B
Boat Addict
Guest
Let me begin by saying that with the help of my long time assistant for all things mechanical for boats, my wonderful wife , we have stopped the water leaks for now. Of course this was just one of the major problems. Of course there are other campers available , but I am not investing more money into something else right now that may also have many unknowns and more money to spend on someone else to do my bidding. I am ready to hit the road upon mid May and want to know my product and have things ready and rigged.
So don't let me hear that I need to write letters and all that stuff. My time and money is invested in this one and for the time and additional money involved to deal with this thru any alternative process and all the levels of management , I am committed to more productive measures like actually fixing this crap. I will also attempt to help anyone experiencing simular problems with refining units too. I have built ocean going vessels without anything near what I have experienced in this camper for almost eight months. If I can reduce these issues and look deeper inside the particular camper in the construction area and make sure that its sound before hitting the road, I feel like I can tow the dang thing and go where I want to go in some form of confidence.
But these issues needs its own thread, not that it will probably get any substantive reply . But a separate thread is needed from my original one addressing my on going issues with the camper and the horrible lack of response long before the virus problems showed up and caused problems with the factory. When you buy a product that's been built for as many years as this manufacturer has built over the road pleasure campers, you would think that in its first year a camper would only need to be spit polished and probably only a few trips to the dealer to correct minor alignment issues of doors or faulty electronics to be replaced. Certainly you would hope that a consumer with legitimate and repeated problems you would get a more refined reply. The first issue was with the front cargo doors with warping and water filling up my cargo space and bedroom storage. I had to deal directly with the door manufacturer on that problem after exhausting my avenues with the dealer and factory service department. I should have known right then what I was about to experience as my floor began to create its own hump in it.
Anyway I started out by flooding the slide top with a water hose and got plenty of water inside. But I never got water in the top of the slide, only at the bottom. . So I said, hum lets start at the bottom on the hill and started taping the actual gasket seal of the slide with duct tape and sprayed water targeting in that area. I got water inside. SO I wiped the flange down and taped the inside of the flange with duct tape and tried again. It leaked.
So I wiped the area down and again expanded the area taped and tried again. I finally stopped water from running inside. I looked deeper and saw that little to no caulking was in the seam and also removed the corner cover and found out that the 45 degree joint of the two flange parts has a large gap in the area, both ends and water was tracking along the large gaps of the flange seam against the main slide side and running to the 45 degree joint and then following the motor sprocket track inside, also along the bottom corner trim and slide bottom to the floor.
I had to load up the seams with huge amounts of silicone , which is the caulk of choice on these units and let it dry. I then sprayed everything down and for now its stopped leaking. Of course I have not towed it on the road . SO I don't yet have faith that everything is cured. But the fix looks like crap with the huge amount of caulk along the entire flange on the slide.
According to the work order, this camper was water tested and things were just fine. Of course I learned that when the camper arrived at the factory a lot of issues with door jams swollen and doors would not open and water damage on the wood up forward existed and appeared to have happened after it left here. So this camper has been experiencing on going problems but nothing was addressed at the factory, even though their work order showed it listed on it.
So don't let me hear that I need to write letters and all that stuff. My time and money is invested in this one and for the time and additional money involved to deal with this thru any alternative process and all the levels of management , I am committed to more productive measures like actually fixing this crap. I will also attempt to help anyone experiencing simular problems with refining units too. I have built ocean going vessels without anything near what I have experienced in this camper for almost eight months. If I can reduce these issues and look deeper inside the particular camper in the construction area and make sure that its sound before hitting the road, I feel like I can tow the dang thing and go where I want to go in some form of confidence.
But these issues needs its own thread, not that it will probably get any substantive reply . But a separate thread is needed from my original one addressing my on going issues with the camper and the horrible lack of response long before the virus problems showed up and caused problems with the factory. When you buy a product that's been built for as many years as this manufacturer has built over the road pleasure campers, you would think that in its first year a camper would only need to be spit polished and probably only a few trips to the dealer to correct minor alignment issues of doors or faulty electronics to be replaced. Certainly you would hope that a consumer with legitimate and repeated problems you would get a more refined reply. The first issue was with the front cargo doors with warping and water filling up my cargo space and bedroom storage. I had to deal directly with the door manufacturer on that problem after exhausting my avenues with the dealer and factory service department. I should have known right then what I was about to experience as my floor began to create its own hump in it.
Anyway I started out by flooding the slide top with a water hose and got plenty of water inside. But I never got water in the top of the slide, only at the bottom. . So I said, hum lets start at the bottom on the hill and started taping the actual gasket seal of the slide with duct tape and sprayed water targeting in that area. I got water inside. SO I wiped the flange down and taped the inside of the flange with duct tape and tried again. It leaked.
So I wiped the area down and again expanded the area taped and tried again. I finally stopped water from running inside. I looked deeper and saw that little to no caulking was in the seam and also removed the corner cover and found out that the 45 degree joint of the two flange parts has a large gap in the area, both ends and water was tracking along the large gaps of the flange seam against the main slide side and running to the 45 degree joint and then following the motor sprocket track inside, also along the bottom corner trim and slide bottom to the floor.
I had to load up the seams with huge amounts of silicone , which is the caulk of choice on these units and let it dry. I then sprayed everything down and for now its stopped leaking. Of course I have not towed it on the road . SO I don't yet have faith that everything is cured. But the fix looks like crap with the huge amount of caulk along the entire flange on the slide.
According to the work order, this camper was water tested and things were just fine. Of course I learned that when the camper arrived at the factory a lot of issues with door jams swollen and doors would not open and water damage on the wood up forward existed and appeared to have happened after it left here. So this camper has been experiencing on going problems but nothing was addressed at the factory, even though their work order showed it listed on it.
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