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Jetstreamer's avatar
Jetstreamer
Explorer
Jul 10, 2017

Stress crack in fiberglass

Noticed today a 2+ inch stress crack in side of camper. Located on the lower right corner of bedroom slide. The picture shows it as the camper is supported by landing gear. When it is hooked up to truck it opens up slightly. Don't really know how to proceed with this. I really love my camper and am willing to spend a few bucks to keep it on the road for a few more years. It's a 2006 Keystone Challenger.


  • Frame flexing and or a broken weld. Call keystone and go from there.
  • make it a 1/16 inch hole and be sure it is BEYOND the end of the crack by 1/8 inch or so. The purpose of the hole is to spread the force creating the crack to such an extent that the crack will not propagate.
    Fill the crack with some kind of epoxy and you won't see the hole (or it will be really difficult to see). It really works.
  • Very common problem, drill a hole where it ends, get yourself a piece of flat trim cut to size from bottom trim and top of crack butyl tape under trim over crack drill two holes a couple screws then caulk the edge of trim piece. It'll be just like thousands of other 5ers.
  • That's probably got something to do with the frame of the slide having a defective aluminum weld. Google it.
  • First thing may be to just drill a very small hole at the end of the crack to stop it from getting longer. My fw flexes a little little and has about an inch long crack right at the bend under the bedroom. My caulk/butyl tape also oozes a little along the front horizontals. My sons 35 ft FW is a little worse on the flexing and disturbing the caulk. There was a post a couple weeks ago from a lady with flex problem. His also makes creaking noise worse than mine.