2013 Leprechaun water leak problems

tvchen wrote:
Ended up finding the leak on the left hand side where the roof starts to slope down and the termination of the awning rail. If you take the vinyl strip off the awning rail you will see that if there is not enough sealant at the termination then there is a wide open channel into the side wall that will eventually end up in the front cap.

What you describe is exactly what they found on my unit when I first had this problem. The technician that worked on my unit the first time found that opening you are talking about and basically filled it full of some sort of filler, but after the next rain we had I was driving the unit, turned a corner, and water showered down on me. That is when I pulled the trim from the front of the bunk so I could see the inside if the cap and discovered the standing water.

The second attempt to fix the problem involved taking the metal edge trim off starting at the awning and extending all the way across the bottom to the other side of the motorhome. There was nothing under the metal trim as far as a sealant, so the technician ran putty tape the entire length and reinstalled the metal strip and vinyl trim. I was convinced that the problem was solved.

Three weeks ago I was preparing to take the unit back to the dealer to get the previous repair painted. It had rained a lot the day before and I decided to take a look at the back side of the cap to assure myself that it was still dry and found it full of water again. I used a turkey baster and bucket to pull off over a gallon of water. The good thing is that I didn't find the water by having it fall on my head again.

The third attempt to fix the problem is still going on. Because I discovered mold in the bunk area, they totally removed the cap from the front. That is when they discovered the cap was mounted with foam, double face tape. They are replacing the moldy bunk with a new deck that is being shipped from the factory next week. After that the cap will be reinstalled and sealed, hopefully better than it was done at the factory. My guess is that with shipping and painting I am looking at a minimum of 3 more weeks until they have it done, but I want it done right this time.

I would have to add up how long in total I have not had use of my 6 month old motorhome, and each time I sit down and write a check to Bank of America for a motorhome that I can't use, I do a slow burn. Like I said, I know there are a lot of these units out there that will show up as a problem sooner or later. I am very glad I don't have an entertainment center in my bunk area. That would be a real mess.

I spoke with the dealer about my options as far as just moving on to another unit of some sort. He told me that I would take a big hit financially because I now had a used unit and there wasn't anything he could do about that. That pretty much ended the conversation and made me start thinking about contacting my attorney instead, which I have not done yet.