'04 Arctic Fox M-1140

[Dixiedodge]

I am new to the forum and so far have learned a lot! However I am not finding much info on a problem I'm having. Looking at a '04 AF M-1140 and it appears to have a delamination problem underneath the overhang. Haven't found any water damage anywhere so not sure why it's doing that? Have found this problem on quite a few campers of all makes that I've looked at. Is this a concern and something that will need to be fixed ASAP or is it common?

[bobndot]

Moose10 wrote:
Have not experienced any problems with water intrusion in my '06 1150, but I am going to replace the front marker lights with LED's this summer and make sure everything is sealed well.

Good idea, nice mod on any RV . Use the right caulk , buy a quality light. I always pay close attention to the wire hole and screw holes.

I found this rv net post re that .
https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/26625944/print/true.cfm

[Moose10]

Have not experienced any problems with water intrusion in my '06 1150, but I am going to replace the front marker lights with LED's this summer and make sure everything is sealed well.

[Boatycall]

bobndot wrote:
My 04 had the exact same delamination issue.

I would say X2, but it's up to like X6 now.

Same, I had '04 1140, it leaked right where the rubber meets the filon on roof/front of the cabover. I drilled a hole in the center of the underside, and water just came flowing out.

[bobndot]

My 04 had the exact same delamination issue. It started to appear under the cabover, then ran down the firewall into the basement and out at the rear dump valves.

It can be repaired correctly and might be cheaper than trashing the camper. After the repair is made , Eternabond tape will help on the roof seam and a good caulking on the clearance lights will do the job once things get dried out. That's the key, you have to get things dry to prevent a mold issue which can be deleterious.

After AF tried to repair it 3x, I had a dealer strip it down and repair it .
In my case, after stripping the entire cabover , the dealer found where the leak originated by the factory cutting too deep (looked like a bad off the mark router cut) at the cabover curve (near the pass. side clearance light) . That, in conjunction with the bad roof seam was my problem.

What happened:
AF (someone at the factory original build) discovered the off mark router cut it and said ooops . Instead of replacing the labor costly filon sheet they opted to fill it with caulk to slow down the potential leak/delamination, hoping to escape thru the 2 yr. warranty period.
The caulk job only lasted 11 months and that's when it showed major cabover delamination. The only way to really fix it was to replace the filon which AF eventually agreed to do at the dealership.

The fix :
This is how it was explained to me by the dealer who had made many successful cabover delam repairs on these units. After seeing my TC all apart, I could now see how it happened .
AS Kerry stated , in older units , the roof seam build layering system that AF used back them was an issue . (btw, its not just a wood framed camper issue . I saw a few tc owners that had the same issues with the alum framed models in the 2005/2006 generation. AF eventually did something about it )
If you notice the slope of the cabover roof, the water runs to the front roof seam (when the camper is parked), it should be layered like a shingled roof to shed water and allow it to run off the front of the cabover .....but it isn't layered that way. The campers roof layers are layered in the opposite direction allowing water penetration after multiple continuous soakings . A pin hole in the roof caulk would allow water to penetrate the ends of the filon. When brought to the attention of AF they claimed it was built that way to shed water when you are driving.
Well, that's all well and good but TC's spend most of there life parked not moving and that allowed water to sit puddled on that seam and eventually soak into the ends of the filon where the filon ends are exposed and NOT encapsulated, they should be sealed and that's what this dealer did in his repair, he sealed the filon ends as he relayered the roof in the opposite direction.
Because of the cardboard like backing ( the backing allows the filon to bend) , it soaked up water like a sponge. The water would then gravitate to the lowest point (like getting trapped under the cabover) and eventually down into the basement then onto the ground.

After the tc was repaired it was dry as a bone and never leaked again and I never resealed it or ever touched it other than to clean it.

I think a lot of changes were made and people replaced and the product stands in better light today.

[Dixiedodge]

Dang. My wife and I really loved the 1140/1150 campers. All of them had this probelem. Have had a very hard time finding truck campers in our area without major issues.

[SlideInDad]

My '03 AF 1150 the full wall slide out twisted and cud never get properly aligned again. Actuallu ripped the ram screws out

Also, rear tie downs sagged as not solidly constructed

[kerry4951]

jmtandem wrote:

AF had issues with delamination early on. Sounds like water infiltration at one point and will only get worse if not addressed. Any seam or seal area is culprit. A good place to check for leaks is around the front cabover window seals. Another common area is the top roof seam where the cabover filon meets up with the roof. Once water gets into any of those areas it can run down into the under belly of the cabover.

Add to the above that often the clearance lights will leak. I would opt to keep looking as delam is the outward appearance of an inward bigger water intrusion issue.

Thats a very good point. In fact my 2010 AF TC was about 3 months old when I changed out my clearance lights to new LEDs. Two of the front old style lights already had some water trapped in them. Once the water builds up inside the light, then it can fall back in thru the opened wire access hole that is behind each light fixture.

[jmtandem]

AF had issues with delamination early on. Sounds like water infiltration at one point and will only get worse if not addressed. Any seam or seal area is culprit. A good place to check for leaks is around the front cabover window seals. Another common area is the top roof seam where the cabover filon meets up with the roof. Once water gets into any of those areas it can run down into the under belly of the cabover.

Add to the above that often the clearance lights will leak. I would opt to keep looking as delam is the outward appearance of an inward bigger water intrusion issue.

[kerry4951]

AF had issues with delamination early on. Sounds like water infiltration at one point and will only get worse if not addressed. Any seam or seal area is culprit. A good place to check for leaks is around the front cabover window seals. Another common area is the top roof seam where the cabover filon meets up with the roof. Once water gets into any of those areas it can run down into the under belly of the cabover.