Roof Leak Posts Are BIG Help

[Virginia Deacon]

My roof-leak shows up as an inside drip from two-light group over couch and on vinyl panel behind couch. I had re-caulked the center roof vent, after locating a leak there. Finally tracked it to a leak into the area where the right light is mounted - water drips from wire cutout and screw holes for that light. No problem with left light.

Trailmanor customer service had advised me that the roof is one piece, so the center seam on the outside cannot be a problem. Your posts opened my eyes to several reasons why water can get under the snap-on center trim and cause leaks! It's raining, now, but I'll lay down a good bead of caulk on both sides and the ends of that outside trim, when we get better weather. Should I remove the outside strip first and look for holes, or should I leave the trim alone and seal it real good?

[commodor47]

Virginia,

I spent considerable time re-caulking the outside areas of our unit last summer. The center, outside strip covering the laminated seam on both shells was in good condition - except for areas of loose caulk. I would suggest making sure the area is free of old caulk and clean. Adding new caulk should be sufficient to seal the strip. There are several other possible sources of water infiltration. In my case, both roof vents had slow leaks. However, re-doing the caulk around both vents did not stop a persistent leak in the upper shell, by the ceiling cabinets. I finally corrected that leak by caulking (or replacing the caulk) all along the corner molding covering the area where the roof meets the side walls.

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1Q...vH78GkGZIXd7L3

Dick

[Virginia Deacon]

Dick:

Thank you for your comments and the excellent pictures! Today is going to be a good day to clean and re-caulk many of the areas you mentioned. I'll also check the old caulking, for wear and gaps.

I bought a 2002 2619 last September from Camping World that was a trade in. The previous owner obviously did not love his Trailmanor. It had leaked so much that it had rotted out roof vent framing and completely ruined the vinyl and carpet flooring. Structurally it was in good shape. I replaced the entire flooring with some synthetic wood grain flooring which looks great. I had my stepdad who is a wonderful woodworker replace the vent framing with cypress wood. The caulking around each of the roof vents had several layers of old caulking each piled on to the next and full of water and mildew between each layer. After removing all of the old caulking, I re-sealed with Eternabond strips. Actually I placed eternabond along the entire roof seam. Some may not like the appearance of the wide strips but it has worked great. It has been put through some very torrential rains and no leaks!

[B_and_D]

When you're talking about the "roof vent framing", are you talking about the riser on top of the roof that helps the standard roof vent fit onto the TM roof (which is much thinner than most RV's), or about something that is between the aluminum skins?

TM offers a "synthetic wood" roof riser that won't rot out. We recently ordered two of them, replaced one vent and used one of them, and have another to do this summer when the cover comes off (in 1 1/2 weeks . IMHO it's much better than the metal-wrapped wood riser that came with ours originally.

The wood between the aluminum skins that is used for the vent mounting bracket screws. It had the consistency of mulch when I removed it. We replaced with cypress wood which is very resistant to rot and stopped the leaks with Eternabond.