Hoping to be a newbie Sunline owner!

[ChristineH]

I am so impressed by your scientific abilities! And grateful for all of the time you took to test the meter and give me extra information. A friend is going to meet me and I will ask her to help me check everything even though most likely we will not be able to use the meter. I'm going to print these pictures and bring them as well. I'll report back with my findings!
Christine

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by Tinstaafl

Excellent empirical testing John, and your conclusion is correct. Without getting too deep into physics mumbo-jumbo, it has to do with ion flow and how it's inhibited by the crystalline structure of ice.

Put simply, ice is a much poorer conductor of electricity than liquid water, and that conductivity is what those meters rely upon.

For the trivia award: Ironically, pure water is an excellent electrical insulator. It's only the impurities in all water outside of a laboratory that make it conductive.

Thanks Tin,

I knew about "pure water" being non conductive, but I did not think about the crystalline structure of ice and ion flow. I am not sure what technology the meter sensor was using, eddy current, capacitance or something all together different. Bottom line, have to think about what the ions are up to.

One always seems to learn something new on Sunline Owners Club, frozen rotten wood is harder to find...

[ChristineH]

Update-the owner called me after the first person looked at it and said they found a soft spot between the window and door in the bunk area. On to the next one.
The next one does not have a slide, and the owner said there was a leak that he thinks came from the previous owner replacing the awning which had different screw holes and not caulking the previous hole. He said he repaired the damaged wood and caulked the hole. The leak went behind the refrigerator? It's a 2001 but he does not know which model. I looked at think it may be a 2553. Any suggestions?

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by ChristineH

snip...
The next one does not have a slide, and the owner said there was a leak that he thinks came from the previous owner replacing the awning which had different screw holes and not caulking the previous hole. He said he repaired the damaged wood and caulked the hole. The leak went behind the refrigerator? It's a 2001 but he does not know which model. I looked at think it may be a 2553. Any suggestions?

Bummer on the T267SR having a soft spot.

Something is not adding up with awning arm mount lag screw holes and a leak getting in behind the refrigerator, if it is a T2553. The T2553 is a front kitchen, mid pass through bath and rear bedroom. The fridge on that model is on the left, (driver side) non door/non awning side.

That said, he may have had 2 leaks, something with the awning arm screw mounts and another where a leak did get in the fridge cabinet. OR the model is not a T2553.

If the model was a T2570, which is a rear kitchen, mid pass through bath and front bedroom, then the awning arm in the back of the camper right rear, the awning arm is about in the center of the fridge cabinet and the story fits better. If he saw water in the fridge cabinet, then the leak was a pretty good one.

For sure look at the ceiling inside where the awning arms attach at the roof gutter. The moisture meter would tell if there is water in the ceiling/wall, but if the camper is frozen, then as we now know, the meter would not work.

As FYI, if we are understanding what he was describing was the awning arm screws at the gutter rail issue, it would be look like this.

This thread talks about changing the main awning fabric and it has pics of the awning arm lag screws that are supposed to be caulked as they are installed. You can look at this and then ask him to describe it again when you see him if it all adds up. Ask him how he repaired the wood, need more info to help better.

https://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f...ics-14771.html

Look for the pics like this in that post. This is the awning arm screw holes in the gutter.


What the awning arm top bracket and caulk on the screws is supposed ot look like,


And the bracket on the camper.


Since this is a 2001 camper, open every cabinet and look and smell in them for signs of musty mildew, the back wall corners and the front wall corners especially. Look up high, down low, ceiling, floor and everything in-between. The corners of the camper are one of the higher prone areas leaks get in. Either from a roof leak, or a corner molding siding leak.

Good luck, hope this helps.

John

[ChristineH]

Hello again,
I am thrilled and really nervous at the same time. I am now the owner of a 2006 Solaris T276SR. Long story short, I went to see it anyway, and it definitely has water in the back area. However, they dropped the price dramatically, and I talked to some friends and we will do our own repairs. I do not think it has been leaking long because in comparison to the other one I saw, there is no wrinkled wallpaper and the lights in the bathroom had some water but nothing was rusted. So I'm hoping for the best. I will definitely need advice on how to approach a repair. I will start looking in the files as well. Everything else looks good; slide floor is not soft, no other detection of water damage, interior in good shape. I think because the sun strong it melted the snow/ice enough that the meter worked! Looking forward to being a member of this group and learning much, much more.

[JohnB]

Congrats on your new Sunny! That is a nice year/model camper.

When the time comes to start planning for the repair, consider making a post on it in the Maintenance and Repairs forum. You can ask questions and post pictures and we can help explain options on how to do the repair.

Take some pics of the rear roof molding on the top of the roof and the caulking. Also when things thaw out, take moisture readings of the ceiling inside, back wall and side walls. Then go outside and take readings of the black membrane under the back wall. There is steel in that area down low and the steel will give you high false readings as the metal siding will to if the sensor touched them. Just move the sensor away a little from the metal to get a true reading.

After seeing some more of what you have, we can help suggest how to go about doing the repair and causing the least amount of damage, especially to the inside of the camper. Pending what you come back with, the repair may be made from outside the camper, not by taking it apart on the inside. Yes, that may sound backwards, but campers are not built like houses. Campers are built from the outside in. And many times they can be repaired from the outside better then starting to take the inside apart. This leaves the inside in very good condition pending the wall board condition.

Hope this helps and looking forward to your project.

John