2005 Winnebago Minnie, the dreaded cabover leak

I recall someone on this forum did a full rebuild thread on a model like yours. I also recall that your model has a wood structure with foam sandwiched by the filon outer skin and paneling inner.

Hopefully you can find that thread. I recall the pictures were very detailed.

Jose

Here's a pic ">pic
of my 2001 31' Itasca after about a day's worth of "dismantling".
There was foam inside the steel frame on the wings,paneling on the inside of the wings, and door skin on the outside, under the fiberglass.
My front wall came off in one piece from the seam on the roof, which was under a molded fiberglass piece, down over the radius and mated with the "sleeperboard". My sleeperboard was all rotted out. It was secured to the walls at the back of the cab, to steel pieces of angle iron along the bottom of the wings, a steel piece at the joint between the sleeperboard and front wall, and was also screwed to the roof of the cab around the cutout.
You have to take care in removing the trim pieces that cover the seam of the wings and front wall, so they can be reused.

Mich F, what was the source of your leak? I have not determined where my leak originates. That pic scares the heck out of me. I have read on here( I think) that Winnebago charges about $6K to fix the cabover. After seeing your pic, that price seems more sane than I originally thought.
I wish I had access to a covered garage or carport to work under. Now that I have found a leak, it will rain here in SE Texas till next May:(

bmoon1952 wrote:
Mich F, what was the source of your leak? I have not determined where my leak originates. That pic scares the heck out of me. I have read on here( I think) that Winnebago charges about $6K to fix the cabover. After seeing your pic, that price seems more sane than I originally thought.
I wish I had access to a covered garage or carport to work under. Now that I have found a leak, it will rain here in SE Texas till next May:(

I think the problem started on the leading edge of the wing on the driver's side. Someone had tried and failed to fix it before. There was a good size entertainment center there in the shorter than normal cabover, which made it hard to see the problem.
Around here it's probably about a $8,000-10,000 job. My son has been an RV tech for almost 20 years and has 2 other Class C's in a warehouse in which he's doing total cabover rebuilds.
Mine was bought, at a considerably discounted price, knowing that the cabover needed a total rebuild.

I found a leak in my old campers cab over. I was able to remove the screw strip and found a 2" area about three feet long. Mine was wood framed and I was able to peel back the side covering and cut out the bad wood I then glued and screwed a strip of yellow wood and coated everything with fiberglass reason. I let that dry and filled the void in the foam insulation with spray foam and covered the whole thing with fiberglass.The whole job took about 6-7 hours and made a very good repair. Granted I must have caught this early because there was no sign of interior damage.It looked like mine also started in the upper edge of where the cab over curves under.I think the outer cover was cut short at the factory letting water in after the butyl tape shrunk over time.

Here's a pic of one that we just put the fiberglass on the cabover front wall yesterday.

Three of us put it on, and it would have been easier with a 4th (or 5th) person. There's no second chance with the glue that's used, once the pieces mate they bond right away.
It wasn't that long ago that the cabover section looked similar to my MH on the left.
The sides still have to be trimmed, clearance lights and trim molding installed and the inside finished off.

Here's another Class C waiting for a cabover rebuild. Mine will probably be finished sometime around never. :(

Wow' I hope my little repair holds up. are you doing anything different to negate a repeat down the road that the factory should be doing?

Travelcrafter wrote:
Wow' I hope my little repair holds up. are you doing anything different to negate a repeat down the road that the factory should be doing?

Nothing really different from what the factory did, just making sure they're properly sealed. It will be up to the owners to make sure they stay sealed. The MH with the ladders around it, a 1994 Fleetwood Jamboree Searcher, was recently bought by the current owner, for $10,000, I believe. They discovered the cabover problem, and have yet to use the MH . My son also informed them that they need a new roof in the very near future. :E

Mich F: You are a magician, a miracle worker with what you do. I would have given up on a "C" long before that.