Leaks and Water Damage Checklist
It seems someone is always finding a leak and water damage. Then there are the threads where someone spends hundreds of hours rebuilding an old camper. Once the skin comes of the unit, it seems there are leaks and rot everywhere.
I have tried to be very proactive in maintaining the caulking on my camper but I have still had issues. At this point I am starting to become paranoid. I thought it might be helpful for all of us to have a checklist of areas to check that goes beyond the big and obvious caulk seals around roof fans, vents and skylights. I have three items for the checklist.
1. Running lights. I put this on the list because it seems leaks here are frequent and not easy to detect until the damage is extensive. Does anyone have a good solution? I have globs of caulk around the sides of mine.
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 caulk. 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.
3. Happijack electrical connections. On my Northstar they installed the rear connectors upside down because the wires were not long enough to enter on the bottom side. Eventually the caulk around the electrical wire developed a leak. Water ran down the wire, entered the connector and slowly wet the entire lower right corner of the camper. The damage apparently occurred throughout winter storage. By Spring I had to replace all the wood in that corner. Even the jack was in danger of pulling away from the camper. The leaking area was literally a pinhole.
Are there other areas that are likely to be overlooked?
Thanks, Jim
I have tried to be very proactive in maintaining the caulking on my camper but I have still had issues. At this point I am starting to become paranoid. I thought it might be helpful for all of us to have a checklist of areas to check that goes beyond the big and obvious caulk seals around roof fans, vents and skylights. I have three items for the checklist.
1. Running lights. I put this on the list because it seems leaks here are frequent and not easy to detect until the damage is extensive. Does anyone have a good solution? I have globs of caulk around the sides of mine.
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 caulk. 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.
3. Happijack electrical connections. On my Northstar they installed the rear connectors upside down because the wires were not long enough to enter on the bottom side. Eventually the caulk around the electrical wire developed a leak. Water ran down the wire, entered the connector and slowly wet the entire lower right corner of the camper. The damage apparently occurred throughout winter storage. By Spring I had to replace all the wood in that corner. Even the jack was in danger of pulling away from the camper. The leaking area was literally a pinhole.
Are there other areas that are likely to be overlooked?
Thanks, Jim
