First place to look re. where water got in to our TT

[trailernovice]

During a pounding thunderstorm today, realized I had a pool of water about 9 inches across, 6 inches wide and maybe 1/16 inch deep on the bedroom side of the half-wall dividing the bedroom from the rest of the trailer...also some indication of water (very little) along the camp-side wall of the bedroom


Most likely culprit? A leak around a window, that kind of hid the source on a site that wasn't perfectly level? Infiltration through the outer front edge of the trailer?

I don't see any evidence of wicking from the roof down a wall.

Ideas?

[BarneyS]

In addition to the excellent info from John, I would be checking the caulking under the clearance light base plates. Also the weep holes in the lens covers.
Barney

[JBarca]

Hi trailernovice,

Your welcome and glad the info helped. There are high odds, the windows are the leak source due to the puddling inside the living space, but there are many other ways too. If you find the windows are not the issue, then come back to us. There are ways to back into where other leaks can get into the living space.

Ideally you can test what you have now, before making drain cleaning/adjusting to create a baseline. Then later test again after the cleaning to see if you actually helped the problem. This adds support to you found the issue. If there is no change in drain flow before and after, then one needs to dig deeper until it all adds up.

Let us know how you make out.

John

[trailernovice]

Thanks, JBarca! That looks exactly like what ours has, except the frame is black rather than white.

You have seriously eased my mind....I was thinking, 'roof....which wicked down to the edge...which then wicked down through the wall to the floor....and the water turning everything in touched into a spongy, rotted, destroyed mess'

I'll do that to the windows

[JBarca]

trailernovice wrote:
Thanks for the helpful replies.

JBarca: Yes, that's the trailer...it's the corrugated aluminum siding....and, again, yes--the bedroom windows are outside awning coverage...vinyl flooring (no carpet anywhere)...


How did you go about opening the drains up? With what tool and technique?

I'm virtually certain that's the issue....the trailer is fairly new, gets a roof check yearly, all the 'entry' points like the skylight and antenna have good seal....where the water was led me to suspect the window right off the bat...also, this has never happened before, but this weekend we were at the beach (storms always seem heavier when right on the ocean)

Seems like we caught it in time, not a major issue, no structural fault or damage

RV windows are made slightly different between brands. However clogged drains are common between all of them.

This is how I corrected my pinched drains that gave me the problem. First off, these windows are Kinro brand. Kinro was bought out by Lippert and Lippert also bought out Hehr, seems they are buying up many of the RV parts manufactures. I'm not sure what brand window Jayco used on yours. I see that your window is the older frame type, not the newer frameless so to speak ones.

Here is the Kinro slider window which gave me the trouble. Vertical slider single hung windows have the same issue or even crank out windows.


Closer view of the drains


Here is the inside of the drain, NOTE: this pic is from a vertical slider (single hung) window but the horizontal slider drains as the same shape in the Kinro brand. I did not have a pic of them handy on my photo site.


In my case, those formed inwards drains were closed to pinched shut. Large amounts of water would not drain out fast enough and overflow the channel.

I opened up the pinched drains with a flat blade screw driver, gently tapped and wiggled/pried it, and moved the blade along the drain flap to open it up just enough. 1/32" - 1/16" air gap.


Then to keep the insects out, I added a flap of fiberglass window screen in the drain. Experiment on the right size folded flap of screen, then insert it.




help it in with the screw driver


What it looks like when your done. It's hard to see but the screen is in there.


Kinro used a furry felt seals on the glass to the frame. When the gusher is strong enough, water can wick through the felt, into the window channel then it is supposed to drain out.

The Lippert brand of windows is made a little different. I'm not sure who they bought, it may look more like the video GD posted.

Let us know how you make out.

John

[Gdetrailer]

trailernovice wrote:
Thanks for the helpful replies.

JBarca: Yes, that's the trailer...it's the corrugated aluminum siding....and, again, yes--the bedroom windows are outside awning coverage...vinyl flooring (no carpet anywhere)...


How did you go about opening the drains up? With what tool and technique?

I'm virtually certain that's the issue....the trailer is fairly new, gets a roof check yearly, all the 'entry' points like the skylight and antenna have good seal....where the water was led me to suspect the window right off the bat...also, this has never happened before, but this weekend we were at the beach (storms always seem heavier when right on the ocean)

Seems like we caught it in time, not a major issue, no structural fault or damage

I'll do as JBarca suggests

Thanks again

Found a ytube video that you might find helpful..

HERE

I would be very careful about pulling the window track up like they did in the video. Bending it up very far or sharply has the potential to cause permanent damage to the track and the result is the track may not fully lay down without a bend or kink in it and your slider may not slide easy any more. On a newer RV, might not be a big problem, but older RVs that track may get stiff and brittle with age.. Break or damage that track and I doubt your going to find a cheap replacement.

Another note, the video shows a camera shot of the outside of the window, on that window, the plastic covers are missing. Not a big deal on the bottom as that is more for decoration.

If you have slots above the window and no plastic covers, that is a problem. In the case of top slots, those covers are used to plug the unneeded slots.

If you have plastic covers on the outside, remove them to allow better and easier cleaning. Once you are satisfied every thing is clean, reinstall the covers.

[Lwiddis]

If you’ve done yearly roof maintenance I’d start with the seams and windows.

[trailernovice]

Thanks for the helpful replies.

JBarca: Yes, that's the trailer...it's the corrugated aluminum siding....and, again, yes--the bedroom windows are outside awning coverage...vinyl flooring (no carpet anywhere)...


How did you go about opening the drains up? With what tool and technique?

I'm virtually certain that's the issue....the trailer is fairly new, gets a roof check yearly, all the 'entry' points like the skylight and antenna have good seal....where the water was led me to suspect the window right off the bat...also, this has never happened before, but this weekend we were at the beach (storms always seem heavier when right on the ocean)

Seems like we caught it in time, not a major issue, no structural fault or damage

I'll do as JBarca suggests

Thanks again

[JBarca]

trailernovice wrote:
During a pounding thunderstorm today, realized I had a pool of water about 9 inches across, 6 inches wide and maybe 1/16 inch deep on the bedroom side of the half-wall dividing the bedroom from the rest of the trailer...also some indication of water (very little) along the camp-side wall of the bedroom


Most likely culprit? A leak around a window, that kind of hid the source on a site that wasn't perfectly level? Infiltration through the outer front edge of the trailer?

I don't see any evidence of wicking from the roof down a wall.

Ideas?

Is this your camper, and does it have aluminum corrugated siding?

https://www.jayco.com/rvs/travel-trailers/2019-jay-flight-slx-8/264bh/

You didn't say where the water was seen at inside the camper, making an assumption where it might be, was the water you saw was on the vinyl tile floor? Or is there carpet on the bedroom floor? And, please confirm this is the master front bedroom and not the rear bunk area bedroom? I think you meant master front as you talked about leaking in from the "outer front edge" but please confirm?

From that Jayco link, it does look like they installed slider windows. And that both master bedroom windows are not under the main camper awning? Is that correct?

The seals in slider windows have been known when heavy rains off the roof come, they overflow the gutters and gush/rush down the camper walls onto the slider windows.

As was said, the window frame drains can be clogged or pinched tight close to shut. This needs to be ruled in or out that it is occurring. I have seen this drain type of failure before. On one slide room end wall window where the drains where formed almost shut from brand new. This was never a problem on normal rains until monsoon type rains came. Then the drains could not drain the wicking water coming in from the window seals fast enough. The glass slider channel overflowed inside camper and down the wall the water goes. Many times, vinyl wallpaper is used on the wall board. It works real well at hiding moisture that runs over the top of it. This might be why you are not seeing any staining on the walls of any type. It was not there long enough to stain up like paper type wall paper does.

If you want to test/help prove pinched or clogged drains could be the issue before doing any corrections, below is a test I did after correcting the pinched too tight drains and opening them up. I wanted to make darn sure this leak issue would not happen again.

Take about a 1 quart or more measuring cup with a pour spout on it. Fill the cup with water. Inside the camper, with the window closed, pour the water into the slider window channel that is an open U facing up, this channel is inline with the slider window that is closed. The drains slots in the window frame should all be draining all the water out as fast as you can pour it in. You can see the draining water from inside looking out the window. If it starts backing up and getting higher, then soon it will start overflowing into the camper if the rains are hard enough.

The test above is what I did to prove that I fixed the pinched tight drains to be open enough that as fast as I could pour water into the slider glass channel, it would run out and not build up. Prior to this, the drains worked some, but not enough for the mega heavy rainfall. The RV roof gutters are way to small and water pours over the tops of them down the side of the camper right onto the camper windows.

I had to fold over and add a small piece of fiberglass window screen tucked in the drain slot to help keep small insects out after I opened the drains up. You want/need about a 1/32" to 1/16" air gap in the drains to keep up with mega rains. What I had I could barely see daylight through the drains the metal was squeezed so tight.

If the drains are not the issue after you test, and correct the drains if needed, we need some pics on the inside and outside of the camper to help tell where else water can get into the living space that fast.

Hope this helps

John

[time2roll]

Plumbing leaks, window leaks, roof leaks, seam leaks.

Heavy rain probably not a plumbing leak. Possibly use a hose in the suspected spot.

[Gdetrailer]

If you have a slider window, it is possible that the weep holes may be clogged with dirt/debris. If you look at the window frame on the outside there should be a couple of plastic weep hole covers on the frame below the windows sliding tracks. Sometimes you need to remove the covers and clean the holes. The holes should open up to the slider tracks..

If the weep holes are plugged, the water from heavy rains builds up in the slider tracks and eventually has no where to go other than spill into the inside of the frame.

Also check for same weep hole covers on the top of the window frame, those sometimes are present to allow for the window to be installed for a flipped direction of opening.. The top weep covers sometimes will leak and a dab of caulking tends to correct that.

It is possible during extreme hard rains that the weep holes simply get overwhelmed and in that case, not much can be done about that..

Don't caulk to bottom weep holes shut..

[bgum]

Water intrusion is as bad as fire. It needs to be attacked as vigorously.