Hi Woodhog! Our "plan" was to keep this camper "for life"; this would have been another 15~20 of camping, then reconsider something more comfortable. I did some very in-depth investigation into CampLite's full aluminum line (with Azdel). VERY enticing I'll tell you. We do a lot of camping in salty marine environments, and after backing out all our screws on camper exterior, re-seating in marine adhesive, then driving back in, I had not seen any electrolysis entre the steel screws and aluminum framing. IF we sell this camper (with 100% full disclosure of repairs and findings), we will take a VERY hard look at CampLite/LivinLite 8.6 !
Travelnutz: you ARE one of my 3 structural/materials mentors from RVnet. You have been SPOT ON with MANY (no, not many, I should say: all) structural, materials and assembly "situations" out there in RV manufacturing land. When you speak, I LISTEN 100% ! I have been EXTREMELY impressed with the newer Lance line-up (full 100% aluminum/Azdel non organic structure, with LanceLock (r). These Lance camper are very difficult to find in our region (I've only seen one 2013/14 in stock, personally: however,it was for a short-bed truck). We will look very VERY closely at any long-bed 2014 Lance units that find their way nto our region, for sure.
Your intuition was absolutely correct on the "source" of the water! I removed my temporary under-wing patch (put there last October, after discovering the marine plywood rot under-wing (marine plywood ROTS VERY quickly, as you had warned us all years ago!): I cut all the rot out with a grinder fit with a diamond cutter, then screwed a temp "plate" over the hole till spring). It appears that water had indeed infiltrated into the battery box (steel insert) via a very cheap door design: the rubber seal around the hatch frame is actually gapped about 1 full inch at bottom, and the rubber around the hatch door spanning this gap at the bottom apparently does NOTHING to stop infiltration. Even worse, the box insert has very insufficient caulking to the hatch frame, where water infiltrates INTO the hollow aluminum framing through the end cut (and, I suspect: some screw penetrations), filling up the aluminum tube with water, and like a series of filling cups, just moves from tube to tube, spilling out FAR away from the leak region (like ~7 feet distant....so far discovered!).
With this Travelnutz intuition, I checked the only other steel insert box on the camper (the propane steel insert), started probing this morning, and my finger went RIGHT THROUGH the under-wing plywood under the steel propane box! I probed along under the propane box access hatch (the hatch has a huge gap, too, along the bottom under the lock, where, incredibly, no rubber spans!), and my finger(!) went right through the plywood along a 4~6 inch span: completely rotted out. All this marine plywood will have to be ripped out, too (another 10~15 hours of work??), then cleaned, and epoxy, then cover. On edit: more rot under the wing! The leading edge at front of camper under driver-side jack (about 12 inches from propane box) 5 inches of it along the camper trim (water filling the aluminum tube and migratng to front corner, spilling out of aluminum beam end cut, and soaking plywood???). Jeez. From inside the camper cupboards, I can't see anything under the batter box, there is almost no gap under the battery box and camper cupboard shelf. I have to rent an flexible inspection camera, but even with that, there seems to be plywood spacers under the battery box blocking ANY avenue to inspect under the battery box. This is turning out to be a nightmare. All the wood wing could be compromised at this point on the driver-side of camper.
Whaz:
This is a good idea under the camper tub. I def. will consider it! Now, the problem with the wooden structure (the entire tub verticals and wings are structural wood, however I can see that the verticals are sound, but the wings may be shot with terminal cancer), that we may only have ~2 years left on this camper, maybe 3? before all the wings need to be replaced (and then again in 3, 4, 6 years?) There appears no way to replace the entire wing structure without MAJOR structural dis-assembly. Just, like a WW-II sub under attack and leaking from depth-charges, plug the holes as the rot (leaks) show up, then decide at some point to part out the camper (or sell to someone who has the desire/time/interest to repair it continually/yearly till it dies).
Well, we have 9 good years with it thus far. maybe 2 more? For 11 years and about 100 hours of preventive maintenance over 9 years (the total lifespan of this particular camper, IF it is stored in a heated climate-controlled facility over winters since the day it is pick up brand new).
