Sealing Maintenance

What coach do you have, what type of roof? I have a fiberglass roof and use this on all the seams, works great.
http://www.campingworld.com/proflex-brushable-sealant
JR45

National Tropical fiberglass roof

dlnc wrote:
We have a diesel pusher with full body and need to do some maintenance....with that I have a few questions;

For the front and rear caps, should I peel off the old tape first or can I just tape over the current tape joint.

Since my coach has full body paint, what is the best sealant to use on the sides where the old sealant is cracking. I cannot use white with the body paint. I am also concerned with the sealant sagging since it will be applied to the exterior vertical surfaces.

Im thinking I may need to find some color sealant to blend in with the body paint.

First off,
There's quite a few different kinds of sealant/caulkings in the RV world. There are some for sealing around vents, front and rear cap adjoinments, roof-to-gutter seams and more. Some have properties like "self leveling". What that means is, when you apply it on something like a 14" x 14" roof vent, it will "flow" for a very short period of time and level out but, not run.

Dicor is one of those self leveling sealants and, is ONLY for horizontal surfaces. Do not use it on anything that begins to turn vertical, it will run. As for "tape" well, I'm not a fan of it, never have been. When it comes time for me to re-seal vents, cap seams and more, I use my heat gun and soften the original seams, scrape them off, wipe things down with alcohol and, then lay large beads of Dicor in whatever pattern that seems appropriate for the application. Sometimes I zig-zag back and forth for a wider bead, sometimes I do a "weld" bead. That's where I move an inch forward, then come back a half inch while still laying material, then move forward, back a half, move forward etc. etc. etc. That's when I want a really thick bead.

But, again, there's various caulks/sealants out there in the RV world. Cruise on down to your local RV supplies and check out all of them. Sikaflex is a top brand too for many of these.
Scott

dlnc, when you say tape is it eternabond? If it is I would leave alone as it really sticks well and lasts. On the roof of my 2001 Monaco and still doing well.Had to remove some around a broken skylight and was quite a job. Good luck, Don

The RV industry has punished us with Dicor calk for years. It was/is never a permanent solution. As previously noted, over time it needs to be removed and reapplied, due to cracking and unbonding.
A more permanent solution is Sikaflex 715 rubber roof calking.


Richard

The front and rear caps unfortunately were factory sealed with tape and is now cracking in numerous places so that will need to be replaced. Im concerned with the seam on the driver/passenger sides that will need to be resealed. Also the different vents on the sides that also have cracking factory sealant. Because its on the side walls I dont know what sealant to use.

Thanks, Dave

I think you can heat that tape up with a heat gun and it should come off. I used eternabond tape on rear cap and it's working good for me, I did strip the old caulk off and cleaned well with acetone

Norm

Any caulking/sealant/tape is as good as the surface preparation done BEFORE it was applied. Eternabond is a great product, if the surface was clean for it to adhere properly. Dicor is also a fine product if the surface is spotless so that it will not start to come loose at the edges. Clear urethane caulking is great for some vertical surfaces on a painted coach, as long as all of the surfaces are clean and wiped down with a solvent first to remove any wax or other contaminants. I like to keep away from silicone products since there are other materials out there that will last as long and not contaminate your surfaces with silicones that are difficult to remove if you need to do any painting.
There are many fine products out there that will perform well on your RV as long as you spend a lot of time on your surface preparation. Going over an old tape joint may or may not produce good results since you cannot clean the old surface as well as if the old tape/sealant was not there. I recommend taking off all of the old tape, to see if there were any failures in the seal, cleaning the surfaces, and applying new tape. They make a small, one inch wide roller for wall paper seams, that works great for making sure that the tape is properly adhered to the clean surface. If you do it right and take your time, you should be able to get many years of service out of all of the high quality tapes, sealants, and caulks.

One thing I used a couple of years ago is the stuff seen on TV..Flexseal I recall...I cleaned the surface well with acetone and applied it...Still holding up today...

If you clean it of well most tape will last as long as most people keep a home now days. Use some patience and scrape with a razor if fiberglass. You probably don't want to use a wire brush on fiberglass, but it will work on a metal roof to remove any residue. Check out some of my post if you want to see some of the steps involved on a metal and fiberglass roof and taping.
As with any job, preporation will save time later down the road in repairs.