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Old 08-12-2017, 07:42 PM   #1
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Long question about roof leak locations...HELP!!!

Okay I am hoping that long term my pain is helpful to others having similar challenges!
We have sealed up the front corner where there was an obvious intrusion. We also have sealed all outside seams where the roof is attached to the top of the walls. We just today sealed the whole back roof seam and around the fridge vent and front and bathroom vents.
Here's the problem, moisture meter shows a lot of moisture from door to front cabinet in the ceiling. It falls off rapidly as I move to center of the roof. Nothing around the AC unit very low around the vent or the antennas. When it was raining the last few days we had water running in around the front window. Thought maybe it was the window seal but after pulling the bead seal and pouring water in? Nada! I used Butyl tape around the window when replacing it and that is working perfectly.
So the water is coming in elsewhere and I am baffled. Any suggestions as to likely culprit areas of which to be absolutely certain?
Pulling out hair here and not sure where to look next?
Thanks in advance!

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Old 08-12-2017, 07:47 PM   #2
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This is the window around which we are getting a leak..it has to be leaking from the roof but where??

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Old 08-14-2017, 02:45 PM   #3
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Doing this remotely on my phone with a bad signal no less so I do not have easy access to floorplans etc. on your camper

But try this. Where the awning attaches at the gutter rail there are 1/4 inch lag screws , those lag screws are notorious for rusting and allowing water to wick in around the screws into the wood of the ceiling.


Unscrew the two screws and look for rust on screw and would rot. Also the gutter rail screws are just as bad. If your roof tape did not cover all the screwheads completely then water can get up around the rusted screw of the gutter rail and end wick into the ceiling of the camper


If you pull the two lag screws, pump the hole and the screw with dicor caulk Before putting it back in


I can't see from your pics but the entire front roof seem between the front siding and the roof is a leak spot. When the caulk and butyl tape goes goes bad water will get in


Also the corner moldings and the screws in the molding along with the caulk and the putty tape crack and allow gaps and allow water to get in


Look on the siding of the long side of the camper to the front corner molding for cracks in the caulk or putty tape. Any cracks in the putty tape can be a water entry point.


Tomorrow I should have better Internet connection and will log back in


Hope this helps and good luck


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Old 08-14-2017, 03:04 PM   #4
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Take a few pictures of the front corner inside of the gutter rail where the awning is attached so we can see what you have there. Do the left side too

Also pics of the top bend area (45 Deg bend area) of the front corner molding where it seals the door side siding and non door side siding to the corner molding. There are no screws in the sides, only the front part of that molding. Looking for cracked putty tape


Does your gutter rail have spout fittings on the end of the rail to divert water away from the corner seam?
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Old 08-14-2017, 04:19 PM   #5
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As I am staring at my own camper another source of a leak on the front. Check the 2 top yellow marker lights. The foam seal degrades and the plastic lens cracks. This is a known water infection site. Take light out and have a look. When putting them back in, seal top and the 2 sides with dicor non leveling caulk to seal light to siding. Leave bottom unsealeded. I also drilled 2, 1/16" holes in the bottom of the lens to let the water out that will get in when the plastic cracks
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Old 08-14-2017, 05:44 PM   #6
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Hopefully these answer some of this questions.
I had noticed the marker light issue and added some good caulk along the top edges yesterday. Also we completely encapsulated the screw rail so that should be eliminated.
Yes the door side front corner was a huge issue and is really 'soft' as per your description but I don't want to rip it completely back this year. We used several layers of the repair tape and I think it's sealed off at this point.
I hadn't thought of the bolts holding the awning so I pulled them out enough to check and yes there is some rust so I used caulk on all four and retightened them so they should be impenetrable now.
One thing I don't have is much rotten wood. Aluminum frame has helped immensely there and for that I am supremely thankful!
Expecting rain over next couple days so shouldn't have do a garden hose test but that is one of my next steps if this doesn't work.
All the screw rails at the top edges are taped and so are the vents edges etc... I also used RV caulking around all the vents we did not seal with tape. Three 25' rolls of tape at $50+ each and a tube of good RV caulking at nearly $15 this roof is getting a bit expensive. A watertight roof will be priceless however!
I was, and still am, hoping that the roofing itself is not porous at this point.
If so I will probably get a gallon of the liquid EPDM and paint the worst areas as that stuff sounds like the final solution!

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Old 08-16-2017, 04:04 PM   #7
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I made it to logging in on my laptop tethered to my phone with 1 bar of service... slow but I can see your pic better. Good pics by the way.

I see a few issues. First the easy one. You do not have gutter spouts on the end of the gutter rails. The older Sunlines did not have them and I really
do not know what year they started adding them. And this may also have something to do with they leave them off of fiberglass sided campers. See this post on a 2007 Que which had no gutter spouts. This was for sure the newest of campers but the Que was a special and a fiberglass camper.

http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f7...tml#post136675

The spout diverts all the water out away from the camper. Without them water flying out of the end of the gutter rail is like a fire hose blasting on the putty tape trying to seal the front corner molding. See if you can buy 4 of them and install to help keep water from hitting those front seams. Camco also makes extensions that clip on them o extend them out even further. Try a search on the web for Camco gutter spout extensions it should find them. They clip directly to the gutter spout. If you come up dry, let us know I have bought them but this internet connection is not that great for searching.

Next I see this issue, See these 2 pics of yours




I can see Sunline added the gutter rail a little lower on your camper then they do on the aluminium sided campers. Do not know why, but your Advancer is mounted lower and the awning top bracket is slightly different. The bracket may be an A & E awning evolution thing but the gutter rail is the same as a lot of campers out there across the industry.

Here is the issue and the awning side is the worst. The awning when rolled up make a real good gutter channel. The V shape created by the awning tube allows a large volume of water to fill and flow in the gutter and the awning tube V when rolled up. During heavy rains the gutter is so limited in capacity it cannot handle the full flow and the gutter overflows. In the case of the awning tube area it fills over the top of the gutter and upward towards the top of the awning tube. Some blows out the ends of the awning area, some flows over the top of the awning tube. The end result, the water in the gutter is so high water will seep in behind the vinyl strip covering up the all the screws holding the awning rail to the camper.

Once water gets in and floods that vinyl strip it takes a real long time to ever evaporate out. After doing enough years of this problem, rots the screws out and water then starts seeping/whicking into the camper wood roof line sill.

After enough time, the wood rots and then there is a clearance hole around the screw allowing water to now flow into the ceiling area. There area screws about every 6 to 8" all the way down the camper. A 28 foot camper can have a boat load of screw water whicking holes...

I noticed when you put the roof sealing tape on, you did not clean out the gutter down to the bottom of the gutter and put the sealing tape all the way down to the very bottom totally covering up the vinyl strip. It is possible that under heavy rains, water can still seep into behind the vinyl strip and then into the camper.

If you pull some of that vinyl strip off and take the screws out, if they are filled with wood rot goo, then you have the problem.

Hope this helps.

John
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Old 08-16-2017, 06:42 PM   #8
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Yes I already ordered the gutter extensions last week just waiting to for them to come in.
I just ran a hose on the roof as it hasn't rained since last week in doing so I saw exactly what you described happening!
No I didn't get all the way to the bottom of the gutter and it has some crap in it now after we cleaned it out just before doing the taping.
I did find I had a little drip inside yet but it is on the far side at this point. Could be running over I suppose but it appears that would be uphill so I doubt it.
The flooded gutter makes sense though of some of the dampness I have found so I will work on that next.
Darn tape only available locally at 4" width so I may be doing some cutting down of the width in order to use less there..

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Old 08-17-2017, 04:41 PM   #9
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Okay it rained quite hard and we have very little intrusion of water! At least some measure of success!
I do see where the underside or backside facing the gutters are showing cracks so some intrusion is possible there.
I am going to do some research into tape sizes and at minimum get another tube of caulk for the front corner rails.
I would like to add tape on the sides down further into the gutters I may need to split the tape down to make more efficient use of the stuff I'd love to just add a full length both sides but not terribly cost effective when half width would provide more than adequate coverage.
The gutter spouts came in today so as soon as I can those are going on as well!


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Old 08-17-2017, 04:42 PM   #10
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And John B. ... thanks for the amazing help!

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Old 08-17-2017, 06:28 PM   #11
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also take the screws out from the marker lights and cauk the screws .that's where mine was leaking. if the screws are rusty that is a signe
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Old 08-17-2017, 06:31 PM   #12
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Good suggestion!

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Old 08-18-2017, 10:40 AM   #13
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Quote:
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I would like to add tape on the sides down further into the gutters I may need to split the tape down to make more efficient use of the stuff I'd love to just add a full length both sides but not terribly cost effective when half width would provide more than adequate coverage.
The gutter spouts came in today so as soon as I can those are going on as well!
Good deal on the water spouts, they will help as least tame down the fire hose effect into the corner molding.

I do not know how long a "patch" you are needing until you get to taking all this tape back up, but I will throw this out.

If you can clean the area real well, then use Gorilla brand tape, it will hold a good 6 months to a year. Do not substitute the brand. They sell it now in colors other then the original black and they have it in various widths. And you can rip/cut the tape into smaller pieces if needed. Press real well and warm gently with a heat gun and press some more. It works, a lot cheaper but is not a long term solution.

Good to hear the water intrusion is slowing down. A good sign.

Hope this helps

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Old 08-18-2017, 10:49 AM   #14
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This link with pics should drop you right into the gutter rail and may help on how to get the tape down into the bottom of the gutter rail. The key is to use a piece of silicone treated release paper to stop the instant attraction of the tape to the gutter before you can press it. Start pressing from the bottom up and work your way over the bumps. Do not start top down on a long multi feet section. By starting bottom up, you have a good clean edge of the tape to start with, verses trying to figure out how to trim it full length of the camper down in the bottom.

While this is Eternabond tape, the same concept should work with the Gorilla tape.

http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f7...ics-11610.html
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Old 08-19-2017, 01:05 PM   #15
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Ok after reviewing your previous set of posts I see you did what I had intended but went that 1/2" further down into the gutters.
I am going to use Gorilla tape to extend that and see if that helps fix the issue and then if it does I can remove and replace with EPDM seal tape in the near future. Expensive stuff tfor trial and error! I will not regret the doubling up off the sealed edge as I needed as much as I used on the roof to be confident I had completely encapsulated all the misguided silicone caulk used on the top rail by previous owners.
I also found this little intrusion source at the bottom corner of the window on the front. The wall is angled back and water builds in the bottom flange so I pulled the rubber seal out and added some caulking to the actual window seal as shown and also along the edge of the rubber molding. This should help prevent any further intrusion...I squeezed some caulking in the channel and used a popsicle stick to work it in along the edge of the glass.

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Old 08-20-2017, 09:26 AM   #16
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...and with some fabrication and modification we have gutter spouts and extenders!

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Old 08-21-2017, 11:40 PM   #17
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Quote:
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...and with some fabrication and modification we have gutter spouts and extenders!

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Awesome! Yeah, it's not super easy to add extensions onto older Sunlines. They do make turnouts that fit on there to attach the extensions to, but they still take some work to mount.
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Old 08-22-2017, 05:58 PM   #18
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Don't assume that because the leak shows up in the front , that this is where the water is coming in. I chased a leak a long time once, only to find the entry point on the opposite end of the camper. Especially with aluminum framing in the wall its easy for water to follow the framing the whole length.
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Old 08-22-2017, 06:05 PM   #19
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Yes that is true and I am not making any assumptions at this point. Have been all over the roof and all seams and I think it is finally turning the corner after taping down into the gutters the other day. Had a strong rain last night and the only showing leak was my own fault as I messed up replacing the window next to the door and the seal was not working at the top of the window.
Arrrgh.. I knew better and should have looked at it not assumed it was sealed after I had to move the window a bit.. caulked it up for now and will probably remove and reseal it then recaulk over the weekend as I will have to do some other rework at the same time...nothing like adding self injury to the rest of the issues!
Best part is that all the other leaky locations except one minor one I have yet to fix are holding well now!

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Old 08-28-2017, 06:15 PM   #20
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Catching up on the PC and can see what you have been up too. The gutter spouts look good. That will help and it sounds like you have addressed the screws buried behind the vinyl strip in the gutter rails.

If adding that last gutter rail tape helped tame down the water, well.... be prepared when the time comes to undo all that. Like your floor rebuild, a roof rebuild may be in order. They really are not that bad to do, but they are time consuming. Don't know if you found this thread yet, my son and I took his roof off a year ago and redid it. He also Eternabonded it this year after all the Dicor caulked dried and setup. http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f7...avy-16834.html

I suspect Sunline still used wood rafters and a wood frame on top of the aluminium walls. So your roof may look very close to what is in that trailer roof repair above. Will be real curious to see the pics when you open up the roof how they built it on the aluminum framed campers.

So do you have a camping date picked yet when you will be going on your maiden voyage?

Thanks for sharing the pics. It really helps others coming behind you.

John
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