wet wet wet

[madfinnhockey]

I am sooooooo po'ed.................... Its been raining almost forever here in southern NH, coming down wicked hard for the last two plus week, flood advisories, bad thunderstorms, mud slides, road closures, etc.

So we're leaving for a week of camping in Maine on Sunday, so yesterday morning I turn on the fridge in the trailer to get it cooled off, and everything inside is fine.

I get home today and go to start loading it up, and the kitchen table is wet. I look up, the light above it is filled with water!!!! Then I see dripping around the edge of the AC trim, I am PISSED!!!!

The leaking seems to be confined to the front 1/3 of the trailer. I pulled down all the lights and speakers, cable tv connector and the ac trim to see what I could find, which was some wet insulation, but no source of the leak.

I'd like to be able to take one of the ceiling panels down, and what I've discovered is that there is a 2x2 ceiling joist right at the edge of each ceiling panel. Then theres one of those trim pieces that hides the edges of each ceiling panel. The ceiling panels don't seem to be screwed in anywhere, and neither does that trim piece between them, but I don't know how to remove that trim piece so I can pull down the edge of the ceiling panel.

Anyone know how?
Thanks

[knute2]

use some hockey tape to patch it up, and then cross ur fingers, and dont blame it on mom

[Nascarcamping]

Mad, all pun intended but you can live up to the first part of your name here:)

This rain we have been getting is great for the farmers and our waterfalls, but even my office sprung a leak and many others also.

I remember when the remnants of a hurricane came through here 3 years back my coach leaked in the slides bacause the rain was coming in sideways!

Anyways I hope Mastertech will drop by shortly and help you out.

[madfinnhockey]

well, I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow in it, so today I'll drive over to the dealer and ask them some questions, and maybe pick up some of that eteabond (or whatever its called) tape to try to seal the seams.

I do think that its the front roof seam (its an aluminum roof) because the way the roof runs, theres a little dip in the front where water can puddle up right at the front seam.

I left the heat on in the unit overnight to try to dry some of it out. I found that the hole in the ceiling for the speaker is about the same size as the hole for the heating duct, so when I can I might try running a length of duct hose from the heating duct to the speaker hold to finish drying whats up there.

I tried to reach in the hole and remove what wet insulation I could find. The only water I can see now is, when I push up on the ceiling panels, a tiny bit oozes out at the panel ends, where that trim piece covers up their ends.

Isn't life fun!

[MASTERTECH]

the baton strips that hide the seams just pop off with a flat bar they are just nailed on with pin nails then just cut the panel out clean the glue off the 2 by 2`s and glue the new panel in

[madfinnhockey]

the "Baton" strips in mine are about 1/2 inch wide, and made out of rubber and I can't find any nails, screws or staples holding them in. I went to the rv store today and looked in some of the newer trailers, and the strips in those were about an inch wide, looked like wood, and they were either nailed, or screwed in.

But that part will have to wait for another day, I'm leaving tomorrow so I have to take care of the leaking problem first.

At the rv store I asked them about that tape everyone talks about (eternalbond), the service and sales people said they never heard of it, so while they were looking it up in the catalog I took a look around and found a roll on the shelf, 37 feet x 4 inches, $121, OUCH!

Anyway, I got it. I cleaned off the area around the seams with acetone, roughed it up a bit, and applied the first strip of tape across the front seam. Also caulked anywhere else that looked like it could use it, including around every bolt that I saw.

Next I'll use the rest of the tape to do down the side seams as much as I can. I doesn't stick to the silicone thats already there, so you really have to align the tape so you get as much of it on the roofing material as possible.

Oh, I'll also bring a tarp with me on vacation.

[Mr BigBlock]

Talk about rain it has not stopped here for a month im in the pool and landscape business cant work all i do is drink beer all day:-P.

[madfinnhockey]

Well, just back from vacation, and we did get some heavy, driving rain, and no leaks, so I guess the eternalbond tape did the job!

[Bignascarfan]

Funny how they "Never heard of it". I'm surprized they didn't ask if you wanted a new roof....

Glad your trip turned out good.