R V Owners Beware ! !

[R C Cola]

Many new RV's have a major flaw. They use a new single piece roof and flexible sealant. Sounds good right? Spoke with a dealer I haul for recently about the soft sealant they are using on the new trailers. 05 and 06 This new sealant is used on the one piece roofing material that is some synthetic (plastic single sheet for whole roof). I was very impressed because it is quite flexible and asked about it. What he told me was shocking. This new sealant will dry out and crack and leak sometimes in as little as 3 to 6 months. They look at it as a new profit area since so many people do not know about this and fail to safeguard against it. By the time the owner finds out sometimes internal damage has been done and additional work is needed. Many just trade in and those that choose to have repaired face a big (profitable) repair bill. When I asked him for a solution here is what he said. " We reseal the enitre roof with a product we get from our motor home supplier that sells us their high dollar units $ 500,000 and up. From the factory they come with a similar sealant but quite expensive per tube. He buys it and uses it for any repairs on these trailers, if the customer is willing to pay for it. If not he declines to make the repair since they will be coming back with complaints. I am not sure how many companies are using the substandard stuff but the dealer said most of the less expensive units are coming in with substandard sealant. Have not talked to any other dealers about this solution, but a number of them have agreed that the sealant is not as good as it should be. Anybody in the industry who knows more about this who would like to chime in ? R C :--)

 

[McCRam]

Thanks for the info, I'm going to start looking more carefully for cracks. So far I have not seen any problems with my 06 laredo.

 

[LEPage]

What kind of trailer do you haul?

 

[R C Cola]

Trailers

About 20 differant brands from 6 locations. The dealer I talked with carried about 6 brands and said the lower priced "brands" were the cause of most complaints.

 

[JKinney]

I thought most of these roofs came with a 12 year warranty, If they still do how does that fit into the picture?

 

[R C Cola]

Roof Warranty

Warr. is worth asking about. I would hope the first year would be covered no matter what. I do know the actual roof sheeting (like the sides but heavier) will last a very long time. The problem seems to be the holes put in for vents, antenna, AC, ladder, etc. All those cuts have to be sealed not to leak.

 

[DBrickel]

Good to know. I have started looking for motorhomes. In no hurry to buy but am trying to educate myself because I plan to retire in a year or two and travel.

 

[RJOL]

Eventually, over the years, these seam seals will probably fail. I resealed my Alpenlite (with the white roof seal product from Camping World) after about the 8th year. I just cleaned the seams and let them dry, and then recoated them. No big deal.



I don't think many RV manufacturers look at this and say ... "Great, we'll build in a failure of the roof seals and then the owner will have to buy a new one or spend thousands of dollars on repairs. " If you had an RV and the seam seals failed after a couple of years, what's the chance you are going to buy another one from them?



You should inspect your RV thoroughly top to bottom every year. If you can't do this hire someone who can. If you see cracks (not just normal surface cracks) in the seals, fix them. JMHO...

 

[Grizzly]

About 20 differant brands from 6 locations. The dealer I talked with carried about 6 brands and said the lower priced "brands" were the cause of most complaints.

Are you talking Fleetwood, Forest River, Keystone Products here or what exactly.

 

[DBrickel]

Eventually, over the years, these seam seals will probably fail. I resealed my Alpenlite (with the white roof seal product from Camping World) after about the 8th year. I just cleaned the seams and let them dry, and then recoated them. No big deal.



I don't think many RV manufacturers look at this and say ... "Great, we'll build in a failure of the roof seals and then the owner will have to buy a new one or spend thousands of dollars on repairs. " If you had an RV and the seam seals failed after a couple of years, what's the chance you are going to buy another one from them?



You should inspect your RV thoroughly top to bottom every year. If you can't do this hire someone who can. If you see cracks (not just normal surface cracks) in the seals, fix them. JMHO...

I agree. There are different price ranges for a reason (i. e. different levels of quality) Same principal applies too most things

 

[bmoeller]

I don't think many RV manufacturers look at this and say ... "Great, we'll build in a failure of the roof seals and then the owner will have to buy a new one or spend thousands of dollars on repairs. " If you had an RV and the seam seals failed after a couple of years, what's the chance you are going to buy another one from them?

People still buy 6. 0L Strokers. :-laf :-laf Some people even had 3-4 buybacks from the engine problems.

 

[JimBob24]

The last two rv's I owned had a 10 or 12 year warranty on the roof, but the warranty stated that the roof was to be inspected and resealed if needed on an annual basis. The warranty only covered the roof material, not the seam or joint sealing.

 

[Turbo Thom]

Bob is righ on with that statement. The seals are not included. The material on the roof is. I have a 03 Teton, it dried and cracked and the dealer did not know what was wrong. I just took it on myself the remove all the caulking and replace it with the Dicor. With the fiber material, no petroleum product can be used. And be sure the caulk is the correct stuff. If not, the caulk strip can be pulled up and in comes the water. To replace it all is not a good time, but for a $70,000 unit, it helps my bottom line to replace it.



. . Preston. .

 

[Buffalo]

The EPDM rubber roofs require a special caulking-sealant. Others will destroy the rubber roof.



I ran across a product called Rapid Roof III from a company called Conklin Company Inc. It's an acrylic latex roof coating. I just used the top coat (white) & painted the entire roof with the material. It dries to a rubber consistency & seems to be quite durable. It's been on my roof for about 4 years, now & my trailer sits in the Phoenix, AZ. sun 365 days a year. It's still rubbery feeling.



In areas that need extra strength, they have a product called Spunflex. It's a polyester mesh material that gets imbedded in the Rapid Roof III. You paint a coat of RR III on & while it's still wet, you lay the Spunflex into the wet RR III. Then you paint a top coat on top of the first coat & the Spunflex.



No more worries about leaking roofs!!!



Joe F. (Buffalo)

 

[RJOL]

I just use this stuff and it works fine... Just brush it on heavy over the seams and screws (after cleaning and drying the surface)...



http://www.campingworld.com/browse/...ing--Quart/skunum=19678?skunum=19678&tab=desc



They have a patching product, if you have a tear in the roof...

 

[GWJCTD]

I work on motorhomes and trailers ,and the stuff we use is called Lap Seal,(dicore) fits in a cocking gun and is 14. 99 a tube! Self-leveling goop. Have fun with it. :-laf

 

[Grizzly]

About 20 differant brands from 6 locations. The dealer I talked with carried about 6 brands and said the lower priced "brands" were the cause of most complaints.

Why can't you tell us what these lowest price brands are so that some of us in the market can avoid them?