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Old 10-03-2019, 09:18 AM   #1
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2004 T-317SR Restoration - Project camper no. 4 with pics

Hi Folks,

It seems that this year, restoration project campers are abundant. This past weekend BenB and I traveled to northern VA to pick up our latest project camper, a 2004 T317SR. And if you are counting, this is project camper no. 4.

The opportunity presented itself, and the camper was in the acceptable condition for a restore project. This camper is an early build, 2004 model. The VIN decal is sun faded, but the single owner had the manual with all the paperwork in it. The camper went through final inspection at Sunline in June 2003 according to the inspection record dates. The interior décor is Nutmeg Floral. The camper was a stock order camper to a dealership by the invoice sheet. This 2004 T317SR has enclosed and a heated tank compartment, which I found as a shock. I had thought that my T310SR was one of the few enclosed tank TT’s Sunline offered as this was not an advertised option. But, it seems they provided it on other larger models in the 2004 line up. At this point there is more to learn on how these enclosed and heated tank compartment Sunline TT’s came to be and which models have them.

Last year the owners noticed a leak in the back wall area and repaired it to help stop the leak. Over the winter, a tree branch fell on the roof in the repaired area and separated the roof membrane from the rear wall. Water was leaking in for an unknown period and they did not notice it as they stated they went camping once in it earlier in the year.

Before discovering the new leak, they started to prepare it for sale. They then found the latest roof leak and realized the gravity of the situation. They called one RV roofer and got a quote. The cost to replace the roof was too much for them to absorb and still try to sell it. They decided to sell it, as is. The owner was forthcoming, not trying to hide anything and the total transaction went off smoothly. They were accommodating with everything, especially during pick up day.

Here is the roof issue. Yes, this looks ugly.

The rest of the roof needs replacing.


The back of the roof was tarped before we arrived to help stop more water from getting it. When we removed the tarp, we drained approximately a gallon of water laying in the membrane that had collected, the black area in the pic. Having been sent good pictures, I was able to create and come prepared with a temporary roof patch to allow us the 500-mile tow home and not have a roof separation or leaking problem. Having done two roof replacements over the winter, and not yet taking the old roof materials to the dump, I had enough roofing material (rubber bonded to bud board) to make an 8 ft wide by 6-foot length roof patch.

Three of the rear rafters were compromised from the water damage. The 4th rafter in front of the rear roof vent still had some stability left to it. We placed two small sheets of 3/16” flooring underlayment over the old roof to hold up the new roof patch. Using long screws and fender washer, we attached the two pieces of wood plywood to the rafters, rear wall molding, and themselves.


Next was to place the 8ft x 6 ft old rubber roof patch with solid bud board backing over the plywood sheets and attached it all sides with fender washers and screws. With the rear wall ceiling rafter deteriorated, we screwed into the aluminum molding, which was still well attached. Then I cleaned the perimeter of the rubber patch, the old roof, and the moldings and used a combination 3” wide Gorilla tape and 4” Gorilla brand Eternabond type tape they now sell. The old roof patch was wide enough to lap over the gutter rails and be screwed to the side of the camper. The tape added extra temporary water protection.


This did take an amount of time to do. Cleaning was the longest to get the tape to bond correctly. While I was doing the roof patch taping, BenB was doing tire pressures, lug nuts torqueing, and getting everything else ready for road travel. The owner towed the camper from this tight turning spot out into cul-de-sac street where we could set up the Reese dual cam WD hitch on our truck. The upper cam arms adjusting nuts had dirt seized up, and I didn’t bring any penetrating fluid, making adjusting impossible. Penetrating oil will now be added to the camper pick up list! But, I remembered we had some mineral spirits for roof cleaning! Digging the dirt out of the cam arm key slots, I was able to work the mineral spirits into the threads and with luck and wiggling, freed up the cam arm locking nuts. Never had this issue before, but live and learn and we were then on our way home.

Here is a rest stop in MD. They have nice rest stops.


The weather started nicely; as the evening approached we hit a monsoon rainstorm that we had to drive through in total darkness. Glad we patched the roof! We made it to the Washington PA, KOA, to camp for the night, and it has stopped raining at least. We cleaned up the camper and made dinner on the stove. By 10:00 pm we finally dined and then crashed for the night. Sunday we made it home fine as the sun came back out again.

Here are some inside and outside pics at our place if you have never seen this floor plan. I started to clean-up the siding before we begin taking the camper apart so it can dry out before winter. This camper is 31’ 6” long, and cleaning every inch with a magic eraser and Awesome cleaner is a time-consuming task… I’ll do the rest at a later time

The outside:








The front top siding partly cleaned and the roof status. I was not going to clean the roof as it will be replaced.




Inside pics;

This camper has three bunks in the back, and it has a moveable wall feature for the bunk room. It adds some privacy if wanted, or the wall can be left open. But the wall has to be stored for travel as the slide room uses the floor space the wall is in when the slide comes in. Here is the wall with a mirror on it in the stored position.


And in the bunk room closed position. There is a hinged access door on the left.


The dinette and couch slide


The kitchen area looking towards the pass-through bathroom to the master bedroom.


With the bath door closed


Looking in the entry door


The rear bunk area. The ceiling has dropped from the water damage, and I cannot get the moveable wall to swing wide open. The pics are closeups as I was so close to the area. There is also one bunk with two cushions on it. And one with none. That was me storing it there to see what was under the bottom bunk. A water heater and cargo storage area.






Each bunk has its own window and light.


The bath area




I have yet to figure out what drove Sunline to install tub showers and non-tub showers in slide room campers. On the non-slide campers, there are wheel wells to contend with, and the tub shower shows up there to deal with the wheel well. But on a slide camper, the floor is flat the entire camper. Anyone know why in the same model year, some slide campers have tub showers, and some do not? I have even seen this on the T-264SR models. Some do, and some don’t have tub shows, yet the same floor plan.

The front master bedroom;






The pics do not show the amount of restoration repair needed. So far, this is what I know needs to be restored, repaired. The list will grow as the camper comes apart.

- The rear bunk area ceiling needs replacement and all wood above it.
- The right and left rear wall areas have water damage.
- The entire rear wall has water damage.
- A whole new roof is needed.
- The top front roof corners have the beginning of water infiltration, as shown by wet walls with the moisture meter.
- The front left lower wall has a water infection in the storage compartment. It looks like a corner molding leak.
- The slide drive system needs the drive shaft bushing rebuild and slide adjustment.
- The slide floor has a small area of floor water damage to be repaired.
- The freshwater tank mount needs to be reworked along with the bottom cover. The tank was laying out of its cradle being held in by the bottom cover.
- The axles are very much out of alignment. The trailer dog tracks hard to the right and wears tires badly as observed on the old set of tires they took off, which I requested to keep. The back of the camper is approx. 6 to 8” shifted to the right and dog tracking with the front while towing straight down the road.
- The right side rear spring hanger has cracked the I beam frame web above it from side turn flexing of the lower I beam flange. This web crack is an issue on the long spring hanger I beam frames of this vintage across the RV industry. Sunline is not alone in this issue. Reinforcing needs to be added to stop the lower I beam flange from constantly flexing in turns.
- The roof AC unit does work, but the control system has issues and will not respond to the T stat. The roof AC unit runs nonstop in high cooling until you turn the power off. The good news, the compressor, and the fan does work.

I will post more as progress continues.

Thanks for looking.

John
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Old 10-03-2019, 02:49 PM   #2
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Congratulations John! That’s a nice floor plan.
So you have enough space to store all your campers under roof?

As to the tub thing. When you say none tub you mean the tub with the built in seat? Do some models just have a shower pan?
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Old 10-03-2019, 05:21 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnybgood View Post
Congratulations John! That’s a nice floor plan.
So you have enough space to store all your campers under roof?

As to the tub thing. When you say none tub you mean the tub with the built in seat? Do some models just have a shower pan?
The under roof space is now getting "tight"... There is only enough room for one more extra special one if it ever comes along before I have to sell something...

The tub shower thing, All my 2004 campers, have a basin shower. Looks like this. So it is the basin shower I'm referring too verses the shower tub you stand in.

This is the basin shower





I know the seat thing you are referring too, but I have not seen one of them on a newer one other then the combo tub/seat that goes over a wheel well like the T2363's have to have. The floor plan and wheel well of the non slide camper requires it.

Why on this T317SR did they put a tub shower in verses a basin shower? It is not a space issue on this slide floor model. The only thing I can think of in this case, being it is a bunkhouse, maybe they thought with small children the tub might fit the family better??

But they did the same thing on the T264SR in 2004 which is not a bunk house. They put a tub shower in. In 2005 until the end, they put in basin showers.

There was a reason for them to do this, just trying to figure out what it is. I personally do not like the tub shower. You lose standing space.
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Old 10-04-2019, 03:55 AM   #4
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I see your new project has a heat vent on the tub wall. Probably couldn’t fit that in there with a tub basin.

I agree with you about the tub, being it’s a bunkhouse and small children.

Maybe Sunline utilized what they had in inventory for the non bunkhouse models?
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Old 10-05-2019, 07:15 AM   #5
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I would kill to have a flat floor pan shower! Mine has one of the sit down tubs and my feet just barely fit inside of the small standing area. It would have been long gone if I could have figured out what to do with all of the stuff underneath it!
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Old 10-05-2019, 09:02 PM   #6
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Our '07-276SR, which is a bunk model, has the tub shower. It was actually one of the reasons my wife liked the model.

What is unusual, at 5' 10" she could actually take baths in it!!
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Old 10-06-2019, 07:05 AM   #7
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Mine was designed as a bad joke by someone with an evil sense of humor. It may have been a bit more tolerable if they had put it in the other way around so that you didn't have to climb around the sink to get in!
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Old 10-06-2019, 10:11 AM   #8
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Mainah, I hear what your saying about the T1700 tub. From what I remember about mine was the space under the tub seat was for the 30 amp power cord. Maybe the water pump (can’t remember)? Wonder if you could use a power cord that’s not hard wired? I see a lot of campers like that.

Sorry for the hijack John.
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Old 10-06-2019, 12:16 PM   #9
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One of the first things I did was rebuild the power panel and instal a new converter that was easy it's no longer under there. The pump,hot and cold sink water, sink vents, hot air duct and the city water plumbing are all under there! The step up into the shower is about 16" like I said if they had put the tub in the other way around at least you could step into the deep end of the tub all one foot square of it! I really like the camper by and large for a small camper it has all the room two people really need. If we didn't have things to complain about life would be so simple. I can't fix the problem I think that's what bothers me the most.
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Old 10-06-2019, 04:48 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnybgood View Post
I see your new project has a heat vent on the tub wall. Probably couldn’t fit that in there with a tub basin.

I agree with you about the tub, being it’s a bunkhouse and small children.

Maybe Sunline utilized what they had in inventory for the non bunkhouse models?
Hi John,

They can fit the heat duct into a flat shower basin setup. See here on my T310SR. I’ve seen other floor plans with it here too.


I'm not sure room under the shower was a driver for going tub shower or flat shower basin.

This is 2005 T2363 tub shower that goes over the wheel well. In this case, this floor plan forced a tub shower with the bath over the wheel well.


The room under shower is the same as my T310SR and other Sunlines. The driver I believe for the lifted shower platform in this vintage build, was for the drain trap. This height was consistent on shower tub or flat basin. The pipe trap has to fit under the shower and ideally be serviceable. On this era of floor construction, 2 x 3’s stand up on the 2” end as floor joists. They created a boxed well in the floor for the trap to go below the floor line. That boxed well is sealed in to the Darco waterproof membrane and they put small holes in the Darco to let any trap water leak out. Glad they did that.




I had to change a leaking shower strainer this spring on this T2363 if was repairing and I had to figure out how to take the trap out. It did come out.





I know earlier Sunlines have the 2 x 3 lying flat on the 3” side. I myself have not had one of them apart yet to know what they did with the trap. Maybe had a smaller well and the shower floor was a little higher?

I now see Mack has a shower tub too in his bunk house. It would fit with the assumption the tub would go with the children and the bunks. That may have been the leading reason.

My T317SR was made in June 2003. Sunline was up and going strong then. I wouldn’t thing they needed to use up excess inventory during this time as the engineering and shop drawings all need to change too. I do not know for sure, but suspect they just ordered these components, flat basin or tub shower for the job like all the windows, doors etc. where. Maybe Sunline Fan can shed some like on the shower choice.
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Old 10-06-2019, 04:55 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mainah View Post
I would kill to have a flat floor pan shower! Mine has one of the sit down tubs and my feet just barely fit inside of the small standing area. It would have been long gone if I could have figured out what to do with all of the stuff underneath it!
Is yours like this one? This is on a 2005 T2363.




This sounds like you are describing but it may be bigger as the camper is bigger. The power converter is right under the faucets for the shower. I really like the T2363 floor plan a lot, but I do admit the shower is not ideal. Floor plans are all about choices. They maximized everything else very well in this small of a camper. The wheel well is the issue. If they built the camper higher and had no wheel well to contend with, then a flat floor shower basin would fit. But it puts the camper up higher. It then becomes a trade off with wind drag, 2 steps to get in, higher garage door need etc. with the height.
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Old 11-09-2019, 07:00 PM   #12
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Hi Folks,

Here is the next workgroup of pics on the T317SR. The goal for this effort was to get the camper apart enough so it can dry out. BenB came over and helped me for two days on the weekend, and between my prep work and his help, it’s now apart enough to go in the storage barn to dry out over the winter. It’s not in the plan to start the rebuild on this camper until sometime next spring. The winter rebuild focus will shift to project camper no. 1, 2004 T1950 that has been on hold for a while.

My prep work started with getting all the cushions and bedding out of the camper during the rebuild process. I also took out the movable bunk area wall. Here is a shot with those 2 doors out. Seeing how the floor plan looks with those movable wall out, if someone didn’t want the swing wall doors, they could put a curation track up to help create a separation in the bunk area when needed. And leave the curtain open all the rest of the time. The camper floor plan opens up with the movable wall out.

Here is with the movable wall in place,


With the wall removed.


They did replace the American Enterprises power converter with an Iota. This camper is a June 2003 build 2004 Model camper. The American Enterprises power converters installed in that era had fan issues. By early 2004 they were upgraded to the next level converter and worked better. I had this same older converter in my 2004 T310SR with Nov 2003 build date. I had to replace it long ago for the cooling fan system going bad.

They also mixed up something when they changed the power converter. When I plug the camper into a wall outlet in the barn, it trips every GFIC I tried. I did a quick check if they tied the AC neutral to earth ground, and that came up OK. I’ll sort that out later when I get to the rebuild process.


The water heater under a bunk. Since this was a June 2003 build date, it ended up with the older Atwood heater, where the electric element is separate from the gas controls. You have to crawl under the bunk to get to the on/off element switch. We will fix this issue during the rebuild process.


Here is the outside ready to start taking it apart for reference.






The roof


The back of the camper roof with a temporary roof patch over it. It worked for the 2 months I needed it to live outside until we could get to it.


We started on the roof. The corner moldings, gutter rails, roof to end wall moldings, and everything mounted on the roof.



Then take up the temporary roof patch


Ah yup, it's wet under this area. And part way down the slide. Bummer. It’s all fixable, just more time.




There was a repair done about a year ago on the right rear corner to try and stop a rear wall leak. Here is an example that before you add new Dirco roof caulk, you must properly clean the old caulk under it or remove it altogether. The new caulk on top of the dirt will not bond right. A year later, you can peel it off in a big glob. The right prep for roof sealants is critical to it working right.


Now with the rear wall molding off and the two gutter rails. Yup, it’s wet. I was expecting this, but I found it odd there was not as much water pockets as I was expecting, just everything soaked.


The white plastic lattice and pipe was part of the repair by others a year ago. They were using it to try and hold up the compromised roof bud board.


Yup, it’s wet as expected




With all the insulation and rotted rafters removed. This water damage will require replacing the back four rafters. The two rafters by the rear vent hatch also need to be replaced. The other two at the rear wall area were dissolved.




Here is the rest of the roof with all the items removed.


More in the next reply.
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Old 11-09-2019, 07:02 PM   #13
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Here is the whole roof removed. I also learned something new by seeing this, in the middle of the 2004 model year campers, Sunline changed the method of the roof bud board support.








Now to what I learned. This summer I was camping with another Sunline owner who has a 2001 T250SR. We made it talking about leaks, caulking and the roof. Up we go on the ladder looking at the roof. I felt the roof and it felt very different than all the other 2004 and newer Sunlines I had the roofs off . Thiers was more rigid by the walls and stiffer upfront by the roof to front siding transition. Now, I can see why.

See here on this 2005 T2363 camper with the roof off. This show how all the 2004’s made in September 2003 and newer are built that I have seen.


You can see that there are 24” x 24” luan sheets around the roof vent openings to add support under the budboard roof. There is also a 24” wide x 96 “ wide piece along the rear wall to add support. But then it stops.

On the 2004 T317SR built in June 2003, it has the older more reinforced method with 4” wide 1/2” OSB down the sidewall areas, a full 4 x 8 ft sheet of 1/8” luan at the front and much more 1/8” luan support just about all over. The 2’ x 8’ sheet on the rear wall is the same. This helps explain why the 2001 T250SR felt more rigid in those areas. There is more under roof support. It appears between June and September 2003 the change started to come in. While the newer method works, I do admit I would have preferred the older method.

Now the side walls. We will start with the back wall as it has to come off before you can take the sidewalls off.


While the rear wall has a good amount of damage, it is not as bad as I expected. It seems the left and rear sidewalls took more of the water.


The right rear wall side. There is a roof and corner leak here.




The fridge vent area has a water infection


With the insulation out


The left rear wall. This area took on more water. A roof and corner leak, just it may have been ongoing longer.


Yuk.


The rear part of the floor and the floor joists are infected. It also looks like there may be some floor issues by the slide as the rear wall water was so heavy it ran towards the slide. The slide opening header is infected a good 6 to 8 feet in length. I will need to pull the header out later in the rebuild.


The front right has a corner molding leak. It infected the right wall band board and all along the front of the camper.



The front left side. There is a front corner molding leak that aggravated the front wall bottom band board. There is also some water infection on the front left wall band board below the cargo door.


The back of the camper is where the extensive rebuild will be. The front wall and the fridge vent area is not that bad. I do have the pull the slide floor apart yet as there is a soft spot in it under the coach. The slide floor rot is a project, but I have done it before. I will address that when the rebuild time comes. I may end up having to pull the slide out of the camper to deal with the slide opening header. I will see when that time comes.

For now, the camper is in drying out mode. More on this project when rebuild time comes. Thanks for looking.

John
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Old 11-09-2019, 07:03 PM   #14
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There is one area I wanted to expand on in case someone with a slide camper has to take the siding off above the slide. This area presented a new issue to work through with the slide still in the camper.

See here for how the siding is on the camper above the slide. There are 2 sheets of siding above the slide. A 4” band of the siding at the roofline and then about a 10” wide piece below it above the gold siding.


Here is the problem if you are taking the siding off with the slide still in the camper. The siding over the top of the slide opening is trimmed in place with the slide out of the camper at the factory. Then they stapled the siding along the top of the opening. This method works as the staple gun is in the big open hole in the wall with no slide in.

The issue comes trying to get those staples out when the slide is in the camper. Here is what I came up with as one way to get around this. Here are the staples in the red circles. The dotted line is the siding seam above the opening that is holding the very top 4” sheet stapled to the camper. And you take the siding off from the bottom up. On the 4” band of siding, the staples that hold it to the wall studs are under the 10” sheet. There is not enough room from the top of the slide roof to the slide opening to get the staples out by pulling the staple by the head on the outside.


Here is what I came up with. Take these last 2 pieces of siding from the top down. You can get the staples on the very top of the wall at the roofline as they are out open. Then using a flat blade pry bar, work the bar in at each staple location and “gently” pry the staple out from behind the siding down the entire length of the wall.


Gently work the bar in behind the siding at the staple and pry outward. You can flex the siding out to get the bar are the staple


Then push the bar into the camper to pry out at the staple.


Once the top staple is out, that sheet is separated from the wall but still may be attached to the sheet below it. Using a long blade 1/4" wide blade screwdriver, insert it behind the staples on the lower sheet at the slide opening and pry them out enough to grab the staple head with pliers and yank out the staples at the top of the slide opening. Then both sheets come off the camper and separate them in the open.




I hope this helps someone doing this in the future. If you come up with better or different tricks, please share.

Thanks

John
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Old 11-15-2019, 08:24 PM   #15
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Twin camper

Hello John,
So excited to see this post ! I also have the T317 SR that needs work, new roof, back wall rebuild and some floor replacement. I believe water got in the back around the skylight but ran to the back corner by the slide and was soaked up by the floor under the slide. The slide was out for a whole year or more and the original owner thought the leak was by the slide . So I have a few questions since you seem to be the veteran rebuilder. First, the slide topper awning is 3 to 4 inches shorter on each of the slide is this normal? Second , I’m think about using 1/4 Luaun or 3/8 OSB for my roof , I’d rather use 1/4 plywood but can’t find any without breaking the bank. What’s your opinion here.I will have more questions as I dig into this weekend. Thanks in advance!

Mikey b
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Old 11-17-2019, 04:24 PM   #16
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Originally Posted by Mikeyb View Post
Hello John,
So excited to see this post ! I also have the T317 SR that needs work, new roof, back wall rebuild and some floor replacement. I believe water got in the back around the skylight but ran to the back corner by the slide and was soaked up by the floor under the slide. The slide was out for a whole year or more and the original owner thought the leak was by the slide . So I have a few questions since you seem to be the veteran rebuilder. First, the slide topper awning is 3 to 4 inches shorter on each of the slide is this normal? Second , I’m think about using 1/4 Luaun or 3/8 OSB for my roof , I’d rather use 1/4 plywood but can’t find any without breaking the bank. What’s your opinion here.I will have more questions as I dig into this weekend. Thanks in advance!

Mikey b

Hi Mikey,

First, the slide topper length, the topper is supposed to hang over the slide roof about 3 to 4" each end. Whoever installed it, put the wrong size on. The T317SR uses the long jackknife sofa (74" lg) and as such the slide is 8" longer then say, a T310SR, a T280SR, T286SR, T264SR, T299SR etc for example which have the shorter sofa (66" lg) and they take a Dometic 162" topper. The T317SR, T320SR, 330SR should have at least 168" topper. The next jump is 174". That may be too long. Have to check the gutter rail on the camper.

I'm not really sure why the 162" topper was put on my T317SR when it needed at least a 168". Either the installer goofed or, back then Dometic did not offer one that long. The Dometic topper chart of today makes them all the way up to 192" long.

Oddly enough, the topper on mine is also the shorter 162" one. I will be changing mine when I do the rebuild. While the 162" topper is better than nothing, those extra inches hanging out over the slide roof does more. Been there and learned that the hard way that a topper on a slide really helps.

To some other info, the slide floor leak and the back wall or left rear side wall leak, odds are high that is from 2 different sources.

There is a known (now known, not back then) issue with the way the slide floor was attached. This is across the industry, not just with Sunline. They screwed the floor up from the bottom and they left the holes in the black plastic membrane open. Water running down the slide end walls wicks under the slide as it runs down the wall. If you have good luck, the water misses the open holes. If you have bad luck, water finds itself in those exposed screw holes, it then gets in behind the black plastic membrane. And stays in there as it cannot get out. Over time the slide floor rots out. A topper that hangs over the slide helps reduce this issue, but does not totally eliminate it.

See this on how the issue happens. There is also a link in this post to my slide floor repair years ago.
http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f7...eck-11086.html

With the slide being open a whole year, wow... not good. I see folks on seasonal sites leave their slide out all the time when they go home during the week. After one ordeal with rotted wood in a camper, you learn to push the button and take 2 minutes to bring the slide in when you go home for a few days. This is an issues even on dealer lots. Even the slides with the next generation slide floor, the slide still should come in when you leave for a period of time. OK I'll get off that soapbox now.

Your rear wall water may have come from the roof vent hatch, roof corner leaks, roof sealants, corner moldings, the rear wall window, the rear wall DOT lights to name a few. Or many on them all at the same time... You can tell when you open it up for sure.

Onto the roof decking. The good news, your T317SR is setup on a 10,000# frame and axles. It has a lot of cargo capacity. Without much issue, you can put a full walk on roof (3/8") if you wanted to. The added weight is not going to hurt you that much.

Smaller campers or smaller cargo capacity campers need to think about the weight of new roof above the factory setup more. Your choices are, 1/8" 3/16" or 1/4" in those cases. Granted you can do 3/8" but your going to have know this going in and give up some level of cargo capacity and leave some things home. An entire roof, I would say do not use 1/8". It is OK for a small patch area, but not an entire roof. I can explain more as needed on the 1/8".

Here is a response I did earlier this year to another member on the decking. It has a lot of good info in it that should help you on this.
http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f7...tml#post148329

I'll add one more link as this may help on your repair or at least show you what is all involved. This is my sons camper and we did a full walk on roof. The other link above I used 3/16" exterior glue floor underlayment to save weight.
http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f7...avy-16834.html

Cost, I did a roof job on T286SR last winter. That 2007 camper is called out as 29'10". The T317SR is 31' 6" long. Again this is ball to rear bumper but I'm going to estimated 4 x 8' sheets of roof decking for you.

I used 7 sheets on the T286SR.

I estimate the T317SR will need 8 sheets. It might even need 9.

I'll throw this in there too, a 2005 T2363 which is 24' 2" long I used 7 sheets

I'll explain. Sunline followed a "general" 16" rafter center guideline. But floor plan and rafter skew creates issues trying to land 4ft sheets on the center of a rafter to make a splice. On the Sunline budboard roof, it does not care if the rafer is 3/4" out of location or not 90 deg to the side of the camper, but on a 4' sheet does care. The full sheet need to be supported enough to make the splice between sheets and to optimize the least waste on roof decking.

Since the rafters do not fall exactly on location, you have 2 choices, make and add extra rafters for a splice at 48" centers, doable but painful. Or cut the 4' wide sheet to something less and match it to the existing rafters. Which is what I choose to do. Some sheets were 42" wide, some 38" some 14". You have to predetermine where to start on the sheet joints to create the least waste, but there will still be sheet waste. Point, a T317SR will use 8 to 9 sheets assuming no goofs having to redo one. In about a year, I can tell you exactly how many I used...

I just picked up 8 sheets of the 3/16" actual, 1/4" nominal floor underlayment sheets at our local lumber yard this weekend. This is for my T1950 (project camper no 1.) It was on sale for $19.52 each plus tax. I needed to keep the weight down. This may be the most expensive.

They have 3/8" BCX grade plywood for $14 a sheet on sale. Will use the B grade side to the rubber roof. We used this on my sons walk on roof.

They also have 1/4" BCX grade plywood for little under $14 a sheet on sale. Would use the B grade side to the rubber roof.

I can't seem to find 3/8" OSB in the online listings of our lumber yard, but I found 1/2" OSB exterior glue for $7.88 on sale. 3/8" if you can get it in exterior glue may be cheaper.

Here is the next thing, on plywood, do not get CDX grade roof sheathing which work well on shingles. In my opinion it is too rough and to many pock holes (branch holes) for a rubber (EPDM) roof. Or even PVC or TPO for that matter. You need a total smooth surface to glue the roof material to the roof decking.

OSB is the cheapest, just watch out how rough it is.

Glad to add more as needed/wanted.

Hope this helps

John
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Old 12-03-2019, 02:00 PM   #17
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Hi Folks,
I have yet to figure out what drove Sunline to install tub showers and non-tub showers in slide room campers. On the non-slide campers, there are wheel wells to contend with, and the tub shower shows up there to deal with the wheel well. But on a slide camper, the floor is flat the entire camper. Anyone know why in the same model year, some slide campers have tub showers, and some do not? I have even seen this on the T-264SR models. Some do, and some don’t have tub shows, yet the same floor plan.


Thanks for looking.

John
I'm assuming the bunkhouse models have the tubs because people who buy bunkhouse have kids that need baths. Where as people who buy the one with the shower pan are more adults
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Old 12-06-2019, 06:59 AM   #18
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I'm assuming the bunkhouse models have the tubs because people who buy bunkhouse have kids that need baths. Where as people who buy the one with the shower pan are more adults
That is a good possibility and the most likely.

The odd part, they also put a tub shower in a 2004 T264SR which is not a bunk house. That floor plan is not a lot different in the number it can sleep then a non slide camper. The 2005's to 2007's T264SR's have the standard shower flat basin. I'm not sure what the 2003 & older T260SR's had in it.

When we camped with our granddaughter as a baby in our 2004 T2499, we had our daughter do the child bathing in a wash tub. The kid has a blast. Saves camper water and easier to do the kid in the wash tub. The infant does fit in the wash tub, a toddler most likely not. Head to the camp shower house with mom or dad.

This may remain one of those Sunline unsolved mysteries and we come to our own conclusions.

Thanks

John
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