Possible solution to wood rot

My first camper was a 2000 Lance 1170 that came with my truck. After buying it we were cleaning it and I happened to put my hand through the wall in the overhead area. Further inspection found dry rot all over the place in the area. Took it to a local repair shop, spent $3000 for them to rebuild the front area and thought I was good to go but later found additional rot and leaking in other areas. Feeling rather duped by the seller, I had enough and sold the camper to my cousin (full disclosure of the issues) and moved on.

I then looked for a Bigfoot Camper knowing that my intentions were to be on the road a lot and I wanted to avoid anything with seems or slides to reduce the chance of water penetration. I bought my current camper nearly sight unseen and I have not had a single issue of water penetration yet. My only complaint was my 2001 Bigfoot 10.6E was before they used stainless steel fasteners on the exterior so I have had to replace the rusted out ones as I get a chance.

Getting back to topic... even in my fiberglass camper, there is still a plywood backing and interior wood that I get concerned about. One area of concern is where the fridge vents through the roof, the plywood is exposed (as the hole is cut through the structure) and they did nothing to treat the exposed wood. It's "protected" by the fridge vent cap but humidity and water penetration are still possible. I've considered sealing it with some sort of black tar sealant or something but haven't gotten there yet.

I am also looking at upgrading my solar panel to something larger and will be reaching out to a fiberglass shop to have them glass some mounting posts onto my roof with a way to bolt to them rather than to screw through the roof and hope the additional holes won't leak.

I think the bottom line is that wood in the interior will last just fine as long as the exterior is well sealed and kept that way. To this end, pay to have your roof resealed every couple of years and if possible, store inside.

Now here is someone who live up to his ideas

If you don't take care about aluminium, even boats will deteriorate in just few years if you use them on salt water and don't wash after.
But look at this 70 years old baby. No dryrot.


CL listing.

People demanding quality and having money for it do spend $3 million on Prevosts so raising price of today's camper "design to rot" from $60,000 to $65,000 to make it lasting should not be a problem.
IMHO it is the customer who forces the build.
Looking at RV buyers want fancy TV, satellite, stereo and kitchen island, but don't ask a question about structural integrity.
When TC is only cargo during travel, all the low and mid-priced motorhomes are build the same way.
That makes them death trap in case of any accident, but who really cares?

Aluminum rots when exposed to something that causes electrolysis. Not an issue in a climate where there is no freezing temps or snow or where the roads aren't treated with brine, CACL or rock salt, all cause electrolysis when moisture is present.

The company I retired from ran a fleet of aluminum trailers and we were constantly repairing them. Biggest issue with aluminum is where the steel (axle pads, suspension mounts and steel kingpin plates contacted the aluminum. That is where corrosion really accelerated. I'm not talking sheet material either. I'm referring to thick aluminum extrusions.

The other issue is, aluminum is secured to aluminum with steel fasteners. Steel and aluminum is always electrolysis prone no matter how the area is pre- treated.

IMO, the best way to treat rot is to mitigate it as much as possible with preventative maintenance. A regular (every 3 month) regimen of checking seals and caulk and repairing any intrusion points seems to me to be the easiest answer and by far the least expensive both in time and dollars spent.

RV's will almost never be built like marine products because the cost to purchase would be beyond the reach of the prime market the builder want to sell to.

Freep wrote:
The constant enemy of campers is water and the resulting wood rot. I've read here of people having water damage to their campers even when it is only a few years old. Even though many manufacturers use aluminum framing now, a great deal of the internal construction is still wood, leaving you with a potential of severe structural compromise when water gets in.

Has anyone done a rebuild using composite material? It seems to me that this would be a great way to have some peace of mind to protect against rot. I'd be happy to pay a manufacturer a little more to use composite rather than wood.

What do you think? Am I crazy?

Treated marine grade plywood would be a nice material for general non structural backing, flooring, roof ply. Available in numerous thickness, ply's and qualities. I have always said RV's should be built more like boats than residential tract homes.

Reddog1 wrote:

HMS Beagle wrote:
... Then be very careful about the roof penetrations - how many and how treated.

I would raise (pedestal) the area of the penetrations 1 to 2 inches. The pedestals would be molded in. The flanges of the penetrations would be about 2 inches wider than the item fitted to the penetrations. For example, the standard opening for vents and A/Cs is 14 inches. I would make a pedestal 18" by 1 or 2 inches high. With the raised pedestal, it is very unlikely you would have a leak at that point.

Wayne

This is how boats are built and I don't understand why Bigfoot and NL don't do it. If you are building with stick and panels, then it's extra work - but with a molding you do the work once in the mold and its free after that.

For the most part, water runs downhill. Why the world's RV builders and roofers don't understand this is one of life's mysteries.

As proof of this, one time I built a shop out of salvaged materials. The roof was salvaged corrugated iron with hundreds of holes and I thought it might leak badly. My father's advice was simply make sure they were installed with the holes up (holes on the peak of the corrugations, not the valley) and ignore them. In a very heavy rainfall every once in a while you might feel a very light spray when a raindrop happened to bullseye a hole. But even in very heavy rain there were never any drops on the floor, let alone puddles. Yet with the lights out it looked like a starry sky, so many holes were there. The holes were at the top of the hill.

And I guess Jimh have never heard about Avions?
What happen to the manufacturer anyway?
Old, beaten up shells sell for 20 grands, so there is good demand.

Aluminum can suffer from exposure to some elements. Don't believe it? Go check out some boating forums.

In any case, Airstream still doesn't make TCS with slides, so it's really only an academic argument.

Airstreams are build like aircraft.
Aluminium frame with aluminium siding working as shear walls.
Older models used fiberglass insulation ,while I think newer do have spray-on polyurethane.
Finished with high-grade paneling inside.
That 45 years old Airstream is 99% original per sale add. You can find it on Palm Springs CL.
As I said, the only thing that can kill the interior is rotten skylight left in rain season. Torsion axles sag after 40 years, but shells will last forever.