Water Damage - Is it worth restoring?

Taffy.C wrote:
Hi There,

Trailer has been in continuous outdoor storage 250 miles away for 6 years. I drove up yesterday to do some repairs prior to transporting to my current location. I found that there is water damage - the roof seal has opened up pretty badly in the rear corner, and to a lesser extent across the back. There is visible bulging in the roof in those sections. Down the side (outside) there is a dry lichen-like growth - looks like where the water flowed down the inside. The fiberglass is also bulging slightly away from the frame there.

Inside there is visible damage directly underneath the location of the broken roof seal that extends across to the center line. Quite likely there is mold in there.

This is an 18 y/o trailer that I paid $15K for back then. Other than this, everything seems to be in good shape. But I think this is going to be a very costly repair job, and I can't be sure there aren't other areas of damage as well.

Just looking for opinions - is it time for a new trailer? Is this worth spending more money on? Its not something I can do myself.

Link to photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qgdukjismwpem9m/AADTygxczmnDN4635Tqbfy6sa?dl=0

Hi Daniel,

I have acquired a somewhat extreme retirement hobby, I restore old wet campers. Get them cheap, and make a project out of it. I'm very selective about they ones I want to do, as I'm not wanting to get into 100% restoring. I can build one from the ground up easier when they are totally gone.

A camper that old, been outside untouched for the last 6 years, there are leaks in places you cannot see yet, beyond the rear wall issue. There are ways and tools to inspect the camper more to find them, but in your case, you may not want to even go there.

Everything in that vintage camper is rebuildable, cost and time aside. Your first issue, you do not have the ability to do the work yourself. To hire this work out it not cost practical. You will easily overrun the $15K you paid for it 18 years ago and that is without the parts.

I found this link at the Jayco site, is this your 22U, a 2003? https://www.jayco.com/tools/archive/2003-kiwi-too-htt/

I am currently restoring a 21 footer, aluminum sided, different floor plan, but it had been leaking in the back corner for several years before I acquired it cheap. The water goes down inside the walls, stops at the waterproof membrane on the bottom and starts taking out the floor. And that was only the back wall leaks. As of today, I have 658 work hours into it and I will be a little over $5,500 in parts by the time I am done. I am about 90% done now. The only way this can may any kind of practical sense to do is, you do the work yourself and you enjoy doing it.

Hope this helps

John