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Old 06-19-2014, 09:34 AM   #1
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Reminder: Check your roof seals

I have a roof ladder on my TT. The convenience of access motivates me to climb up and look things over fairly regularly - every couple of weeks at home. I usually climb up and check the roof and slide top for leaves, limbs, etc. before we leave a campsite.

I last looked 6/09, giving a quick look at the roof seals. All looked good. I climbed up again on 6/16 after several days of high temps followed by late afternoon storms. I immediately noticed a thin gap around the roof ladder's roof mount, between the rung and the sealant. I checked over the rest of the roof and found a couple of other spots around the bathroom vent. One spot had about a 1" long gap where the sealant meets the rubber roof. In two other places the sealant over the screws had opened leaving tiny holes.

I cleaned the areas with a rag and soapy water, then dried them with a dry cloth and followed with a wipe over of denatured alcohol. Lastly I re-sealed the areas with non-leveling lap sealant. I probably only used about two tablespoons of the product, but I feel better about having found and repaired the potential leak points before they were an issue. If anyone has a good tip for preserving a partially used tube of lap sealant, please let me know!

I can only assume that the sequence of high temps (90's) followed by daily afternoon storms (and rapid cool downs) caused these weak spots in the sealant to separate.
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Old 06-19-2014, 01:19 PM   #2
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Like you, I keep a close eye on caulking. I had to re-caulk around the ladder flanges several times; and ironically part of the cause I think is how often the ladder is used. I eventually gave up on re-caulking the ladder flanges and instead put Eternabond tape over them. I also put some caulk around the ladder tube where it goes through the Eternabond. The Eternabond can flex a bit and still stay properly in place; so far, I haven't had to do anything else to the ladder flanges.

There may not be a perfect way to keep an opened tube of caulk usable. The best I have found is to poke a nail (long enough to enter into the tube of caulk) into the nozzle, then to put a gob of putty around the opening in the nozzle and the nail, then to put the whole thing into a large ziplock, close the ziplock and wrap a piece of tape around the whole mess to exclude air, then to place the whole thing into your refrigerator.
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Old 06-19-2014, 07:32 PM   #3
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A couple weeks ago I washed and waxed ours. Made sure to give the roof a good check over and noticed the same around the ladder. I applied some extra sealant over any spots that looked cracked just to be safe.

I tried putting a nail into the tube of caulk and wrapping the end with some press&seal. Lets hope that keeps it fresh till I need it next.
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