Help! Water sloshing under gel siding

[outlaw85]

1997 Damon Challenger 30RK

Was contemplating my battle of talking wife into renovating our current 5th wheel or looking for something newer until...

I smacked one of the section of wall and it replied back!!

I knew there was another part that was delaminating on the slide but still felt solid and didn't reply back.

Hearing the sloshing now really worries me and the time bomb that is ticking before rot takes hold. I don't have the time right now to DIY this and what it may uncover and I don't have the funds to take it in and pay what is likely going to be or exceed what we paid for it.

I'm wondering if it would be OK to drill a few holes in the side panel to let the water drain. I know this is not ideal and only a band-aid? lol I'm thinking giving the water somewhere to drain is at least better than letting it sit in the wall.

I need to get more active on here because I know there is a ton of info and I'm sure I can learn a lot more. If we keep it, there are still plenty of projects to be had on it, FW and black tank to name a couple.

Thanks!
Outlaw

*update
Some pics- Sorry, they are hard to see some of the waves and it started raining.. 😞

Water is in the small section between end cap and slide 6-8" above decals.
20170522_190112

Slide from rear-
20170522_190119

Slide from front- wave can be seen at start of slide. Starts about 1/2 way down to bottom-ish and is from start of slide maybe 2ft in.
20170522_190130

From front pass side-
20170522_190149

[jerem0621]

I believe that Dicor makes some RV caulk for the vertical edges.

Camping world/most RV shops have them. I don't think you can find the RV caulk at Home Depot/ Lowes kind of box store.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[outlaw85]

Might as well ask since we are discussing tapes/sealants.

When resealing the side to the cap or any vertical joint really, what is the preferred "caulk"? I'm thinking I'm going to clean out as much of the old whether it looks good or not and put in new.


Going with what Don & Barb Bogue said. It may not be worth a full tear down but if I can get everything resealed and at least prevent further leaks then at least it won't spread.. hopefully. I'm not sure how to dry this out without removing the panel. Just hope it dries out eventually?

[outlaw85]

4bearhug wrote:
filling holes with epoxy will probably be less noticable and better cosmetically. I will say that eternabond tape will have no problems sticking vertically and will definitely make the holes water tight. You don't peel that stuff off if you don't get it right the 1st time.

Thanks for the clarification 🙂

I will have to pick it up regardless. I'm sure it will be handy even if I'm able to fix this issue without it.

[4bearhug]

filling holes with epoxy will probably be less noticable and better cosmetically. I will say that eternabond tape will have no problems sticking vertically and will definitely make the holes water tight. You don't peel that stuff off if you don't get it right the 1st time.

[outlaw85]

Don & Barb Bogue wrote:
Before you get further You only paid 2500 for it. A dealer should give you 3000 to 3500 as a triad in on a newer non leaking 5er with a few thousand in payments. You and the DW will be much happier. We traded up 3 times with me doing miner maintenance and repair until we got our new 5er in 2005. it has ben miner work sense then.just my 2 cents....

Thank you, I completely agree. The only thing I'm struggling with is attempting to swallow those payments for X years. At our budget we would still have to be in the used range. I've heard people have success with getting last years models heavily discounted because of inventory changes but I don't think that will help from where we stand, at least if we wanted to stay in a 5er. Seems to be a steep difference from TT to 5er which is mostly understandable (structural is probably the biggest factor).

It is still very much worth looking into. I know we are coming up mid-year so we would have to ride this one out as is til the end of the year in hopes of great discounts. I think a stop in is worth while though. Curiosity couldn't have always killed the cat 🙂

jerem0621 wrote:
Thanks for the pic.

Looking at the side of the trailer I would start with these fixtures. These are through the wall and directly above the damaged area.

-pic-

If you drill small holes, I would repair the hole with eternabond once the leak is fixed.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

Thanks. I was already planning a few tubes of dicor to basically re-seal anything that looks remotely eh. That eternabond looks like a winner too. I'll have to add that to the camper tool box.

Just based on what I could see from the ground (in the rain).. I defintely agree with the rear section. Off the seam rail/trim piece it was running right into the caulked edge. I bet this is why they have the channels that angle off the campers now? I could probably make something to help deflect the rain in the future by using some pvc and epoxy.

Without going back in the thread and knowing this thing isn't going to win any beauty contests, do you think that eternabond would be better than filling with epoxy? I'm thinking it would be like tp on a nicked face. lol and trying to think how it will hold up sticking vertically. If it's anything like the butyl tape, I could probably press it in to try sealing as well. I'm also probably over thinking this because the holes I did put are tiny (1/16" I think).


Thank you again for the information!

[jerem0621]

Thanks for the pic.

Looking at the side of the trailer I would start with these fixtures. These are through the wall and directly above the damaged area.



If you drill small holes, I would repair the hole with eternabond once the leak is fixed.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[Don___Barb_Bogu]

Before you get further You only paid 2500 for it. A dealer should give you 3000 to 3500 as a triad in on a newer non leaking 5er with a few thousand in payments. You and the DW will be much happier. We traded up 3 times with me doing miner maintenance and repair until we got our new 5er in 2005. it has ben miner work sense then.just my 2 cents....

[outlaw85]

KrowNB wrote:
I'm thinking here's a good chance that the leak issue was there before you bought it. But what do I know? I was interested to hear what the experts had to say about how to fix the problem. Maybe it'll be me in that position some day.

Thanks. I'm thinking (kinda hoping) it was too but sucks I couldn't catch it sooner. Not sure it would have mattered depending how long that water has been in there. lol's for admin edit. Depending what all happens. I'll probably revive my can of worms thread to keep all the work together.

4bearhug wrote:

KrowNB wrote:
I'm thinking here's a good chance that the leak issue was there before you bought it. But what do I know? I was interested to hear what the experts had to say about how to fix the problem. Maybe it'll be me in that position some day.

Exactly what I was thinking when reading some replies. You took the words right out of my mouth.

lol's for admin edit

jerem0621 wrote:
Man, take it in stride.

IMHO...I would drain the water, find the source of the leak (possibly the roof, may be a window, vent, etc) and keep using it for a while.

I hate to tell folks this but there are only three kinds of RV's...it's not TT, Fiver, and Motorhome. It's RV's that have leaked, RV's that will leak, and RV's that are currently leaking. It's what you do to address the leaks IMMEDIATLY once you find them and dare I say, preventive maintenance as well.

Also, don't forget, that water can come from INSIDE the RV as well...if any plumbing is in the area make sure you watch it and see if that's leaking.

IMHO...it's not a total waste. At a minimum, somebody will surely pay you two to $3000 for the trailer

Thanks!

Jeremiah

Thanks. Our wonderful mother nature has given us another rainy day... 😕 so no progress again. I did walk around though looking at the corner and it would appear the trim/rain tray? for the roof/side dump the water right into the joint where the side meets the rear cap. My guess, all i have at this point, is that the caulk is no longer tight at that seam. Could still be something on the roof so I'm not ruling anything out yet. In the location of the trailer, I'm not aware of any plumbing there but doesn't mean it's not worth looking. Thanks for the extra tip. Like above, I'll probably end up posting any progress to my can of worms thread. If I could get that, I would probably walk away from this one BUT then have to figure what we're going to do for the rest of our trips.. I guess we could get a really nice tent. lol

I was able to talk to the wife about the problem and repairs that are required. I'm not saying this would be an easy venture but I think it's something I'd be able to do and I'm sure my dad would help too. I'd probably start with the slide area first to "get my feet wet" with the type of repair. It appears easier to attack in comparison to the rear section.

Here are the spots I know of. FYI- this is before I cleaned it. It's still on the property we bought it from.
delam

[jerem0621]

Man, take it in stride.

IMHO...I would drain the water, find the source of the leak (possibly the roof, may be a window, vent, etc) and keep using it for a while.

I hate to tell folks this but there are only three kinds of RV's...it's not TT, Fiver, and Motorhome. It's RV's that have leaked, RV's that will leak, and RV's that are currently leaking. It's what you do to address the leaks IMMEDIATLY once you find them and dare I say, preventive maintenance as well.

Also, don't forget, that water can come from INSIDE the RV as well...if any plumbing is in the area make sure you watch it and see if that's leaking.

IMHO...it's not a total waste. At a minimum, somebody will surely pay you two to $3000 for the trailer

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[4bearhug]

KrowNB wrote:
I'm thinking here's a good chance that the leak issue was there before you bought it. But what do I know? I was interested to hear what the experts had to say about how to fix the problem. Maybe it'll be me in that position some day.

Exactly what I was thinking when reading some replies. You took the words right out of my mouth.

[KrowNB]

I'm thinking here's a good chance that the leak issue was there before you bought it. But what do I know? I was interested to hear what the experts had to say about how to fix the problem. Maybe it'll be me in that position some day.

[outlaw85]

work2much wrote:
Well, this is not a great situation but if the water is actually trapped as you describe and you release the water it may not be the end of your trailer. If you haven't seen water inside I would drill as you have done and leave the holes open for a while in good weather to allow moisture to continue to dissipate. I assume by the age the coach is wood framed so there is the possibility of rot, but I suspect that if the water could have travelled into the framing you would have seen it in the interior.

Obviously a next step is to figure out how the water is getting in, but again if you haven't seen any leak stains in the ceiling the water intrusion and damage may be limited to the wall. Being on the slide-out portion it should be easy to find the problem area, but a full and complete roof re-sealing is in order.

I would drain the water, seal the roof and go ahead and use the trailer. It's probably too old and lacks the value to spend a ton of cash having it professionally restored. Re-sale probably isn't great but perhaps it has a few good years left for you!

Good luck.

Thanks. My plan is to start on this when I get home. At least the leak search and temp seal until I can get all the supplies for reseal. I wasn't looking to dump tons of money into it but enough to potentially redo floors (upgrade that beautiful fuchsia carpet), replace cassette stereo, lighting.. etc. basically enough for an updated face lift. While I know it's not a reason to just trash it and may not be relevant, we got it for $2500 with the expectation of not perfect and at the same time a good starter into RVing which is why I was OK with spending some money on repairs/updating. Being able to do the repairs/maintenance will help us down the road whenever that time is to replace it :). I haven't given all the details from the PO and it probably isn't relevant either.. at least to some.

If interested I can post all the details I know. I did post most (i think) of them here back in august too. Link HERE

Thanks again for your info.

[work2much]

Well, this is not a great situation but if the water is actually trapped as you describe and you release the water it may not be the end of your trailer. If you haven't seen water inside I would drill as you have done and leave the holes open for a while in good weather to allow moisture to continue to dissipate. I assume by the age the coach is wood framed so there is the possibility of rot, but I suspect that if the water could have travelled into the framing you would have seen it in the interior.

Obviously a next step is to figure out how the water is getting in, but again if you haven't seen any leak stains in the ceiling the water intrusion and damage may be limited to the wall. Being on the slide-out portion it should be easy to find the problem area, but a full and complete roof re-sealing is in order.

I would drain the water, seal the roof and go ahead and use the trailer. It's probably too old and lacks the value to spend a ton of cash having it professionally restored. Re-sale probably isn't great but perhaps it has a few good years left for you!

Good luck.

[outlaw85]

The ninja edit comment was a joke. And if i'm missing something during a visual inspection, i'm able to own that mistake. I'm not saying a 20yr old camper is perfect nor would I expect one to be. Unless I'm inspecting with a magnifying glass. I didn't see anything that needed to be addressed. But again.. thanks for your... help

I was on the roof plenty last year between cleaning off the barnacles from it sitting prior to our purchase and the AC work. I did make sure to check while up there. Maybe not to your standard of monthly but it was several times over the 7ish months we had it.

I will say it has been extra rainy this year and especially our first trip this past weekend. Hopefully tomorrow is dry and I can get up there to inspect.