Great.....my "new to me" 2011 TT has a rotted spot in floor!

[imq707s]

I recently picked up a nice 2011 Crossroads Zinger 19RDS TT. Before I bought it I walked around on the floor checking for any soft spots, checked the inside and outside of all the walls, looked in every storage area and checked for signs of water, inspected the roof for any bad spots, checked all of the caulked joints and seals on the outside of the trailer…..and aside from a little waviness of the front outer “hung wall” on the nose of the trailer, everything looked great! The previous owners took really good care of it ….and never really used it much.


Fast forward to last night…..I pulled out the rear bench/couch in order for my wife to get to some areas that she wanted to paint. And what do I find? The rear corner of the TT that was covered by the bench, was spongy…and after cutting out a piece of linoleum to inspect, is completely rotted out. At least it’s in a spot I can easily get to in order to make the repair. It should be an easy fix, I’ve done this type of work before.


There are two things that boggle my mind……1.) Where did this water come from? All the seals look great, the roof looks great, no delamination of the fiberglass walls on the outside of the trailer, and there is nothing in that area on the outside of the TT that would lead me to think water was getting in. 2.) This thing is only 5 years old……are these TT’s really put together so badly that only after 5 years, they leak bad enough to have a part of the floor rotted out!! I can’t imagine what I would have been in for if I would have bought a TT that was 10-15 years old.

[westend]

Pretty good job on the new deck!

I'm a big advocate of doing the pressurized test and I'll share what happened to give me that outlook.
I totally gutted and rebuilt my TT (the restoration thread is linked in my signature line). When I reassembled the ceiling, walls, and floor I took a lot of steps with sealing everything I could. I put elastomeric sealant between siding and framing, between the siding and trim pieces, on the roof to the trim, and on siding to trim. In the first few rains I spotted a couple of drips of water entering the cabin. I put a blower into a window and performed a pressurized test. I discovered about two dozen holes. I sealed those holes and retested, got about six holes, all in the siding. Sealed again and only found a couple. I now perform this test about every other year and am not finding more than one or two leak points, mostly where caulk has loosened or a siding joint has loosened. I never see any water inside and that is a good thing, I don't want my hard work to be destroyed.

Good luck with your new trailer. I'd suggest to do the pressure test to uncover those spots you can't see and thought were water-tight. BTW, if you do uncover a roof leak, Eternabond tape is all that is said good about it. It is basically, a permanent fix.

[imq707s]

Here are some pics of the repair I did on the floor. I think I'm still going to do a pressure test on the camper.....just to make sure there aren't any areas I missed.....but I'm pretty sure the problem was the wheel well area that was leaking. I just need to do a little caulking around the edges, put some new vinyl flooring over the plywood....and it's all done.

[imq707s]

After digging around a little....i found that the previous owner pumped a bunch of expandable foam around one of the wheel wells..I'm guessing at one time there was a pretty big leak. I think that was the cause of all of the water damage.

I turned the water pump on and checked all of the plumbing, sprayed the outside and underneath of the camper....no water coming from anywhere.

Got the new floor in...will post up some pics later.

[westend]

[gmw_photos]

OP, you might want to buy a moisture meter and start probing around everyplace inside the trailer, especially up the walls above where the rotted out floor is. You can buy a meter from Lowes. If I remember I gave about $30 or so for the one I have.

[ata3001]

I had a leak that kept soaking a front storage compartment. Ended up being the plastic clip that holds the storage compartment door open. Water was coming thru where the screws are. Pulled out the screws, caulked & reinserted the screws. Problem fixed. I caught my leak early before anything was damaged. Went around the camper & caulked every screw hole & replaced the screw. If you see the head of a screw with rust on it, water is getting inside.

[CavemanCharlie]

jarata1 wrote:
We had the same problem same area not as bad as yours ,turned out to be a leaking hot water tank where water just sat for a while before we bought it.

Yes, besides checking for exterior leaks check the plumbing too. Maybe you have a plumbing leak that is causing the damage.

[jarata1]

We had the same problem same area not as bad as yours ,turned out to be a leaking hot water tank where water just sat for a while before we bought it.It isn't an easy fix it takes a few days.
Is this the trailer people told you not to buy because of the front walls seperating

[budwich]

easy test... pour a bit in and see where it goes ... 🙂

[imq707s]

So are those gaps in the black rubber window frame seals a concern, or is that just for cosmetics? I'm assuming that when water gets in those seals, it just runs out of the window frame drain holes?

[Vulcanmars]

Even new ones are built like ****. I have a new Wildwood and some of the QC issues are incredible. I really did not want another camper but wife got her way.
I think you will be camping before I will...

[budwich]

wow... that's a lot of "rot". You might consider "examining" a small area on the side wall, near the bottom to check on the integrity of the boundary between the floor and wall.

[westend]

If I tell you, "Yes, it's the unsealed window that is the problem", will that suffice?

Do a pressurized leak test and be sure you have the leaks discovered. IMO, anyone buying a trailer should do this, it's not that difficult.

[imq707s]

Well, I pulled out everything in the rear of the trailer....and started pulling up the linoleum to see how bad the floor really was. The only soft spot was in the corner.....but the more linoleum I pulled up....the more bad floor I found. Pretty much the entire 4x8 sheet of plywood at the rear of the camper needs replaced. The insulation was soaking wet....I'm sure that didn't help things.

I was able to get the entire section of plywood out, now I'm going to put a fan on it to let it dry out...and then start cleaning up all of the wood around the edges. Install my new bracing, new insulation, new resin coated plywood piece, and then new vinyl flooring on top.

I still wasn't able to find any areas on the trailer were water could have gotten in. Once I get everything cleaned up and dry....I'm going to have my wife start spraying up under the wheel wells, and on every window, light, and sealed up place on the outside of the trailer with a garden hose...and I'm going to stay inside with a flashlight and see if I can see any water getting in anywhere. If it all check out..time for the new floor.

Here are some pics......I never would have though that I was getting into this when I bought this 2011 "well taken care of" trailer.









Would the gaps in the seals on the outside windows let water in? Or does it just run out of the little drain holes on the bottom of the window frame?





The caulk around the outside of the window frame looks very good.