Leaks and Water Damage Checklist

JimK-NY wrote:
... chalking ...

Unsure what "chalking" is.

2. Front windows. I had a pinhole leak around one of the windows. Unfortunately it occurred while I was traveling. I tried twice to seal the leak with big ugly globs of chalk. After two failures, I sealed around each window with gorilla duct tape. At the end of my trip, I stripped all the chalk and did a final repair.

Caulking is really a secondary seal. The primary seal is the putty tape under the item being sealed.

It is usually a poor primary seal that eventually causes the problem. The only real way to rectify the true problem is to remove the item in question, properly seal and then apply a new secondary seal.

A lot of times with windows, it is installer lazyness/production speed that doesn't get the window centered to maximize the primary seal around the perimeter. My father once removed a window that had a leak and the problem was the window was set in place and shoved to one side. This caused there to be almost no overlap of the window and the framing on one side and the top. By taking a couple minutes to shim the window so it was centered in the opening, he achieved a minimum of 1/2" overlap for a decent primary seal.

In regards to your question of checklist, it's very simple. If it isn't a single piece of material, it is subject to a leak.

deltabravo, thanks for your help with spelling.

kohldad, I certainly understand what you mean about primary seals. Unfortunately it seems that manufacturers don't always understand the need. From what I can tell there was no primary seal between my front windows and the camper skin. Nothing but an outer layer of caulk. The running lights have no primary seals or gaskets. If water enters the cover will fill and the water will enter through the holes cut for the wires. I am not sure how to fix this. I would like to start by sealing the holes.

All access doors and hatches can be the source of leaks - in fact, any opening in the hull. Any screw hole placed in the wrong spot can be a leak.

There are two basic types of access doors - those wirh rounded corners, and those with angled corners. They can leak in the same way that windows do. In addition, they have seams where the different parts of the frame meet that are usually not sealed and can allow water intrusion, especially at the lower corners of the angled doors.

The older types of campers with the corrugated aluminum siding are -imo- more prone to develop leaks around access doors or windows. There is no flat surface to seal, and the seal / caulking has more difficulty to brigde the gap at the lower ridges of the siding.

Keep in mind that water runs downhill and may collect in a well sealed low spot. The location of the water damage does not neccessarily indicate the location of the leak.

When I started my resto-mod, my first order of business was an entire window reseal plan.

Four years later I'm finally doing that part.

I'd never put sealer on top of anything (pin holes, unsealed caulking, etc.) until and unless I KNOW exactly how good is the underlying primary seal.

I'd never use "putty tape" (even sold by rv joints), only butyl tape.

After that, I'd only use rv approved caulking to make non-globbed, visually perfect caulking beads.

I keep my unit inside when it's not being used. Every little bit helps preserve it.

SidecarFlip wrote:
I keep my unit inside when it's not being used. Every little bit helps preserve it.

It seem pathetic that such an idea makes sense. Of course, that would not have worked the two years that I was in my truck camper full time. I do think a camper ought to be built to handle the weather. I keep my cars outdoors. They have windows, doors, a truck and even a skylight. None of them leak and I would not expect to see any leaks years and years later.

I think the basic issue is poor design. As mentioned above, primary sealing is essential but often missing and we are instead trying to get by with a surface layer of caulk.

Be sure to check your outdoor speakers, if you have any.
Leaking Outdoor Speakers

While we don't own a camper right now, we currently have a class C and a tt. But over the years I've broken down the water leak checklist into different sub groups.

Exterior... think like a rain drop. If there is a way for rain water to get in, it will find it. Everything on the outside gets checked. This takes me the most time, usually takes me about hour 1/2 to check exterior. IMO areas that get overlooked are A/C gasket because they do become loose, under the slide (water comes down the side and hits the slide, most water falls off but some runs along underneath of slide) and finds its way in. Outside speakers. Where roof folds over the edge, especially if your awning uses your gutter is attached to gutter. Most water falls off but some runs along underneath of slide). Pay close attention to any horizontal surface

Plumbing (Pressure side and discharge side)

Discharge side...
Under shower, sink

Pressure side...

Don't forget fittings at hot water, sinks, shower, outside faucet.

We don't use fresh water connection anymore. Fresh water is just for testing anymore. I pressure test mine every year to 65psi for 5 min using air. I do have a"test" plug and psi gauge for testing. IMO very few people have taken the time to actually have a method of testing. You can make a simple but effective system for testing with an air compressor if it has a gauge and a valve stem installed in your pressure side. I really got into water leaks several years ago after my cabover window had to be pulled several times trying to fix a leak and kept having problems.

I recently talked about what I do in another post, so copied and pasted from other post. Sorry for being so long winded.


"Don't you have faith in shark bite? But IMO better to test. A proper test and you'll know what pressure you can take. Nothing worse than water leak IMO. I test with air, lots easier to clean up air than water IMO. I believe is called a "test" plug. Screws into fresh water and keeps check valve open. Could do same thing a lot cheaper with $15.00 gauge installed on high pressure side of fresh water. A "pass" for me is 65 psi (air not water) for 5 min. PSI loss with in 5 min...I start looking. Or if you have a psi gauge (and somewhat accurate) on your air compressor, get one of these. https://www.amazon.com/Accu-gage-Chek-Spare-Valve-Extender/dp/B0006O2S8M and install a valve stem (five dollar for a brass valve stem which is best IMO) on in the high pressure side of water system. And get an adapter for air hose, so you can thread end onto air compressor air hose.

As far as "catchment" system, can't think of any other than a mop bucket

Here are RV's spec's that might be old but are right out of the "book" (unless the OEMS's got them changed...again)

Pressurized System Test.

---The test shall be performed by subjecting the pressure water piping system to either air or water pressure for 10 minutes without leakage or loss of pressure.

--- The entire piping system shall be filled with water and pressure tested with air or water at 80 psi to 100 psi (551 kPa to 689 kPa). The entire piping system shall include the hot water storage tank and the pressurized potable water storage tank.

---The water heater storage tank and the pressurized potable water storage tank shall be removed from the piping system, and the remaining piping system shall be pressure tested with air at 80 psi to 100 psi (551 kPa to 689 kPa).

---PVC and CPVC systems shall be permitted to be tested to the manufacturer's recommended test procedure.

Found it...http://bullseyeindustrialsales.com/b-b-r........r-distribution-test-plug-aluminum-113966 Little nipple at end keeps check valve open when testing. But you'll have to buy more stuff to have a complete testing tool. That is why I like the idea of just using a "check a spare" and install a brass valve stem as a test port.

As a side note I helped a neighbor with their PDI. Kind of funny and sad at same time but RV dealer's of a test was basically looking under RV for any water dripping out.

For drainage side of this like under sink I have couple of these in RV https://www.amazon.com/Glentronics-Inc-BWD-HWA-Basement-Watchdog/dp/B000JOK11K I sanded down the little legs to make better contact if any water is present. Also I place on paper, so you can tell visually by looking a the paper every know and then if water has made contact.

Hope this helps. My writing not the best".

egarant, I have also read about leaking outdoor speakers. Fortunately I don't have any and don't want any, ever.

path1, I don't know how to check the A/C gasket. Mine is not visible as far as I know. Can you provide more details.

As far as testing the water system, I have no issues or complexity to doing a test. I turn on the pump, then turn it off. I turn the pump back on hours or even days later. The pump will not run unless the system pressure has dropped due to a leak. You do need to start the test without any hot water. If you start with hot water and the temperature drops, the pump will need to go on to compensate.