Repair vs. sell

ktnluvl wrote:

slavco wrote:

SLSAntigua wrote:
I found the leak!!! Water comes down the front of the RV, next to and over the front bunkend, over the diamond plate, where the diamond plate meets the floor in front of the hatch. The wood floor is practically visible. Water must have been saturating wood for years. The membrane on the under belly used to protect the wood actually trapped the moisture in. Rotted the wood to paper-thin flakes. have the front partially torn up down to that membrane.

Would it be smart to cover the membrane with some sort of aluminum sheeting? the front part will get coated with boat epoxy and I will install a 2x3 or 2x4 wood frame for a subfloor, then either use traffic master or pergo. fortunately wood under the slide is ok.

That's exactly where I had problems, although I'm not entirely positive that was the source of the leak, rather I believe this was just where the water would flow to and gather. This resulted in the front being completely rotted under the front bunk and where the pass-through storage is. I ended up replacing the front wall (behind the propane tanks) as well and then re-gluing the fileon to the new plywood.There's still a bit of delamination visible but it is MUCH better than it was. Most of all it's all water tight now and it's been dry even during the hardest rain storms. If you look at my pictures I posted earlier you'll see what I'm talking about.

I ended up supporting the trailer body frame on blocks and then dropping down the frame to just give me enough space to slide in a new piece of luan and tarp to cover the underbelly.I also laid a sheet of house wrap (stuff you get from Lowes or Homedepot) underneath. After the fact I think I should have only used the house wrap, that stuff is pretty strong and will keep water out.

Slavco - question for you. We just bought a Travel lite HTT and are having to replace the floors on it. Found the leak - it was at the front bottom seam where the pass-through storage compartment was. We are working on tearing up the flooring, etc., but I wasn't sure about that front wall behind the propane tanks...it looks like it's just a brown paper on the back piece. Does that need to be replaced or can we just clorox it, then fiberglass it or something? It doesn't look delaminated from the outside, but I can push on it and it flexes and you can see it flexing on the outside...I don't know if that's normal or not - we are first time noobs trying to figure everything out and VERY thankful for this forum! :) Any insight you have would be most helpful. Thank you!

Yes, I know what brown paper you're talking about. Mine was all soaked and falling apart. They also use the same stuff on the bunk end doors.
I took it all out as the plywood that this paper was attached to was all rotted. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures. When I lifted up the front filion you can see there is an aluminum frame which you can actually unscrew from the frame. It's basically a plywood/styrofoam sandwich like your floor, but it's encased in an aluminum frame and can be removed.
I replaced the styrofoam and plywood on both sides, glued it together and screwed it back in. I then used rubberized cement to glue the front filion back onto the wood. It stuck on pretty good and almost couldn't tell a repair was made :)

Filion is the white outer skin of your trailer in case you're wondering what I'm talking about :)

mabynack wrote:

Billbeat wrote:
I had a similar dilemma a few years back with my 2008 Coyote hybrid. I noticed a soft spot in the floor in the spring . I took up the vinyl flooring and the whole front of the trailer was rotted out. A quote from a dealer was about $4000.00. Way over my budget so I took on the repairs myself. Stressful , but I'm a little bit handy , got alot of advice from friends and online and it cost me about $150. Big job but I did it.
In a nutshell , if you think you can do the repair yourself it's worth it. To pay some one else , expensive but depending on your financial situation still may be less than buying a new trailer cus your not gonna get much for your water damaged one.

I found a 6 inch square soft spot in the floor of my travel trailer and figured I would tackle the repair myself. When I pealed back the vinyl flooring I realized that I needed to replace a section that was 4 x 4 feet. It was a lot more work than I had planned on and took me two weekends to finish. It wasn't all that expensive - just time consuming.

My problem was caused by a leaking water line, not a roof leak. It involved replacing the flooring under the kitchen cabinets.

Mabynack-how did you you replace around the kitchen cabinet? I have ripped out all my flooring from the front to the kitchen cabinet but need to rip it out there too as it's rotted underneath, but wasn't sure how to tackle it so I stopped for the day. Is there a way to pull it out without removing the cabinet? Mine has the stove and sink in one big cabinet, and I literally have know clue how I would even begin to tackle that. The couch and dinette were no problem, but the that cabinet scares the **** out of me. Any advice would be appreciated.

slavco wrote:

SLSAntigua wrote:
I found the leak!!! Water comes down the front of the RV, next to and over the front bunkend, over the diamond plate, where the diamond plate meets the floor in front of the hatch. The wood floor is practically visible. Water must have been saturating wood for years. The membrane on the under belly used to protect the wood actually trapped the moisture in. Rotted the wood to paper-thin flakes. have the front partially torn up down to that membrane.

Would it be smart to cover the membrane with some sort of aluminum sheeting? the front part will get coated with boat epoxy and I will install a 2x3 or 2x4 wood frame for a subfloor, then either use traffic master or pergo. fortunately wood under the slide is ok.

That's exactly where I had problems, although I'm not entirely positive that was the source of the leak, rather I believe this was just where the water would flow to and gather. This resulted in the front being completely rotted under the front bunk and where the pass-through storage is. I ended up replacing the front wall (behind the propane tanks) as well and then re-gluing the fileon to the new plywood.There's still a bit of delamination visible but it is MUCH better than it was. Most of all it's all water tight now and it's been dry even during the hardest rain storms. If you look at my pictures I posted earlier you'll see what I'm talking about.

I ended up supporting the trailer body frame on blocks and then dropping down the frame to just give me enough space to slide in a new piece of luan and tarp to cover the underbelly.I also laid a sheet of house wrap (stuff you get from Lowes or Homedepot) underneath. After the fact I think I should have only used the house wrap, that stuff is pretty strong and will keep water out.

Slavco - question for you. We just bought a Travel lite HTT and are having to replace the floors on it. Found the leak - it was at the front bottom seam where the pass-through storage compartment was. We are working on tearing up the flooring, etc., but I wasn't sure about that front wall behind the propane tanks...it looks like it's just a brown paper on the back piece. Does that need to be replaced or can we just clorox it, then fiberglass it or something? It doesn't look delaminated from the outside, but I can push on it and it flexes and you can see it flexing on the outside...I don't know if that's normal or not - we are first time noobs trying to figure everything out and VERY thankful for this forum! :) Any insight you have would be most helpful. Thank you!

Take pictures of wiring , hoses , pipes and things before you take them apart. Easy reference when putting back together.

SLSAntigua wrote:
Hi Slavco, How did you get the cabinets out? I did not know they were screwed from the otherside so unfortunately, I got pissed and tore the smaller one on the left side out in pieces only to discover it was installed from the other side, inside the hatch. talk about a project. your pictures are really giving me a good idea! thanks.

There are a lot of screws :) screwed into the floor, into the wall and into the dividing wall of the front pass through. The cabinet by the door (where the water heater is) has these panels on both sides which hide the wires etc. that mdf paneling is stapled in place so you will need to gently pry it off and that will reveal more screws. You will need to remove the water heater as well - it's actually not that hard, just make sure you note how the wires are connected. In mine the colors didn't match up between the water heater switch/light and the control module. It will save some time figuring it out after.

Hi Slavco, How did you get the cabinets out? I did not know they were screwed from the otherside so unfortunately, I got pissed and tore the smaller one on the left side out in pieces only to discover it was installed from the other side, inside the hatch. talk about a project. your pictures are really giving me a good idea! thanks.

SLSAntigua wrote:
I found the leak!!! Water comes down the front of the RV, next to and over the front bunkend, over the diamond plate, where the diamond plate meets the floor in front of the hatch. The wood floor is practically visible. Water must have been saturating wood for years. The membrane on the under belly used to protect the wood actually trapped the moisture in. Rotted the wood to paper-thin flakes. have the front partially torn up down to that membrane.

Would it be smart to cover the membrane with some sort of aluminum sheeting? the front part will get coated with boat epoxy and I will install a 2x3 or 2x4 wood frame for a subfloor, then either use traffic master or pergo. fortunately wood under the slide is ok.

That's exactly where I had problems, although I'm not entirely positive that was the source of the leak, rather I believe this was just where the water would flow to and gather. This resulted in the front being completely rotted under the front bunk and where the pass-through storage is. I ended up replacing the front wall (behind the propane tanks) as well and then re-gluing the fileon to the new plywood.There's still a bit of delamination visible but it is MUCH better than it was. Most of all it's all water tight now and it's been dry even during the hardest rain storms. If you look at my pictures I posted earlier you'll see what I'm talking about.

I ended up supporting the trailer body frame on blocks and then dropping down the frame to just give me enough space to slide in a new piece of luan and tarp to cover the underbelly.I also laid a sheet of house wrap (stuff you get from Lowes or Homedepot) underneath. After the fact I think I should have only used the house wrap, that stuff is pretty strong and will keep water out.

I found the leak!!! Water comes down the front of the RV, next to and over the front bunkend, over the diamond plate, where the diamond plate meets the floor in front of the hatch. The wood floor is practically visible. Water must have been saturating wood for years. The membrane on the under belly used to protect the wood actually trapped the moisture in. Rotted the wood to paper-thin flakes. have the front partially torn up down to that membrane.

Would it be smart to cover the membrane with some sort of aluminum sheeting? the front part will get coated with boat epoxy and I will install a 2x3 or 2x4 wood frame for a subfloor, then either use traffic master or pergo. fortunately wood under the slide is ok.

It's very hard to insurance total a trailer due to leaks. We were moving a fifth wheel after buying as dealer with dealer tags ect. The side ripped off. After 4 months of back in forth with insurance it finally was totaled. The rv repair centers could not match the gel coat fiberglass of the 2006 vintage. This unacceptable repair on $8600 estimate turned into a $15,600 total loss. Never titled or used. For 4 months we had $16,000 in cash tied into a destroyed in transit mess of a fifth wheel.

Got the rubber, glue, tape, and caulk from PPL.
RUBBER ROOF $12.99 per ft
DICOR ROOF INSTAL. KIT $168.48
SHIPPING & HANDLING $9.99