RV siding dlaminating

[Dick R]

HELP , the siding on my four year old camper is delaminating from a water leak , the manufacturer did not install enough screws to hold in place a strip on top of the camper , didn't relize what was happening until I was washing the camper and seen some raised sections of fiberglass , the core of this siding is foam , a thin layer of wood , than the fiberglass , the manufacturer will not do anything for me at all , I have been told to use a two part epoxy or fiberglass resin for adheasive and to put peasure on the delaminated spot until cured out, anyone have any ideas or experience with this , sure could use some good advise on this . Dick R

 

[RThompson]

I had the same problem on an Alpenlite 5er. Western RV manufacture of Alpenlite advised me to use 'Pro Bond'. It is a ureathane type of glue and does a very good job. Removing the trim, windows and all attachments in the affected area is first thing that needs to be done. Then the whole area has to be thoroughly dried out. Clamping the siding back to the camper after the application of the 'Pro Bond' is the hard part. Pro Bond expands as it cures so it is necessary to secure the siding so it won't move. I parked the 5er within four feet of a building and then used a lot of lumber to keep pressure on the siding till the Pro Bond cured (about 4 hours). A time consuming project but you can do it at home if you have the time. You will notice a lot of campers and trailers have this problem after you have to deal with it. Good luck and if you need any further help give me a PM.

 

[TowPro]

Mine is Falon or what ever its called. On the terry there is a seam about 1' up from the bottom all the way around, with a 1" strip over it that uses double sided tape to hold it on.



Like you, I discovered it after I washed the roof, and it was full of water!



I dried it with a hair dryer, used 3M spray contact cement and boards wedged between the side and the bank to hold it in place. Not sure if the contact cement was the best choice, but it seems to be holding. I did add SS screws through that 1" strip, as its starting to do the same thing in other places.



Next spring I plan to hit my local camper dealer and buy this alunimim strip they sell. It takes that putty strip stuff under it, but uses screws to hold it on. They have 2 types, one uses counter sunk, color coded screws, the other uses a plastic tape over top of it. I think I will go with the counter sunk one as the plastic tape shrinks over time.

 

[Dick R]

RV siding dlamination

thanks for the advise on this problem , chances are I will be looking at different campers in the camp grounds to see how many have the same , I didn't know this was a wide spread problem with this type of siding , just have to wait until spring for the repairs and the new camping season .

 

[RobertBolinger]

I worked at a Coachmen/Sportscoach/Shasta dealer in the late 80's-the delam was not a widespread problem, but it did happen to some units. The Fiberglas was laminated to the luann with some kind of 3M contact adhesive-sometimes water would cause the delam-sometimes it was caused by a bad cure at the factory. Anyway, the smaller delams could be fixed like described above-any holes you put in the Fiberglas can be patched pretty well with Fiberglas body filler and the right color of paint. The larger delams required replacing the whole side-the Fiberglas/luann was shipped in a crate 4' tall by however long the unit was-very time consuming and expensive to do-only remember doing these under warranty, not customer pay.

 

[Ramtough]

You didn't name the brand. If it is a Fleetwood brand, I think they'll take care of it. I know that Fleetwood will stand behind their products - even if they are out of warranty. Take it back to the dealer & insist that a factory rep take a look at it. This is a fairly common problem on fiberglass sides & they can tell in an instant if it is really a manufacturing defect which it most always is.