Belly Band Lifting

[cpaharley2008]

sort of like the nose on your face, you never see it until you look for it.....

[Iowa Dave]

I think Karen is right on this too. When we brought our Escape home, I hit a pretty good sized bird. He slid over the top of the Highlander and smacked the belly band hard enough to leave feathers and pop the aluminum rail loose. I pinched the black band out of the aluminum track to find a pop rivet with the head gone. The track was away from the camper body both top and bottom edge. Drilled out the rivet. Put in a new one, pinched black band back in. Ten minutes. OK since. 3/16 diameter rivet, 3/8 grip range.
Dave

[Sandra L]

This should have everyone contemplating their belly buttons, err....belly bands.

[Loren & Cathy]

A lot of stick built trailers use this same type of band to cover the seams at their corner joints. With trailers that have been expose to the elements over the years, you can just plan to replace the whole band. And with the band gone bad, they leak. Loren

[Sandra L]

I had a "Stickie" that was exposed to the elements for greater than 15 years and while there were leaks to contend with, none were around the belly band. Not to say one shouldn't check, but hopefully that likelihood is rare.

[gbaglo]

Top and bottom shells of Escape are fibreglassed together. No more likely to leak than any other solid piece of fibreglass.

[cpaharley2008]

and if it were to leak, the water would run out the bottom weep holes....

[Brian B-P]

Although the band is indeed cosmetic, it is riveted and/or screwed on, so there are holes for that mounting. It is used to cover the line where the shell sections meet, because it would be too much effort to smooth and finish it all by hand - I asked Reace, and he said it would not be practical to have it left off due to that finishing work.

If the band were never installed, there would be nowhere in the joint to leak. If the band stays as tight as it was when installed, there's no leakage issue. But if you removed the band and left the mounting holes, you would have a series of little holes right through the shell, which would certainly be a leak issue.

So band fit is only a cosmetic matter, but if the mounting fasteners were to come loose or fail there would be an issue to fix.

[Bobbito]

Good to know, Brian. Thanks.