Roof Repair experts - advice?

I have a roof that has a "sag" kinda in the middle as pictured. Is there anyone who as fixed this without replacing the entire roof as that is really not an option and the roof is in good shape. Can you put a metal beam rod in place to give support and sandwich it to give it an even support like a roof beam?. I was thinking I could have a metal support rod out of 1x1 steel tubing and mount it into place to give support with bolts through the roof and sealed up properly. it can pretty easily be straighted out by pushing by hand and there is no delamination. Otherwise the roof is in great shape.

I also have a small (size of a quarter" small tear in the roof how has anyone else fixed this?

Any advice would be a great help. I did a search but did not find much to help me with these issues.

Thanks!

[ShrimpBurrito]

That looks bad. Absent any sort of "trauma" to the roof, such as a falling tree branch, I would say that the wood beams in the roof have rotted, or at best have somehow pulled apart. It appears structurally unsound, and to prevent further damage, I'm not sure I would use it until I got it fixed. If that is indeed the case, to properly repair it, you're going to need to replace those beams, either with new wood or with steel tubing -- that is a huge job, but some members here (like MariaG) have done it.

One easy way to tell if they might be rotted is to pull out a few screws attaching the trim around the end of the shell, like around where the seals are. After pulling them out, if they have brown/black rotted wood around them, then you have your answer. If there's what looks like wood you'd see at a lumber yard, then there's something else going on.

This is most definitely not typical.

Dave

What year is your camper? Aren't the internal supports all aluminum now? In the picture, are we looking at the front or rear shell?

[LoveToCamp]

Looks to me like both shells are sagging. The view is towards the rear of the TM, since you see the bed, wardrobe, and shower walls. Don't see how that could happen, without something heavy on the roof. I would not think the AC could do that.

[Bill]

I'm not sure I'm seeing the whole situation here. You say that the roof of the front shell is collapsing - but you can push it up by hand - but there is no delamination?

Seems to me that if there is no delamination, you would be lifting the air conditioner by hand, and the air conditioner is heavy. Not an easy lift. And if it is reasonably easy to lift by hand, then you are not lifting the air conditioner, which means there is delamination - the outside of the roof has pulled away from the inside of the roof. Help me out here.

Take a look at the outside of the roof. Has it sagged as well? Is the air conditioner still sitting square and well sealed against the outside of the roof?

It appears that the structure in the rear edge of the front shell has failed, and the roof (including the air conditioner) has sagged to the point where it is crushing the rear shell. But we will know more whe you answer some of the questions in this and other posts.

Was the air conditioner installed by the factory, or as an aftermarket upgrade?

Good luck.

Bill

Thanks for the feedback. It not wood construction. It's only at the end. AC unit is factory. Old owner said it was this way all along but did not cause any issues. I figured it wouldn't be difficult to sandwich a 1 x 1 steel tubing to address the sag and would completely solve the problem and make the roof even stronger, just not look "factory" . Haven't owned one of these so I have no idea. Appreciate the feedback. No indication of anything that hard hitting the top. No rot indication.

[Bill]

You have mentioned a couple times the idea of "sandwiching" a metal rod or tube to support the roof. I guess I don't understand "sandwiching". Are you thinking of putting this beam inside the TM, under the ceiling, where it will be visible from inside the TM? Or are you thinking of opening up the rear edge of the shell, and inserting the beam inside the roof structure? How will you secure the beam to the sidewalls of the shell, which must, after all, bear the weight of the roof and any appliances such as the air conditioner mounted on the roof.

Do you envision the beam as being straight, or bent into the curvature to match the roof? I have a feeling you are taking on a fairly complicated task.

Bill

My rear shell is just fine, but my front shell has that same sag. Mine is from snow load damage. Other than a saggy appearance, I have no leaks, and my roof functions just fine. There is some separation of the aluminum skin on the inside. I ended up mounting rubber door stops on my ceiling between the vents to keep them from rubbing on the rear shell when traveling since my lights hang lower than designed due to the slight sag. Next time I'm in the camper I'll get a pic.

Thanks everyone for kind feedback. My fabrication skills are pretty good - boats, automobiles, ect...restored from junk to new. Try fixing 50 year old rust buckets! My idea was from other forums who experience this issue in similar applications.

For example Coleman did this exact thing and had a kit to address this exact problem."When we had our 99 Coleman Nevada it had a sagging roof also. Unfortunately there was a design flaw in the roof material of a few years of these pop ups. Coleman/Fleetwood came up with this "center beam" that was fastened to the inside ceiling of the camper to aid in supporting the roof." - so this isn't such a radical idea.

Mine would be much better execution than Coleman. Since the roof is solid and testing with very slight inner pressure with a 2 x 4 board makes it perfect I am sure sandwiching a beam would make it stronger than stock and could be made to look factory. Since this is not on the front roof - AC, lights, fans ect are not in the way. You really don't need to span the whole roof but if I decide to do this I would to spread the small load it would take across the entire roof then mount it evenly. It would be the strongest part of the entire roof.

[LoveToCamp]

Be sure to fabricate your new support to perfectly follow the curvature of the undamaged shell. The roof seal needs to be snug to keep the rain and wind out.