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]

imq707s wrote:
I did notice that there isn't a good seal between the plastic wheel well and the wood floor....I might have to caulk it up, water could be getting in there.

If you can see the edge of the floor in the wheel well, you have some work ahead of you. All plywood should be sealed or covered inside the wheel well.

[imq707s]

I did notice that there isn't a good seal between the plastic wheel well and the wood floor....I might have to caulk it up, water could be getting in there.

[Dennis12]

Good chance it could be coming from under the unit from the road splash. I just had to replace the entire floor in a unit. Used advantech sheeting instead of plywood or OSB. It will withstand moisture. It has been pressure tested to equal 30 years under water and still looked new. Just a thought

[imq707s]

Thanks for the info. I should know more tonight when I get in there with a saw and start cutting out all of the bad wood. I will try to get some pictures.

[budwich]

yep, most likely a leaky window or leaky tail light that was never "addressed" resulting in continuous "watering" of the area. Hopefully, it is limited to just that area and hasn't "creeped" to wall members or other "unforeseen" places.

Good hunting.

[myredracer]

Water can travel quite a distance through cracks in caulking on roofing and walls by capillary action. A leak test would be a good thing to do at this point. Even if you find suspect caulking, there could be other spots that need re-caulking too. You can rig up something to do a leak test yourself or can get someone to do it for you. TTs are somewhat "high maintenance" and things like regular inspections of caulking can't be ignored but too many owners do.

Is the water heater nearby? Or a leaking window? I'd think there'd have to be quite a leak for it to rot out that badly in just a few years.

TTs can be somewhat easily de-constructed as far as cabinetry, seating, etc. goes due to the way they are built. The floor could be more of a challenge though, especially if the rot goes under the exterior wall. If the underbelly is not enclosed, that will help. All you can do is keep pulling rotted and damaged wood out until you get to undamaged material.

Some photos could really help for folks to comment on.

[the_bear_II]

If it's near a window, I would check the seal on the window where the window frame meets the siding on the trailer. I had a couple of windows that the chalking around the frame had cracked at the top of the window. The water would follow the frame to the bottom and then run down the inside of the wall and puddle on the floor.

I resealed all of the window frames.

Also check under the trailer to make sure the membrane isn't torn or missing and allowing water to spray up