or cannot respond to the signal.

Check your fridge model number. It would be inside the fridge cabinet, most times on the left by the door gasket. It most likely is an RM2652, or the longer one, RM2852 if they put the larger fridge in due to FEMA requests.

You can test the thermistor before ordering a new one if you want to. If you have someone electrically friendly with 120 volt AC and 12 VDC electrical with an ohm meter, we can explain how to test the sensor in an ice water bath. Then you know for sure the sensor is good or bad. Just let us know before we type the "How to"

For the parts on a RM2652, we have the parts diagram in our FILES section.

To get to the files section, you need to be logged into the forum.
At the top of the forum are tabs, look for the word "FILES" click it.


Once into the files section, scroll down to the "Sunline Kitchen" section. Go in there and find the "Dometic Fridge Model RM2652 Parts Diagram" and download a copy. Page 9 & 10 have the thermistor.

For the RM2652, the thermistor shows PN 2931863035. Doing web hits, that comes back with being replaced with a PN 3851210025. The new thermistor may look a little different pending the vintage fridge your have. The old one may be a copper tipped end and the new one is a plastic cylinder end.

These places I have bought from and had a positive experience.

That new PN shows here at Dyers RV. https://www.dyersonline.com/dometic-...istor-kit.html

RV Upgrades has it too,
https://www.rvupgradestore.com/Domet...-p/69-4063.htm

Amazon has it
https://www.amazon.com/Dometic-38512.../dp/B004LERB30

Hope this helps

John