RobWNY wrote:
My three year old travel trailer has some caulk issues that I've had to address before there's any water damage. Particularly at the corners where the aluminum siding is underneath the corner trim molding. It has come apart on the siding and I'm not all that happy that this happened with less than 1,000 miles on it. I get that there's flex and that all caulking will eventually need some repair but it sure seems like it's way too soon for this to have occurred. I cleaned out as much as I could of the rubbery caulk without having to remove the molding and used Geocel ProFlexRV for the repair. It got me to thinking, do manufacturers use silicone because it sure looks and feels like silicone and we all know, nothing sticks to silicone and everything I've read is that Silicone isn't a good thing to use on RV's. If it is silicone, why would manufacturers use it knowing it doesn't last and isn't a good choice for RV's?
Unfortunately, trying to seal something up using caulk as the primary sealant is IMO doomed to failure. There should be something generally either putty or hopefully butyl tape between the molding and the siding and that is your primary sealant. The caulking is a secondary backup. About the only permanent sealant that can be applied at the surface is Eternabond tape. If the molding has come loose that implies that there is already been some water damage that has allowed that molding to come loose and until that is fixed you will be facing continuing problems that most likely will only get worse.
IMO the first thing one should do on a new trailer is to remove all exterior caulking on the roof and apply Eternabond tape and make sure you seal the four corners where the trim molding runs onto the roof and intersects the front and end cap/roof edges. Next every exterior screw needs to be properly sealed and that means basically removing it, and using either caulk or double sided Eternabond on the threads, then properly re fastening it securely and then effectively sealing the entire head of the screw. Only when this is done will you have hopefully solved the "wicking screw" syndrome where the damage is like termites, it's not seen or realized until too late. I have details on these in the link in my signature if interested with about 3 or 4 methods for the screws.
I also think one should reseal all exterior lights using a combination of good butyl tape and Eternabond which again I show one method I used in my signature link. I/m not a big fan of the gaskets, especially the foam type that many lights now have and would recommend tossing them and using a good butyl tape as a replacement.
Finally within the first year or so one should for good measure redo all the exterior caulking like around doors, windows, etc. by removing whatever is there and using a good caulk like the Geocel or my favorite the 3M marine 4000UV.
For good measure again within that first year I recommend installing something like the RainKap system which will not only solve any black streak issues, but will give all your or at least a large majority of it exterior caulk some help by keeping a lot of water run off from running down the sides of your trailer over whatever caulking is under it.
Only when one had taken the time to do the above will one stand a fighting chance of not facing some kind of water damage issues especially from wicking screws down stream.
This might sound like a lot of work and I guess it is, but the market demand for RVs driven by cost by the consumers forces manufacturers to use cheaper material, cut costs resulting in marginal overall quality and they only need to use whatever will get them past their supplied warranty which in most cases is one year and apparant water damage will probably not show up in a year, but more likely in the 3+ year time period. Only an astute consumer can fix that after the purchase or accept the down stream consequences if ignored.
Larry
