Travel Lite TC Owners?

[languiduck]

I feel like I'm the only one on this forum. The search I did only came up with a couple owners who had issues with their Travel Lites. I know that every brand has it's issues and each camper is different depending on who put it together, and lots of times the only time you hear from someone is when there's a problem. So I was wondering, who else around has a TL TC and is having a great time with it? I hope there's more. It'd be nice to hear the good and bad, and share common problems and fixes with each other.

[Stars101]

A little blurry, but you can see the fungus is about 1" thick... that's what I saw starting to "grow" up from underneath the bed once I pulled an interior trim piece out. I thought it was yellow fiberglass insulation before I realized how extensive the damage was.

EDIT - Did anyone notice that, ahem, you are looking in the front of my 1 year old TC and out the backdoor? In. The. Front. and Out. The. Backdoor. Obscene that this should be allowed to happen.

Notice my interior storage "shoe pockets" screwed to the interior wall? LOL. love 'em, but I don't want to see them in a photo that was taken from the outside of the TC facing the cabover! 🙂

My side of the bed (east/west) is right behind my finger in this photo. So my mattress was a single piece of luan and one trim piece away from this ugly mess.

[Stars101]

Water damage and fungus extend across front cabover frame.

[Stars101]

2014 Travel Lite - water damage to frame

Small amount fungus visible on outer framing. Look at my other photos to see the fungus on the inside framing! Much more extensive.

Remember, this TC was purchased new in June 2013. Used June - Sept. and then covered (vented tarp on roof) until this July... And we had very little rain this year in NY. And only one rain storm after it was uncovered in July... Plus my DH got up on a ladder and checked under the tarp while it was covered. No condensation, no water, it was bone dry under the cover b/c he kept an eye on it for issues or rubbing from the cover. He shoveled it off during and after each snow storm. During the storm! He knew how much the TC means to me LOL He was actually shoveling the TC roof before he shoveled our walkway or the cars. He's a great guy. We baby this thing...

[duramax02]

I have a 2014 890rx built 9/13 with issues. I started a post back in July asking for information. I purchased it from Big Johns Rv in Longmont Colorado and he went to the factory and picked it up for me and I brought it to Washington. I parked it for the winter only using it one time on the way. In the spring I put water in and started getting it ready. Found out they forgot to clamp the hot water line that was inside the water tank box. Luckly I noticed it right away. They also had the hot and cold lines mixed up, the shower pan missing screws, the heater not all the way in the wall, and the water tank drain hose completely crimped so it didn't work. The ac didn't work. The dealer told me everything worked when I picked it up so I took his word for it and didn't check it. My miststake. He lied and caused me close to a year of grief getting it fixed.
I'm in a small town in Washington state and there isn't a Travel Lite dealer close. I took it to a Rv dealership about 50 miles away and after a month finally got it back with one month of warranty left. The dealer didn't think very highly of the camper or Travel Lite people. I was actaully embarrassed. I really like the camper inside but now that everyone has talked about leaks and my camper is in that bad build period, I'm quite concerned.

[languiduck]

I wonder if Travel Lite is watching. Or even cares? At least I know what to look for now, but not sure how I can deal with trouble if I find it. Too bad because so far I really like my TC a lot.

[Stars101]

Oooh, shellback I feel your pain. I wanted to post my photos online and I can't find them! Only digital photos I haven't backed up yet and I can't find the SD card. Doh!

Looks like you are down a PA Amish country; nice area. Maybe we should make our own camping club and meet with our leaky Travel Lite's 🙂 We can make sure and arrange to have it at a CG that has a LARGE pavilion that we can park our TC's under LOL. Because after all my issues I sure am gun shy about trusting this thing as weather worthy.

You know how car show guys call the cars that show up in enclosed trailers "Trailer Queens"? Well I feel like I need an enclosed Hallmark trailer to put my TC in! Kinda defeats the purpose of having a TC if you need to put it in a trailer LOL.

Better to try and fix it now and have it in shape for Spring. Finding that in April would sure ruin MY camping season.

Good luck.

[shellbackcva59]

Well, I was going to just leave the camper tarped and deal with the problem in the spring. Reading about you mold issues, I decided I better open it up now, rather than let it get worse over winter. I was able to peel back the rubber roofing to see what damage I had. There's a roof joint about 2 feet forward from the rear, and that's where my damage was contained to. I got that piece of plywood roofing up and now hope I can get it dried out before the weather gets too cold. I'm going to spray it real good with bleach also. There's a short piece of framing on each side that needs replacing also. One question I have is that some of the plywood laminate came up with the rubber roof. I need to find out what solvents I might use to get the glue and laminate off without hurting the rubber roofing. The roof feels sound ahead of the damage. Once this repair is done I will do the pressure test with soap suds to see how the rest of the camper is. I believe my leak was at a caulk seam. The caulk they used didn't seem to bond well with the rubber rooofing. i don't think they use Dicor, because I have good bonding on the Fantastic fan and another repair I made with Dicor. I'll see if I can put up a couple pictures.

[Stars101]

shellback - Isn't it funny how we can have such catastrophic leaking and NO SIGNS of any interior water!?

That's what always got to me... how could my framing be in danger of failing due to water damage but everything looked and smelled brand new inside.

I guess Travel Lite did a good GREAT job of sealing some seams. Unfortunately they were inside seams LOL. I always do give TL credit for having a great interior!!

[shellbackcva59]

Stars101 wrote:
From what I have read any campers with build dates of 2013 and 2014 are having issues.

Before you tear into anything I strongly suggest that you either pay ($125) or do a DIY LEAK TEST. Do not guess! Seeing the bubbles and knowing exactly what to tackle is the only way to go. I'd hate for you to put a new roof on and then have the jack brackets fail the next year, etc.

I mistakenly posted a build date of 8/13. The correct date is 8/12. It's considered a 2013 model though. I'm taking your advise and will do a leak test before I start. My camper only has 2 roof openings, the center vent and the one over the toilet area. Neither area shows any sign of damage. Just plain poor craftsmanship when sealing the seams.

[Stars101]

From what I have read any campers with build dates of 2013 and 2014 are having issues.

Before you tear into anything I strongly suggest that you either pay ($125) or do a DIY LEAK TEST. Do not guess! Seeing the bubbles and knowing exactly what to tackle is the only way to go. I'd hate for you to put a new roof on and then have the jack brackets fail the next year, etc.

[shellbackcva59]

Well I just went to install my winter tarp on the 770SL and found the left rear corner of the roof very soft. has to be some extensive rot underneath. Not any evidence of a leak on the interior of the camper. I sure would like to put my foot where the sun never shines on the people at Travel Lite. I believe the date of my camper manufacture was 8/13. So it's not in the time frame of the shop managers departure. I'm not about to just try and fix the left corner. Already had the leak in the front to deal with. Maybe 6 months later it will be in another place. I've got a 24x28 shop I keep my 2 boats in, so I think late winter, or early spring I'll bring the camper inside and pull the whole roof off and fix it right. I'm certainly not sold on the rubber roof fabric. Might see if I can do it in aluminum.

[Stars101]

Used a piece of cardboard and made a template to fit the front into truck window and taped it in place with painters tape. Closed off sinks traps, stove vent, AC, and bathroom vent with Glad Press and Seal. Taped the outside with blue 3M painters tape if it didn't stink good, but mostly it worked fine.

Used kid's bubble solution to paint all over seams. Found one huge leak on cabover seam and, surprisingly, all other seams were fine. But it was so easy to do that we are probably just going to leak test it twice a year as part of close down and again in the spring 🙂

We found that it worked best if you carefully painted the seam and had someone else ready to snap a picture, and then move on. The first bubble that got made was the largest and then it was hard to duplicate to show someone else.... but that may have been due to our cheap bubble solution.

[languiduck]

That sounds like a great idea, did you just rig something up around a window to attach the shop vac hose to?

[Stars101]

From what I could see it seems to be a problem with hiring competent help and keeping it. Seems like very high turn-over rate right now. And from what I read/researched that didn't use to be the case.

Best thing we did was a DIY Leak Testing using a shop vac for pressure. Showed up one huge area where there was no butyl tape or caulk. Straight shot for the water to get in and pool unchecked until it failed.

[shellbackcva59]

Stars101 wrote:
I have a 2014 Travel Lite 770R. Nothing but problems... I bought it new in May 2013. It had 3+ gallons of water in the cabover nose less than one week after delivery (special ordered new from factory so it's not like it was sitting out at the dealer for a year). It pooled under the bed and bowed the siding down so far that it touched the roof of the truck. When you pushed up it sounded like water lapping against an aluminum boat! I thought I was at the lake LOL. I did get a new unit due to the fact that even though I waited 2+ months for a special order they did not install the special ordered items! Did. Not. Install.

The water was running out of the cabover, gushing out from the jack attachment bolts and running down the jacks, running out of the siding at every horizontal seam (I have aluminum siding) as far back as BOTH side windows! Um, people, that's about 1/2 way on my TC. I put a bucket under it after about 5 min. of staring in shock and collected 3 gallons just from under one jack, so you KNOW how much water was in that unit. No way was I paying for this.

I finally got it sorted out between the dealer and manufacturer. I had to drive to IN to pick up the new one, but counted myself lucky I had something to camp in for the remainder of last year.

Very pleased with layout and new camper for the 4 months I used it. thought I was golden, just bad luck that I bought the "Friday Afternoon Special" last year. Pure fluke I got such a lemon...

Not so fast happy camper. The new one began leaking 1 month after the 1 year warranty period ended! Same d*mn problem in the cabover. I was livid. I used the camper June, July, Aug, and Sept of 2013. It had been stored inside under cover from Sept. 2013 until July 2014 (late start camping this year). It began leaking in Aug. of this year. I only had it out for one darn rain storm between July and August! OMG, I am beyond angry by this time.

Contacted Travel Lite.

Wow! Same problem I had water pooling under the plywood bed. I tore up the plywood and left it open from May till Sept too make sure I had the leak stopped. In Sept I closed it up. Still not real confident in it. If you call Travel Lite about a water leak, they'll give you a deer in the headlights response, like they never heard of it before. Not sure if they have an engineering problem, or some worthless employees.