Cleaning Gutters

[emam]

I just came down off the roof of the 2499 after crawling up there to take some pictures of the solar panels for another post here in the forum.

While I was up there, I noticed that the gutters were filled with goop? (Not sure if that's the right word, but it's safe to use if kids are present )

After trying my hardest to get the stuff out with my fingers, which didnt seem to work, I went into the tool box and grabbed a piece of flexible rubber tubing. By crawling along the edge of the roof with the rubber tubing in the gutter, I was able to remove any gunk that was lodged in the gutter. The bottoms of the gutter itself were also black which is what I'm sure causes those nasty black streaks on the sides of the camper.

The tubing was just wide enough, that if I pushed down hard, it scrubbed the black junk off the bottom of the gutter, leaving a clean white gutter free of any debris.

All in all, it maybe took 5 minutes. That's some easy preventitive maintenance and something that I plan on doing every other week from now on. Between that and my gutter extensions, hopefully I wont have the dreaded Black Streaks anymore.

Pat

[Sunline Fan]

Originally Posted by emam

Between that and my gutter extensions, hopefully I wont have the dreaded Black Streaks anymore.

Pat

Pat,

Don't count on that happening! I tried to clean my gutters as much as possible and still got black streaks. What type of gutter extensions do you have? I've found that the little clip on ones just didn't work. The older Sunline gutters were also different and wouldn't accept the extensions the way the instructions say, but besides that, the water would fall off and cling itself back to the trailer half way down. The best method I've found is adding extra gutter material. Camping World sells it as either a windshield gutter (just small 10' length) or a full roll of 50'. Once that is stuck on (plus I rivet it) and sealed with white silicone, I rarely have black streaks. Only in a heavy rainstorm does water go over and cause black streaks.
Here's a pic:


Jon

[emam]

I dont know the brand name, I know they were under $10 from General RV and since they've helped tremendiously.



Only once were we sitting at a weird angle while it was raining and the water was still coming down the side of the camper. I remembered a trick Carl Kern had told me and clipped some wooden clothes pins to the end of the gutter extensions for the water to follow. That made the water run off about 6 inches from the edge of the trailer and nowhere near the side.

Here's a link to the extension I'm talking about.

http://store.generalrv.com/p-1055-gu...xtensions.aspx

Pat

[Sunline Fan]

Pat,

I know exactly what you're talking about. I first tried them on my 2363 because they were a new product at the time. I put the stick on channel on the 2251, and my dad had it on the 2653. I ended up losing all of them when we took it in the woods, so my grandpa bought me more, but I never put them on. I found the package of them in the garage today. It still has the price tag from General on there:


If you're interested in the other type of gutter, I found some extra of that too, and took some better pics of it:






Jon

[PTHutch]

Hi Pat,

I also use the same gutter extensions. Like you I also found that once in a while the water would still drip down the side, just hitting the side of the camper farther down from the top.

So this year I extended it further with wooden cloths pins.


So far this seems to have eliminated all black streaks from the gutters.

For others, that may be thinking about getting a set, Camping World also sells the gutter extnesions and I think I might have even seen them at Wal-Mart.

I think we need JohnB to get involved with this topic. Instead of gutter extensions, John added down spouts to his Sunline.

Very impressive and quite sophisticated! Leave it to John to top us all .

Hutch

[JohnB]

Gee Hutch, thanks for the kind words. To not steal the thunder on Pat's post I created a separate down spout post here if you are interested.

http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/ph...opic.php?t=693

Pat, yes the dirt build up in the gutters causes issues. All teh dirt stuck on the rubber roof flows into gutter and builds up quick over time. It also slows the water down running out the gutter. Every roof cleaning I do, I do the gutter first back to clean metal, and then I can see the drain water take right off.

I'm of the belief that the gutters are really not big enough. Last campout I had a large dead bug, beetle size, in one and it plugged it quick. It was raining so hard the water came crashing over and pilling down on the window. I was standing there watching it.

So I taped a spoon on a marshmallow roaster and pushed the bug out and away the water went flying out the gutter.

If the gutters where like 1" wide and 1" taller it could handle the water. So far every brand TT I have seem has the same setup.

I'll have to dig as I saw it on another forum that there is a product that goes on over the gutter down the entire length of the TT and shoots the water off on an angle away from the TT. Cost was pretty good. But I have no experience with it.

Ideally a larger gutter from the get go would help cure a lot of the black streak and water flow issues. I "think". One of these days I might just dream up a fix to extend the gutter 1” higher.

John