Rubber Roof Stickiness

[robntrish]

I know this has been asked and slightly answer but not for a few years from my searches.  So here goes.

I have a 2015 Primetime Lacrosse.  I am the only owner.  I am very diligent about maintenance.  I clean and seal the roof 2 times a year.  I use the standard Dicor cleaner and protectant.  I live in Texas so it is hot in the summer.  This past spring during my normal maintenance, I cleaned the roof and the roof at the back of the Rig was very tacky and my shoe tread would stay in the roof, and you could scrap away the roofing material like you were almost scraping off gum.  I went ahead and finished and sealed it.  And now this fall it seems to be the whole roof.  Anyone have any idea what is causing this?

It stays under mostly tree cover, and I have a cover I want to put on it, but not until I figure this issue out.

Any help is greatly apprciated.  Oh and it is a rubber roof.

Thanks

 

[Arch Hoagland]

Tree sap maybe?  There are certain trees that drip sap from their leaves all the time.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Are you saying the white roof surface material is peeling off?  I think that Primetime used Dicor Brite-ply roofing, which is an EPDM rubber roof.  It can do that is exposed to a variety of chemicals that can act as solvents, including chemicals in the air from industrial plants (and not necessarily near by, e.g. acid rain).

Does the white surface expose the black fabric underlayer when it scrapes away? Do the footprints stay clear or get indistinct after a day or so?

 

[robntrish]

Thanks for the Replies.

It is not Tree Sap.  It's the whole roof.

I will take some pics and upload them.

But this seems to be like a breakdown in the material (EPDM).

I have only used the dicor cleaner and protectant on it.  But will upload some pics.

Rob

 

[robntrish]

Here are some pics.  As you can see it's not just moving the dirt on top, it is actually move the material.

Any Ideas?

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I've never seen anything like that in 20+ years of RVing with 5 different rigs

 

[kdbgoat]

Time to see how good that 12 year warranty is. Head to your dealer, or contact Primetime. It does look like some chemical reaction has occurred. Do you still have the containers the wash and conditioner came in? You may need them.

 

[SpencerPJ]

Yikes, on a 2015.  Please keep us updated on your findings.  May have been a defective batch of roofing material, like anything it could happen.  I hate to say, head to the dealer, but head to the dealer.  Good luck 

 

[robntrish]

I went to the "Dealer" today and showed them the pictures.  One guys said, "wow never seen that before", the 2nd guy said, "get all your documentation together and call Dicor, they are going to try and say you used a chemical on it you shouldn't have to try and get out of the warranty".

So looks like I will be contact Dicor to see about getting them to replace the roof.  So begins my (at least) 2 month fight for them to cover their product.

I will keep this thread updated as I go. 

Rob

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I would report it to Primetime as well - could be an installation problem.  Or Dicor may claim it is.

The major difficulty here is that there is no way to prove the roof was NOT exposed to some chemical, whether accidentally through the environment or through some action on your part. Hopefully Dicor will choose the "customer goodwill" path rather than sticking (pun intended) to the letter of their warranty clauses.

 

[kdbgoat]

That's why I said save the jugs of whatever was used to clean and protect the roof.

 

[Chakara]

  Any response from Dichor yet?  I'm curious on this one......

-Chak

 

[robntrish]

Sorry for the delayed update.  But wanted to get a little further down the road on this before updating.

Long story short - Dicor has been amazing to deal with. Seriously.  But I also think i know why...  read on.

I called Dicor and asked to speak to their warranty dep.  I think it's just one guy (Don).

I explained everything that was happening and he was very nice asked some questions about my Rig and he said send him pic of the roof and the VIN of my Rig.  He thought he knew what was going on but needed to verify a few things, he said he would get back to me ASAP.

ASAP is relative so I give a bit of lattitude on that.  I email him back after a couple of days and he writes back quickly to give him a call.

I call and what he said was this (I will not get this exactly right but you will get the gest).

The roof is a Dicor roof but it was manufactured by Carlisle Construction Material.  There was an issue with the accelerant they used to adhere the color to the rubber roof.  That was not breaking down.    By warranty terms the roof was still structurally sound it was just a cosmetic issue.  But in good faith they would help me out and they gave me two options.

Opt 1 = Carlisle sends me a check for $1,000 just for the cosmetic issue.  Warranty would still hold for the rubber roof for the 15 years of original date.
Opt 2 = Carlisle would pay for half of the labor to replace the roof up top $2750.  And Don said that Dicor would actually send out the materials for a new roof with the install key, sent either to me or the shop of my choice.  I just need the shop to call him and send him the measurements.

Don - then said, "off the record go to a shop or two and price it out.  sometimes if you tell them what is going on, they will do it for cheaper and it would be almost completely paid for by the $2750".

So I went to my shop and got their price, initially they said $7800 for labor.  I explained what was going on, and he brought it down to $4800.  I said deal.

So we called Dicor while I was standing there, and Don got on the phone, we worked everything out, Measurements were given and even the check is going to be sent directly to the service center and I just have to pay the difference.

Materials should arrive next week, and they said 2 weeks from then to get the new roof.

At that point, Dicor will still cover the material under warranty but labor and install will be covered by the shop.

So far (knock on wood) the experience has been great.  a couple of phone calls and a couple of weeks later (I was traveling for work) and $2000 out of pocket I have a brand new roof.  I will keep updating as I continue down this path.

My faith in the RV service industry is renewed for a while anyway.

 

[SpencerPJ]

Thanks for the update.  Personally I'd still be bent that I would have to pay 2k out of pocket for a new roof on a 2015.  The important thing is, you are getting it repaired to your liking.  )

 

[sightseers]

Thanks for the update.  Personally I'd still be bent that I would have to pay 2k out of pocket for a new roof on a 2015.  The important thing is, you are getting it repaired to your liking.  )

Me too.   

It was only 3 years ago when an RV salesperson told you not to worry about that roof, it's warrantied for 12 years



From what all I hear, Rubber roofs have been nothing but problems for years .....new, old, EPDM or TPO....Why do they still use them ?

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

What problems have you heard of with TPO?  I see almost no reports on the several RV sites I frequent daily.

Why is EPDM still in wide use? The answer is simple: it's cheap and buyers are a lot more interested in low prices than long term reliability and appearance.

 

[sightseers]

Gary,

From what I've seen,  a couple years of the Arizona sun will kill a TPO roof ....or long term park it near an airport and see what that jet fuel does to them.

It appears that evidence of "prior roof leaks" is very common with buyers of used RV's ...I'll bet the majority of those are some kind of membrane roof material. 

(but it's just been completely re-sealed ! says the seller..  ;D)

they should just stop it and make every roof fiberglass or metal,  a simple little low hanging branch can ruin a brand new $250k rubber roof RV. 

Why can't they make an extruded U/V resistant plastic roof sheeting out of recycled plastic bottles.

 

[dmckenna99a]

I realize this is an old post, but I have the exact same problem as Robntrish. the pics posted could have come from my roof. I have a 2014 Elkridge that had the roof replaced in Nov 2017 because of the defective material issue. Now after another 4 years it is worse than before.

I weigh less than 150 pounds and the forward roof which gets the most sun is mushy and easy to expose the black membrane underneath. My 5er is parked 12 months in central Florida with little/no shade.

As discussed, it is not tree sap, and not likely any chemicals. I'd like to coat the roof rather than replace the rubber again, which I believe probably caused some damage when the old roof got taken up. While Dicor came thru for me, it was a long process that wasn't much fun and don't really want to do it again. I'd rather recoat the roof myself if I can find a product that will work.

With an unstable roof base, not sure what might work. I was considering a silicone product like Eterna Kote.

Any thoughts?

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Henry's Tropi-Cool is popular with RVers. With your stickiness, I would spend a lot of time cleaning and probably use a primer too. Henry's makes those too, but there are other brands as well.

 

[Kirk]

I think that I would want one of the roof materials that are put on by a professional applicator just to be sure that you get a warranty. I think that if it were mine I'd talk to someone like Flex Armor, or the Rhino Roof that some RVs now have.