Winnebago Hood Latches

[garyemunson]

Grrrr! On our way home we heard a banging noise on the front of our 2015 Winnebago 36Y. Pulling over, found the hood flopping around. There are 2 brackets attached to the inside of the front cap that the 2 hood locks close against. The left-hand bracket had come loose. Looking inside the hood area, I found that everything that attached to the front cap did so with bolts that were attached to plates molded into the fiberglass cap. Everything with the exception of the hood lock brackets. They were glued on! AND the bracket separated from the glue. I was also able to easily pull the other bracket off (finishing our trip sans hood). Actually I think the arrangement would have been OK had the paint been removed from the bonding surface of the bracket and the metal roughed up. Bolting the brackets back on at this point would entail drilling holes through the front of the cap. Not what I want to see. When we get home, I'm going to take the grinder to the bracket and rough up the existing pad of adhesive (still in good shape) and use JB Weld to reattach it. I'll see how well the JB sticks to the existing adhesive. That's my only bonding concern. I've never been able to remove JB Weld from properly prepared metal. I suspect that if you have a Winnebago Class A with that front cap (late 2015 on), you will eventually have the same problem.

[johnhicks]

On my '93 HR it was done properly, supposedly.

Wood blocks were covered and glassed to the insides of the cap and to the inside of the hood. Now, 25 years later, those screw holes have become wallowed out and the hood droops. I'm working on devising a solution that Mom will approve and isn't Monkey Marine. Haven't quite gotten there yet.

[Yellowboat_]

Happened to my 2005 and 2016 coaches. I used a two part epoxy to bond my hoods back in place. The mechanism were different.

On my 2005 I bonded my hood back in place by putting a liberal amount of epoxy between the fiberglass and metal parts. I left the old bonding agent in place as a guide so I would not change alignment. I scuffed up the area with course sandpaper. I clamped the hood in place overnight. And on my 2005 I had to the other side the following year. This fix held for at least eight years or until I traded for a 2016 rig.

On my 2016 the mechanism had changed. The metal part had slots cut in it. I placed the metal part back over the existing bonding agent and I encapsulated it with epoxy. So far only one side has needed repair.

Safe travels. JD

[johnhicks]

Gelcoat cracks are caused by stress. Tightening down a wedge, in this case a countersunk screw, imparts stress and it may eventually cause minor cracks radiating from the wedge.

If you have a fiberglass front cap you have to have gelcoat. The gelcoat is sprayed into a mold, then resin and glass fibers whether roving, chopped mat or both is laid in. When that cures the piece is popped out of the mold. Gelcoat is what provides the smooth surface.

Gelcoat cracks don't affect structural integrity, they're just ugly.

[Gjac]

Jim@HiTek wrote:

johnhicks wrote:
The only gotcha is that countersunk screws will lead to gelcoat cracks. I'd use cap screws and live with the exposed heads.

I've never heard of that probability. Any links? A properly drilled hole and a smooth countersink shouldn't damage the gelcoat enough to cause cracks should it? I don't have the knowledge to guess.

I'm not even sure I have gelcoat. Because my RV doesn't shine like water...which is what I suppose gelcoat causes. It just seems like smooth fiberglass when I get it washed, and then a wax coat makes it shiny. It's now 16 years old and there's no flaking of the RV surface anywhere (but there is on my car) so I don't think I have gelcoat.

You have gel coat on at least your front and rear caps. Once it starts to oxidize it will get dull.

[Jim]

johnhicks wrote:
The only gotcha is that countersunk screws will lead to gelcoat cracks. I'd use cap screws and live with the exposed heads.

I've never heard of that probability. Any links? A properly drilled hole and a smooth countersink shouldn't damage the gelcoat enough to cause cracks should it? I don't have the knowledge to guess.

I'm not even sure I have gelcoat. Because my RV doesn't shine like water...which is what I suppose gelcoat causes. It just seems like smooth fiberglass when I get it washed, and then a wax coat makes it shiny. It's now 16 years old and there's no flaking of the RV surface anywhere (but there is on my car) so I don't think I have gelcoat.

[johnhicks]

The only gotcha is that countersunk screws will lead to gelcoat cracks. I'd use cap screws and live with the exposed heads.

[Jim]

The day after I read this thread and posted my blog link, the new window washer reservoir and pump that I'd ordered arrived so I was out there working on that under the hood. The hood area of Winnies are like the rear area in that many components are only epoxied on, and what happened is the right (when facing) side bracket that holds the hood was loose. And also one of the hood latches was loose. Both are supposed to be held only with epoxy, and of course that had broken off.

So as it happened, it turned out that I needed to do some work on the front to go along with what I'd done on the rear a couple years ago.

Ended up with 7 screws holding the various components and when I get the right tool, there will be 9 screws.

No more depending on epoxy for me. If any of you have your front or rear end components like grills or hoods just epoxied on, the epoxy is going to fail.

Here's my blog write up of the work I did on the front: Fixing the loose fiberglass pieces...

[garyemunson]

Ground the latch brackets clean of paint on the bonding surface. Scuffed up the existing epoxy with a small wire brush. Used the 'standard' J B weld and clamped the brackets in place. 24 hours later they are very tightly attached. Looks like a win!

[Goldencrazy]

Same thing on my 2016 38q. Hood fell off when i stopped. Bad glue. Final straw. I traded for DP.

[Jim]

This happened to two places on the rear of my '02 Journey, DP. I'm watching the front grill carefully but so far it's holding well. Two of the three places were held on only with epoxy. The big wrap around on the bottom rear of the RV also has 4 big bolts along the sides. But the middle part was floppy and rattled while driving.

What I did was use flathead 6-32 stainless steel screws and self locking bolts. The reason for the small hardware is that the fiberglass pieces aren't all that heavy, the smaller screws should hold them fine for years, and if there's an accident, the fiberglass will be pulled off the screws easily enough that the fiberglass isn't too badly damaged (so I wouldn't have to replace an entire molded fiberglass piece - an expensive proposition). And finally, the screws are so small, and flush with the surface, that they're darn near invisible. And a dab of paint on the screw heads would make them totally invisible. I don't bother with the paint 'cus I can't hardly see them as it is.

Here's my blog post with some pictures of what I did to avoid having to try to get that epoxy system to work over the long run: Floppy fiberglass body pieces repaired...

In fact, I didn't do anything with the epoxy, just drilled holes for the stainless screws right through it.

[smlranger]

Wow, it is a shame that Winnebago hasn't improved that bonding technique over the years. I had both the rear lower clip and the generator access door on my 2002 Winnebago Journey start to fall off. In both cases, the bonding agent lifted from the metal brackets since the brackets were painted and there was no evidence of any prep (roughing up, etc.) of those brackets.

I had a friend who owned a body shop re-attach the rear clip. He roughed up the brackets and used some sort of body shop epoxy. I later repaired the front genset access door using some JB Weld but I also added four stainless button head bolts. It looked fine IMO.

[garyemunson]

Ranger, did yours actually lose it's grip on the fiberglass? The 'pad' of glue remaining on mine seems quite well adhered to the coarse inside surface of the cap. Would prefer to not have to get it off. That looks like it would be a chore as it's difficult to even look at without a mirror. What brand of adhesive did you use?

[Ranger_Smith]

Winnebago uses that epoxy a lot. It started to come loose on the rear engine access on my Tour. I had to re-epoxy it to the fiberglass. So far so good. Every Winnebago I had has had that issue with loose glue.