Leaking around wheel well

[foxhaven0]

This is not going down the road. This is not road splash. The camper has been parked for weeks.
Has anyone had a problem with water running down the side under the wheel cover and into the kitchen cabinets.
That's what my 3124 seems to have today. I took the cover(fender skirt) off and think that the water is coming in between the exterior sidewall and the galvanized metal lining the wheel well. There is no caulking there and the foam weather stripping on the cover has gotten where it doesn't seal against the exterior wall. The water is all along the bottom of the interior wall under the cabinets front and back of the wheel well and travels to the wall by the door and out to the front corner under the stove, then to the floor in front of that. I plan to caulk along the galvanized edge and the exterior wall and perhaps scrape off the foam on the cover and replace that. (Once the rain stops and it dries out) What is your opinion on this course of action. Any advice?

[Scott O]

There are very few sources of water on the roof...night condensation, air conditioner and rain come immediately to mind. Since it is raining (and you might be one of the few in the country to whom this is a bad thing) I would suggest you raise up the side with the leak so the water goes elsewhere. This is of course a temp fix, when it dries out you can do a proper repair.

[foxhaven0]

There are very few sources of water on the roof...night condensation, air conditioner and rain come immediately to mind. Since it is raining (and you might be one of the few in the country to whom this is a bad thing) I would suggest you raise up the side with the leak so the water goes elsewhere. This is of course a temp fix, when it dries out you can do a proper repair.

Please read what I said. This is NOT coming from the roof. This is coming in the sidewall. On the inner bottom box of the trailer that does not move. There is no way for water from the roof to get where it is. It is coming in the WHEEL WELL. Sorry but your suggestion is not going to help at all.

[rvcycleguy]

Your saying water is climbing the wheel well and getting into the floor cabinets? I think what Scott is suggesting is to raise the TM to an unlevel position so any water drains off the back or front and not the sides. At this point, without photos, its hard to visualize how water is soaking the areas you describe while sitting parked. Water can travel in mysterious ways. Water may be getting in from the roof and traveling down an obscure route to the wheel well area but first saturating the cabinets your describe.

[foxhaven0]

Your saying water is climbing the wheel well and getting into the floor cabinets? I think what Scott is suggesting is to raise the TM to an unlevel position so any water drains off the back or front and not the sides. At this point, without photos, its hard to visualize how water is soaking the areas you describe while sitting parked. Water can travel in mysterious ways. Water may be getting in from the roof and traveling down an obscure route to the wheel well area but first saturating the cabinets your describe.

I'll try to post pictures tomorrow. I did not say the water is going up hill.The rain is blowing against the side of the trailer and running down the wall to the top edge of the fender cover , then under the fender cover between the galvanized metal into the cabinet space.

[commodor47]

Based on your description, it does sound like the water is infiltrating between the wheel well insert and the outer shell wall. The area where the wheel well skirt sits should be sealed. It will be easier to offer assistance if we know the year and model of your unit. My wheel well inserts are made of plastic and you describe yours as having a galvanized edge.

Dick

[foxhaven0]

Based on your description, it does sound like the water is infiltrating between the wheel well insert and the outer shell wall. The area where the wheel well skirt sits should be sealed. It will be easier to offer assistance if we know the year and model of your unit. My wheel well inserts are made of plastic and you describe yours as having a galvanized edge.

Dick

2001 3124ks. We've done the wheel well mod to make the inside curved.

[B_and_D]

This is not going down the road. This is not road splash. The camper has been parked for weeks.
Has anyone had a problem with water running down the side under the wheel cover and into the kitchen cabinets.
That's what my 3124 seems to have today. I took the cover(fender skirt) off and think that the water is coming in between the exterior sidewall and the galvanized metal lining the wheel well. There is no caulking there and the foam weather stripping on the cover has gotten where it doesn't seal against the exterior wall. The water is all along the bottom of the interior wall under the cabinets front and back of the wheel well and travels to the wall by the door and out to the front corner under the stove, then to the floor in front of that. I plan to caulk along the galvanized edge and the exterior wall and perhaps scrape off the foam on the cover and replace that. (Once the rain stops and it dries out) What is your opinion on this course of action. Any advice?

I think that this course of action would help. Do you happen to have a side A/C unit?

[countrygirl]

You must live in Florida we are getting rain every day. My yard...all 4 plus acres are quishy again and we had just dried up enough to need to mow every three hours. ;) The water table is really high right now...luckily we are parked on concrete loading the Tm for a trip. Our friend came and got his Chalet A-frame today from our yard and was sort of amazed and upset about the water he had to walk through to hook up. Well you get what you pay for and we let him store it for free.

It is odd...I also have a 3124KS and we had a small leak ...two drops came out of a screw hole where I took off those stupid tie backs. If I had not removed them I doubt that we would have noticed until real damage was done.

So just yesterday...we did the search and read the threads and paid a lot of attention to your thread about you chasing a leak in your TM. It appears that we have stopped the leak by repairing/replacing the caulking in a small section on our center seam. This patch lines up perfectly with where we found the two drops of water.

So...now I wonder if maybe you have a leak up top and in is running down inside your wall and coming out in those places you mentioned?

This morning I planned to write a new thread ...sort of a testimonial for the search bar...but work, errands, packing etc got in the way.

[foxhaven0]

I think that this course of action would help. Do you happen to have a side A/C unit?

No, the AC is on the rear roof.

[B_and_D]

I think that it could be possible for water to be running down on top of the retrofit sheet metal and into the trailer, but also it could be possible that there is a leak above that. I'd try to seal up the wheel well area first, and see if that helps. If it stops raining, try sprinkling the TM with a hose at different levels and see what happens.

Our wheel well cover (aka skirt on older cars) has foam insulation on the inside, and we always tightly screw it back on when we've had to remove it. It's in pretty good shape still after all these years, but it doesn't get that hot here.

[foxhaven0]

You must live in Florida we are getting rain every day. My yard...all 4 plus acres are quishy again and we had just dried up enough to need to mow every three hours. ;) The water table is really high right now...luckily we are parked on concrete loading the Tm for a trip. Our friend came and got his Chalet A-frame today from our yard and was sort of amazed and upset about the water he had to walk through to hook up. Well you get what you pay for and we let him store it for free.

It is odd...I also have a 3124KS and we had a small leak ...two drops came out of a screw hole where I took of those stupid tie backs. If I had not removed them I doubt that we would have noticed until real damage was done.

So just yesterday...we did the search and read the threads and paid a lot of attention to your thread about you chasing a leak in your TM. It appears that we have stopped the leak by repairing/replacing the caulking in a small section on our center seam. This patch lines up perfectly with where we found the two drops of water.

So...now I wonder if maybe you have a leak up top and in is running down inside your wall and coming out in those places you mentioned?

This morning I planned to write a new thread ...sort of a testimonial for the search bar...but work, errands, packing etc got in the way.

Yes I'm in NW Florida and while we've gotten rain almost every day we're still way below normal conditions. And I'm on a sandy hill, the water is gone very soon after the rain stops.
The upper sections are okay now. We actually went back and replaced the caulking around the vents with eternabond. The place I have a leak now is in the lower section of the camper. Any leaks in the roof show up in the upper sections. I do not believe there is any way for this leak to come from the roof. There is no connection between the two. The upper shells don't touch the bottom except at the bag seals and vinyl flaps.

[Randy]

This is not going down the road. This is not road splash. The camper has been parked for weeks.
Has anyone had a problem with water running down the side under the wheel cover and into the kitchen cabinets.
That's what my 3124 seems to have today. I took the cover(fender skirt) off and think that the water is coming in between the exterior sidewall and the galvanized metal lining the wheel well. There is no caulking there and the foam weather stripping on the cover has gotten where it doesn't seal against the exterior wall. The water is all along the bottom of the interior wall under the cabinets front and back of the wheel well and travels to the wall by the door and out to the front corner under the stove, then to the floor in front of that. I plan to caulk along the galvanized edge and the exterior wall and perhaps scrape off the foam on the cover and replace that. (Once the rain stops and it dries out) What is your opinion on this course of action. Any advice?
Had the same problem with my 2002 several years ago. Took the wheel skirts off and ran a bead of caulk around the lip. Also, I caulked around the front electrical outlet box. this took care of the problem.

[foxhaven0]

Here are some pictures. Hopefully this will explain better.
#1 is the cover.
#2 is looking down where the foam is gapped and letting water in.
#3 is inside the cabinet. You can see where the wheel well penetrates the wall. There is water on top of this that runs down to the floor inside the cabinet.
#4 is outside again without the cover.
#5 is the metal bent up on the outer wall with no caulking.

[B_and_D]

The metal lip of the original wheel well that folds up and out and makes contact with the body of the trailer looks to have a bit of a gap. It surely wouldn't hurt to put some caulking into that gap and see if that helps.

[foxhaven0]

The metal lip of the original wheel well that folds up and out and makes contact with the body of the trailer looks to have a bit of a gap. It surely wouldn't hurt to put some caulking into that gap and see if that helps.

It's raining now and I want it to be dry when I caulk. As a stopgap til then I put some duct tape over that lip. I'm glad I caught this at home- we're planning on a trip soon.

[rvcycleguy]

Good luck. Please update the forum on your results.

[Bill]

I think what Scott was suggesting - feel free to interpret it otherwise - was that rain hits the roof, a large flat area that collects a lot of water. Then it drains down the outside of the trailer, as it is supposed to do. And then, when the sheet of draining water it hits the wheel well mod, most of it drains outside but some drains into the area of the mod. Tell me, when you did the mod, did you use open-cell or closed-cell foam to build up the area above the new sheet metal liner? Open cell foam will leak as the water creeps from cell to cell. I don't think closed-cell foam will leak through the foam body, but you still have to consider how the foam sticks to the new sheet metal. Galvanized steel can be a tough situation for stickiness.

The trick, obviously, is never to let the water come into contact with the foam. Your first photo shows a very neat installation as viewed from the outside - well done! But the second and fourth photo suggest that there may be gaps behind the nice neat trim. Hard to tell from the photos ... But as you say, the water is apparently penetrating from the outside the wall, not the inside, so the possibilities are limited.

Bill

[foxhaven0]

I think what Scott was suggesting - feel free to interpret it otherwise - was that rain hits the roof, a large flat area that collects a lot of water. Then it drains down the outside of the trailer, as it is supposed to do. And then, when the sheet of draining water it hits the wheel well mod, most of it drains outside but some drains into the area of the mod. Tell me, when you did the mod, did you use open-cell or closed-cell foam to build up the area above the new sheet metal liner? Open cell foam will leak as the water creeps from cell to cell. I don't think closed-cell foam will leak through the foam body, but you still have to consider how the foam sticks to the new sheet metal. Galvanized stell can be a tough situation for stickiness.

The trick, obviously, is never to let the water come into contact wit the foam.

Bill
The bent up lip is original to the camper not part of the mod. We just used a sheet of galvanized curved up into the rectangular opening, fastened at the bottom and center with rivets. The foam inside the mod is dry. I don't know if it was open or closed cell but it appears to be water resistant. The water is coming in under the lip and onto the top of the well inside the cabinet. Since I put the tape up no water has come in even tho' I left the cover off and it has rained off and on all day. Tomorrow should be drier and I will put caulk behind and along the edge of the lip. I'll need to get new foam for the covers but I think the caulking will fix the problem.

[foxhaven0]

Caulked around lip and new foam on covers.

[Bill]

Looks good! I have to believe that your new caulking will fix the problem. Let us know.

Bill

[countrygirl]

Yes I'm in NW Florida and while we've gotten rain almost every day we're still way below normal conditions. And I'm on a sandy hill, the water is gone very soon after the rain stops.
The upper sections are okay now. We actually went back and replaced the caulking around the vents with eternabond. The place I have a leak now is in the lower section of the camper. Any leaks in the roof show up in the upper sections. I do not believe there is any way for this leak to come from the roof. There is no connection between the two. The upper shells don't touch the bottom except at the bag seals and vinyl flaps.


Well duh...I should have realized that. Good luck with your repair ...hope that fixes it.

You would think that being close to the ocean like we are that our home would be on a sandy hill...but nope...it is in a valley and we had a LOT more rain while we were away. It rained we unloaded the TM and for the last 2 plus hours. The good news is The caulking my husband did seems to have corrected our problem.

[foxhaven0]

Well duh...I should have realized that. Good luck with your repair ...hope that fixes it.

You would think that being close to the ocean like we are that our home would be on a sandy hill...but nope...it is in a valley and we had a LOT more rain while we were away. It rained we unloaded the TM and for the last 2 plus hours. The good news is The caulking my husband did seems to have corrected our problem.

Of course, now that I have everything sealed it's not going to rain.:awink: