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rkassl's avatar
rkassl
Explorer
Sep 07, 2014

Repairing Delamination on 5th wheel exterior?

Has anyone attempted or had experience fixing areas of delamination on an exterior wall of a trailer? We bought our Montana new almost 10 years ago and I noticed during the first year or so about a 15 inch square area that has remained just about the same size. This type is probably due to glue failure rather than a water leak.

Can you inject some glue into the area then clamp it some way and attempt a fix of some sort? Our 5th wheel is in great shape otherwise and this would be a nice thing to do for it.

Any comments and ideas would be greatly appreciated. If you have done this repair how did you do it?
  • There have been several recent discussions right here on this topic.
    Put "delamination" in the Search box and you will get lots of hits. Put "RV delamination" in Google and you will get dozens of hits. None of which are likely to make you real happy. This is a major project you're talking about.
    There are some U Tube videos as well.

    Best of luck.
  • Maybe it's not really delam. Maybe just a manufacturing process problem and not really anything detrimental, especially if water isn't getting in.
  • Sorry--your not the first o0r the last. It is a manufacturing peoblem, we had a 2005 Jayco 325BH with the same ptoblem. Our fealer tried drillind small holes in the side wall and then putting it next to building and applying preasure with a 2X4. Worked great unfortunately it put the oppisite side into the sun and SEKAMs popped our on that side. Unit finally went back to MFG and had both side walls replaced, UNDER WARRANTY. Good luck !!!!!
  • This is definitely a fixable issue. We have a 1999 Teton and just had 2 areas repaired for total cost of $3,000.00. We also had a new full body paint done at the same time. We had ours repaired at Mike's Custom Painting in Bremen Indiana. Took some time but good job and reasonable costs. I don't know how to post pics or I would



  • About a month ago a friend of mine noticed some delamination on the upper portion of the side wall of his fifth wheel, a 2006 Saber. After some investigating by both of us, it was discovered that the lap sealant in that corner had a hairline crack and the EPDM membrane had about a 1/4" long tear in it where it was pulled over onto the wall and stapled, (definitely a manufacturing defect) which allowed water to enter and trickle down into the wall. Something that can never be seen unless moldings and lap sealant are removed. A plan was put together to perform the repairs ourselves. That plan being to cut out and remove a two foot wide section of the wall from top to bottom, make the necessary repair and replace that section. After the job began, we found that the delam had started to take place on the rear wall also. After replacing the side wall, we ended up removing the entire back wall, made repairs and replaced the back wall. It came out so good that he took it to a local shop to have the entire fifth wheel washed and detailed. We've had many complements on the job. From start to finish took 3 of us four full days and cost about $300 in materials. He never checked with any RV repair shops but I'm sure it would have cost $3000 or better. The job was not at all bad, just labor intensive, and that's what makes it so expensive when done by a shop.