John Canfield
Site Team
Hi Harry! Welcome aboard and glad to have you join rvforum!! Ladder tricks..hmm.. yes. Six staples pulled my brains back in a couple of years ago (okay, not all of them ;D )
Indy Itasca said:I may regret this but I fixed both sides of my front cap today with #8 hex head SS sheet metal screws. The regret may be because I used the Pro Flex white sealant instead of the 3M; but that was the suggestion from the dealer's technician that I talked to. ( This may be suspect because they happen to sell the ProFlex and not 3M). When drilling on the passenger side I hit some metal behind the fiber glass and it snugged up very nicely. For unknown reasons, I didn't hit any metal on the drivers side. It pulled up OK but I'm not sure it is going to hold. We'll see how long this lasts.
It is an interesting design that the gap between the wall an cap occurs at exactly the spot where the gutter dumps the roof water.
Yes it was 3/4 inch and it was plenty. I think 1/2 might work but you really don't want to force the fiberglass into too much compression. One inch might be too long and hit something behind.jc2 said:Did you use the 3/4 inch screw or a longer one? I'm not convinced that the 3/4 inch would be long enough to go through (2) layers of fiberglass and possibly into an additional metal support behind those.
jc2 said:Thank you for the info. To those that have done this fix, did you paint the screw(s) after the fix to possibly match the cap cover?
RV_Lifeline said:First off I'd like to clear up some confusion on the substance used on a Winnebago roof for sealant, it is the same sealant they have used for years. The name is NuFlex 311, it is......wait for it....... a silicone . The only thing I have to say about the stuff is it's outstanding.
RV_Lifeline said:Good Day,
First off I'd like to clear up some confusion on the substance used on a Winnebago roof for sealant, it is the same sealant they have used for years. The name is NuFlex 311, it is......wait for it....... a silicone . The only thing I have to say about the stuff is it's outstanding. I am one of the hardest people to convince, EVER. But this product is the only thing like it that I know of. Since I started using it about 5 years ago and discovering what it was, I wanted to try it on everything! Because of my position in service and very wide range of experience in roof leaks and more roof leaks and more roof leaks and.... Well I can tell you that I use more of this stuff then any other product ever. Not a fan of "The other stuff" (trying to stay neutral here) I have found myself solving very difficult problems with everything from exterior slide molding sealant to all around roof sealing. Allthough it's a silicone, it retains a self-leveling feature that is unmatched, once cured it adheres to everything it makes contact with as long as you start with a very very basic rule, PREPERATION! You can put any kind of sealant on anything, just name it, and if there is some kind of chemical there, even as simple as a little water for silicone sealants and silicone for urethane sealants, it won't seal no matter what you do. I would love to continue but don't want to sound like I'm trying to peddle the stuff either. Just know that Winnebago spends upwards of several millions of dollars on Field Research And Developement every year and have tested Everything on the market but have gone on to use this product for years on every roof they've sealed that comes out of that factory. You don't have to be a believer to just try it, but give it a chance.
;D
Harry B said:Steve,
Like John said it apparently is not a point of concern as Winnie is putting this very screw in all newer coaches. I don't know what year they started with this but I have checked some other (newer) coaches while at WIT rallies and they all have this screw installed.
Just don't over tighten it as that could crack the fiberglass. The caps are hand made and the thickness is not very uniform. My passenger side for example s thicker than the driver side. Just make sure all the old sealant is removed and that the 5200 is just grabbing fiberglass and not old sealant left behind. That should take all the stress off of the screw.