What is that sealer Winne uses on the roof?

[phpvet]

Listen-up, guys.  The singularly-best caulk/sealant/cement/glue on the planet for ANY type of RV ROOF or INTERIOR purposes is "PPL ROOF & FLASHING SEALANT".  Get it at HOME DEPOT.  You will need a standard CAULK GUN to apply it.  It is BLACK in color when applied and cured.  Nothing even comes close to its cementing, gluing, nor caulking/water-&-solvent-sealing properties.  And, to boot, neither acetone, diesel fuel, gasoline, etc., will disolve this stuff. 
But, it can take a couple WEEKS to fully cure.  If applied over 1-inch thick, it will take at least a MONTH to fully cure througout its entire depth.  If you need a FAST-curing caulk, cement, or sealant, than this is not for you.  Also, this can be PAINTED with no problems.  PPL ROOF & FLASHING SEALANT, when used as a CEMENT/GLUE will put any such cement on the planet to shame.  But, again, purely as a CEMENT/GLUE, it takes much too long to CURE for such purposes.  But, again, if TIME is NOT a problem, then always use this stuff, as a sealant, caulk, or cement/glue.  Lastly, if using this on an RV ROOF, no matter how THICK the application requires, just DO it and don't worry about rain, etc., since said PPL stuff will keep out any water during its curing process. 

 

[SCVJeff]

Well I got my feet wet with sealing up the roof cap today... Yesterday whilst up on the roof there was about 12' of newly, but intermittent separation of the sealant toward the rear of the coach. What I found was that (IMO) Winne did not use anywhere near the amount of sealant that should have been in that seam. It appears that all they did was basically just fill the open crack, maybe 1/16" deep, and nothing below that. I removed everything on both sides (whata' PITA), cleaned the gap as far down as I could with Acetone, and applied way more sealant than was from the factory. I used the NuFlex 640 only because I had a new tube and really needed to get these gaps filled. There was water in the channel that I was able to wick out, so it all good.

2 Questions:
-I haven't seen the Winnie roof cutaway in awhile, but when water gets into the roof cap channel, where, or does it drain? It's gotta go somewhere doesn't it? When looking into the gap, there was a fair amount of dust  that tells me that there is some amount of airflow. How does it get there?

-Any real-world results on the 4000UV in this application? Since I've started with the 640 I may want (or need) to stay with it. Unless the 4000 is that much better.....?

 

[John Canfield]

-I haven't seen the Winnie roof cutaway in awhile, but when water gets into the roof cap channel, where, or does it drain?

Jeff - thanks for the follow-up report!

Here's the latest Winnebago service tips that talks about sealing the joint.  If you are asking about outside water, the water will run down the channel and then out the end,.  An inside leak - dunno - probably drips out somewhere on the inside.

We've talked about 4000UV previously, but don't know if we have had any reports from somebody that actually used it on their sidewall joint.

 

[navy flier]

John, I was looking at that Service Tip yesterday and had one question. On paras two and three what is meant by the term "cap seal"? I have never seen instructions to cap seal the roof fiberglass before and cannot understand what I am being directed to do.

 

[navy flier]

Some time in the last 60 days, on one of the class A forums I have seen a series of photos posted by an owner who used eternabond to seal the roof to sidewall joint. He used a black eternabond and ran it the entire length of the coach on both sides. Can someone point me in the direction of the posting?

 

[SargeW]

When I did my roof cap on the Meridian I used 3M Marine sealant, and came back the second day and covered that with a 4" wide seam sealing tape.  I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to have any roof cap worries for a long time. 

 

[John Canfield]

John, I was looking at that Service Tip yesterday and had one question. On paras two and three what is meant by the term "cap seal"? I have never seen instructions to cap seal the roof fiberglass before and cannot understand what I am being directed to do.

I believe they mean run a bead (a 'cap') of caulk where they specify "Sealant" with the arrow in the diagram.

Some time in the last 60 days, on one of the class A forums I have seen a series of photos posted by an owner who used eternabond to seal the roof to sidewall joint. He used a black eternabond and ran it the entire length of the coach on both sides. Can someone point me in the direction of the posting?

Yup - that was Rex (LK23) in this post.

 

[SCVJeff]

Jeff - thanks for the follow-up report!

Here's the latest Winnebago service tips that talks about sealing the joint.  If you are asking about outside water, the water will run down the channel and then out the end,.  An inside leak - dunno - probably drips out somewhere on the inside.

We've talked about 4000UV previously, but don't know if we have had any reports from somebody that actually used it on their sidewall joint.

Ah, good cutaway... thanks. It sure looks to me as if they had done this correctly the 1st time and not skimped, we wouldn't be having this problem now.

Sarge: That's next!

 

[navy flier]

Thanks John. After reading para 3 in the service tip about a dozen times I finally understand how the sentence is written. It would have been better if they had put a comma before and after "after painting" to make the sentence more clear. It would appear that this service tip was originally written for the factory employees to give them instructions on how and when to apply the sealant. I have cleaned the channel where the cracked sealant was located and am waiting on sealant from Lichtsinn. If I have the same results as others and need to do this again I am going to go the Eternabond route.

 

[boatbuilder]

I have been using 4000UV to seal everything on my TT.  I hate butyl tape.  We used only two sealants on the sportfishing boats, 5200 below the waterline and 4000UV above and never had a problem.  The 3M rep said 4000UV was only half as strong as 5200 which means it is still pretty damn strong.  I just saw a 5 year old boat and the caulk still looked good.  The only down side to 3M products is their cost, but they are good.

 

[SCVJeff]

BTW- Anyone working on removing adhesive from the gutter (not the fiberglass), there is a blade I found at Home Depot that fits in a box cutter knife case that works really well. It's a hook blade that's scary as hell, but the bottom of the hook will ride along the rim inside of the gutter and the blade flush on the rim cleans everything right off. Just be REALLY careful setting that thing down because it always seemed to be pointing in the wrong place when working around it. Kinda' like a snag hook.

 

[John Canfield]

Good tip Jeff!  Thanks!

 

[Caro]

I realize this thread has not been active in a looong time, but it came up in a Google search when I was trying to find out what sealants Winne uses.  I have a '97 Itasca Sundancer, and the Winne website has a sealant callout sheet only through the year 2000...so, I called Winne, and they told me the part # (072889-20-000), which is what landed me here, and that it is a silicone base.  If anyone is still monitoring this thread, I'll post pics and go into further detail, but so far there has been great (and confusing!!) info here.  Hope to hear from someone, otherwise, I'll start a new thread.  Thanks all!

 

[Y-Guy]

Caro my post goes back to 2009 when I used the 3M 5200 to caulk my roof.  It's been on since and solid.  No cracks or anything.  We took a trip over Christmas break and upon return I found the seal had broke on the driver side. I temp patched with small tube of silicone and I'll remove and reseal again when things warm up.  Considering I got 4 years out of the last patch I'm going to use 3M 5200 once again. 

 

[Caro]

Thank you!  I am very new to tackling recaulking, but after finding an enormous leak SOMEWHERE in the front cabover, I can no longer stick my head in the sand    I too am having issues with the sidewall separating from the front of the cab, and have temporarily patched it (well, recent ex did...6 mos ago) with Gorilla tape, which held for awhile, til I spent the summer in rainy Michigan.  FWIW, an RV repair fellow suggested Gorilla tape as a temp fix...looks like temporary has run out.  I will post some pics of the damage tomorrow.  I have read earlier in this thread about using screws to hold the sidewall back in place, I'm leery of that because I'm not sure what I'm screwing into besides fiberglass.  Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

 

[John Canfield]

Welcome aboard Caro.

 

[Y-Guy]

Thought I'd give a follow up from 2009.  I brought the RV home to exercise the engine and generator and do a small project.  Upon inspecting the outside I found I will need to reseal the roof again. Still a good seal on the roof cap just not adhering to the sidewalls. But its way to cold right now, so I'll wait till spring.  Considering the 3M 5200 held up as long as it did I'll go that route again. 

 

[DutchEagle]

Considering the 3M 5200 held up as long as it did I'll go that route again.

Curious how much you need to buy/use on the reseal, might be looking into that as 4 years for a seal sounds like a very good uphold.

 

[Y-Guy]

Curious how much you need to buy/use on the reseal, might be looking into that as 4 years for a seal sounds like a very good uphold.

It doesn't take much just to do the corner caps. I bought the 10 oz Cartridge for the gun, way more then I needed.  The 1 oz. tube should be enough.  But pricing wise the cartridge isn't that much more considering how much you get.  Last time we had friends with another Sightseer so I capped it off and passed it along.

 

[DutchEagle]

Thanks for the info.