What is that sealer Winne uses on the roof?

Russ - you can look up the factory recommended sealant in the Winnebago Resources sticky at the top of this forum.  Manus Bond sounds familiar but Winnie's part number might point to different suppliers or different products as time goes by.

3M 5200 is an amazingly good polyurethane sealant and highly recommended for below the waterline sealant uses in boats (and a good deck fitting sealant I might add.)  HarryB (as I recall) used it to seal his roof to sidewall joint, but the problem is 5200 is not UV stable, so it needs to be painted.

Hi John:  Me again about 3m 5200 sealant.  Looking through the internet I also found a 3m 4000 uv.  It has half the strength 300psi as 5200 but is excellent uv protected.  Would this help anybody or be a good substitute for bonding the roof to the side gutter. 

thanks russ

Olly,

I did use 3M 5200 to seal the front and rear caps to the roof where it curves over the sides. I was having that joint on an ongoing basis come loose and cause leaking. This is a fiberglass to fiberglass joint and has held up very well so far . As John mentioned, it needs to be repainted about once a year as movement causes to paint to come off.

I considered using 5200 on the roof seam to gutter as well but after discussing it with 3M they advised against it. They recommended using the 4000 products for this application for several reasons. hey indicated that the 4000 product will adhere to metal better than 5200 and it has UV inhibitors in it and is not a permanent seal as is the 5200 product. They also felt that there would be to much movement in the gutter to roof seal joint to be able to paint 5200 and have it hold up.

I decided against changing to to the 4000 products as it only comes in white (my coach has the full body paint) where as 5200 comes in several colors one of which matched the paint very well. Additionally, the 4000 product didn't increase the adhesion factor much over the Winnie recommended product.

Where the roof joint always seems to let go of is on the metal gutter. It never lets go of the fiberglass roof. I am beginning to lean toward applying a paintable Strip of Eternabond (about 1 to 1.5 inches in width) I have not found a better solution than that yet and it is getting old to redo that seam twice a year.

I thought about using Eternabond as well but I am concerned that there isn't enough area on the gutter for a good bond. Any thoughts?

Pete

Pete -- I have the same concerns, however I have used Eternabond on another project and have gotten it stuck where I did not want it. I had a heck of a time getting it off, so I suspect it will still be better than the caulking we use now even with the small overlap.

When I am ready to redo that seam again (which is shortly), I think I will discuss it with the Eternabond manufacturer and get their opinion. I just have not heard of anyone that has used Eternabond on the roof seam state that is came loose later on.

Harry,

Thanks. Let me know what type of eternabond tape they recommend as I have full body paint and would need to paint the tape to match.

Pete

Had major separation on last trip of the roof edge that only tucks in about 1/16 (unbelievable). Ended up with sheet metal screws and silicone caulk to hold until I got home. My age makes it hard for me to climb and work up high anymore -so I actually pulled along side pile of pallets back of a WalMart and used then as a scaffold to make the makeship repairs. I did buy some white duct tape from the store-Ha! Have since replaced the screws with pop revits and use Eterbond tape down the sides using a small roller made of large washer and bolt to roll in the gutter area to get a good bond. Had one area that broke out and had to patch with piece of aluminum fascia and piece of wider Eternabond tape.  Used regular two inch wide metal roller that I used to use in my contractor rubber roofing days. Have made only short trips since the repair and will let you know later if this is a lasting fix. Real hard to get perfectly straight to make it look factory perfect but looks like it will actually hold better that it did from factory. My rig is 2001 Winnebago Adventurer with 35000 miles.

Any update on what to use, I've tried to follow the advice but seems that there are many different options.  I found about a 2" separation from the front cap to the sidewall I need to repair.  I'm thinking I should just follow the Winnie recommendation but does seem to be some question about the products.  Any advice?

Steve - I think I read where Winnie factory service used a screw in the corner of the cap where it meets the sidewall and I'm assuming some kind of sealer as well for that repair.  If you have a gap where you can force some goop into, I think 3M 5200 and a screw would be the ticket

John Canfield said:

Steve - I think I read where Winnie factory service used a screw in the corner of the cap where it meets the sidewall and I'm assuming some kind of sealer as well for that repair.  If you have a gap where you can force some goop into, I think 3M 5200 and a screw would be the ticket

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That is exactly how I fixed the front cap sidewall overlap. Make sure that you get all the old caulking out completely so that you have clean fiberglass surfaces on both sides to apply the 3M 5200 to. I used a Dremel rotary tool to remove all the old caulking and body paint. I now had bare fiberglass surfaces to apply the 3M 5200 to. This is the ideal surface to use 3M 5200 on and it has held up great so far.

John & Harry - thanks for the advice.  Two follow up questions...
Where should the screw be placed, is there an ideal location that it will bite into something?  Anyone with a photo?
Can I find the 35 5100 at the dealer or some larger hardware stores?

Thanks!

I'll let Harry answer the screw placement question.  3M 5200 caulk can be purchased in small plastic tubes, or large tubes designed for a caulk gun.  Any marine store should have it, or on-line from West Marine for one example.

In the past I have ordered the Winnie part no. 094401-04-000 and received Stone Mason Gutter and Siding sealant.  Several months ago I placed another order with Lichtsinn and received NuFlex 640 instead.  I called Lichtsinn and they called Winnebago.  Lichtsinn returned my call saying that the Stone Mason product was no longer available and the NuFlex 640 was the replacement.  They key is they are both thermoplastic sealants.

I found that Stone Mason is made in Canada.  I called them some time ago and found there are no distributors in the US.

I, too, am frustrated with this sealant problem.  Fifteen months ago I had my Horizon re-sealed with the Stone Mason product.  Now, my drivers side, which gets more sun exposure, needs re-sealing.  I have a large crack, about 1/4 inch wide, where the curved fiberglass meets the front cap.  I have always had a problem in this location.  And there are small crack in the sealant from front to rear along the gutter.  Tomorrow I plan to shoot more sealant into the crack and hope it will adhere to the old sealant.

The NuFlex 640 tube says it can be cleaned with solvents.  Anyone know what solvents will work?  The NuFlex web site was no help. 

Just to be sure I'm talking about the same thing everyone else is I snapped a photo.  Until I can get the proper sealant I used some silicone in case it rains.
Photo of Roof Seal

LK23 said:

In the past I have ordered the Winnie part no. 094401-04-000 and received Stone Mason Gutter and Siding sealant.  Several months ago I placed another order with Lichtsinn and received NuFlex 640 instead.  I called Lichtsinn and they called Winnebago.  Lichtsinn returned my call saying that the Stone Mason product was no longer available and the NuFlex 640 was the replacement.  They key is they are both thermoplastic sealants.

I found that Stone Mason is made in Canada.  I called them some time ago and found there are no distributors in the US.

I, too, am frustrated with this sealant problem.  Fifteen months ago I had my Horizon re-sealed with the Stone Mason product.  Now, my drivers side, which gets more sun exposure, needs re-sealing.  I have a large crack, about 1/4 inch wide, where the curved fiberglass meets the front cap.  I have always had a problem in this location.  And there are small crack in the sealant from front to rear along the gutter.  Tomorrow I plan to shoot more sealant into the crack and hope it will adhere to the old sealant.

The NuFlex 640 tube says it can be cleaned with solvents.  Anyone know what solvents will work?  The NuFlex web site was no help. 

Click to expand...

ascetone? maybe

Y-Guy said:

Just to be sure I'm talking about the same thing everyone else is I snapped a photo.  Until I can get the proper sealant I used some silicone in case it rains.
Photo of Roof Seal

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Steve - silicon is bad news because it is difficult to completely remove when you want to use a 'real' sealant to adhere.  Where your front cap makes the 90 degree turn on the sidewall , that should be a prime location for a ss screw.

Rex - whenever I prep a surface, acetone is always my first choice - it is a good solvent and it evaporates quickly.  Lacquer thinner is usually a good second choice.

John thanks for that, with the possible rain in the forecast I didn't want to leave it exposed.  I'll have to fight that next weekend.

What size/length of SS screw are we talking about? ???

Y-Guy said:

John & Harry - thanks for the advice.  Two follow up questions...
Where should the screw be placed, is there an ideal location that it will bite into something?  Anyone with a photo?
Can I find the 35 5100 at the dealer or some larger hardware stores?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Steve, The screw should be placed about 3/4" away from the edges/side. Make the hole slightly larger than the screw with incremental larger size drill bits to avoid cracking the fiber glass. Also don't tighten the screw to much as the fiber glass is thin an may crack.  Just get as much 3M 5200 under it as you can and then tighten the screw until the caulking squeezes out from between the joint. I cleaned up the excess caulking with lacquer thinner. Oh I forgot to mention that there is a metal plate mounted against the fiberglass on the inside where the screw goes. (At least on my coach) You can check that by removing one of your side panels in the overhead cabinets that aligns with the seam area you want to reseal.

You can get 3M 5200 at Home Depot but they only carry it in white. It comes in various colors. This is where I got mine in a color closely matching my coach.

As John indicated stay away from silicone caulking as it creates nothing but problems later on.

It seems that NuFlex is also a Canadian product just like Stone Mason is. Either product seems difficult to obtain outside of the Winnebago network. Why all these Canadian products ?

I did talk with Eternabond manufacturer regarding using their Webseal product on the gutter/roof seal explaining that there is only about 3/4" bite in the gutter. They felt it would still hold and seal better than any caulking. This product can be painted to match the body paint. Several people have used it and seems to hold up well so far. I have decided I am going this route to try and solve the problem this way. They have a sealer product but that is only needed if you can get a sooth clean surface. It is not meant as a sealer to be used prior to painting, which is what I thought it was. Webseal