Water behind wall!!

[RLinde]

When we push on the front outside wall,we can feel and hear water swishing around! How can we get this to drain out? Drill a hole somewhere?

[Marcm157]

Year and model would be very helpful in answering your question.

[BigJohnD]

Curious as well. First I've heard of that one.

[bansai]

Originally Posted by RLinde

When we push on the front outside wall,we can feel and hear water swishing around! How can we get this to drain out? Drill a hole somewhere?

Feel free to upload a video of this never before heard of scenario.

Campers aren't submarines. If your wall was full of water, you would have water leaking out everywhere. Let's see it.

[RLinde]

IT IS A 2010 226 jay feather sport.
I wanted to take a video of the wall. It was obvious there was water behind it. When we pressed on it, it moved around and you could hear the swishing of water.
But by the time I came home from work today, my husband had drilled a hole and drained it. He drilled it from inside the storage compartment. He peeled back the inside wall and drilled into the wood. He used a pail and tube to catch the water. There was more than 5 litres!!!

[RLinde]

Here are pictures.
The first is the wall after the water has been drained.
The second shows the hole that was drilled.

[norty1]

I Hope you got a super deal on the rig cause you got some damage to repair after the source is found.
Delaying either will only make it worse.


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[bansai]

Dear god, I thought the original post was bogus, but you have pics to back it up! My apologies for doubting it.

Do you have a water line or something in that wall that burst? I can't figure out how this happens, but it's a catastrophic problem. Have you guys fully inspected your roof for any tears or points where water could get in? Lot's of rain lately where you're at or a lot of highway miles driving through it? This kind of problem would be my worst nightmare... well there is one involving zombies that is way off topic... but this pretty much ties it.

[ctbailey]

Originally Posted by RLinde

Here are pictures.

The first is the wall after the water has been drained.

The second shows the hole that was drilled.

Hi RLinde,

I've been where you are. And it's not a great place.

Here's what needs to happen:

Start opening up the wall and the adjacent floor. This is a destructive process, but do not despair. Campers are not complicated.

Your first task is to demo the wall and floor until you have found dry wood. The problem with those early "superlite" trailers is the floor system is a manufactured composite by laminating Luan glued to styrofoam and glued to another sheet of Luan. The vinyl flooring and the waterproof membrane that was applied to the exterior (facing the pavement) act as water barriers. As you found out: water gets in, but not out of the floor.

Here's the kicker; most of those units of that style flooring have no floor joists. You need to build some joists to support the new floor and wall you are going to have to build.

It can be done, and at $95 per hour the dealer will likely charge several thousand dollars.

Technically the trailer is totaled. But a handy DIY person can certainly save it.

It just takes time and a back yard where you can put 'er up on blocks for a while.

You can do this. Good luck


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[Screwby]

Originally Posted by bansai

Dear god, I thought the original post was bogus, but you have pics to back it up! My apologies for doubting it.

Do you have a water line or something in that wall that burst? I can't figure out how this happens, but it's a catastrophic problem. Have you guys fully inspected your roof for any tears or points where water could get in? Lot's of rain lately where you're at or a lot of highway miles driving through it? This kind of problem would be my worst nightmare... well there is one involving zombies that is way off topic... but this pretty much ties it.

Agreed 100%...this is the stuff nightmares are made of. I went out and hugged my camper after reading this. Hopefully you are DIY types and dig in to fix it. It's just a big wooden box on wheels, time to get creative!

[Marcm157]

I was shocked that this was true as well.

[Crabman]

Check the seals on the roof where the front cap meets the rubber roof membrane, also the corner molding where the sides meet. But leaks can be hard to track down. I doubt there would be a plumbing line in that location of the wall, but stranger things have happened. 5 liters is a lot of water so the leak is a bad one which may make it easier to locate.

[BigJohnD]

Seems like front wall leak would be as mentioned; roof to front cap seal, side wall to roof, OR clearance lights. That's a lot of water. Once found, I'd ditch that whole front wall and go back with pre-coated/painted aluminum sheets. Most of the fronts like that are pretty much filon over cardboard, or you'll think cardboard after seeing it soaked. As ctbaily mentions, not hard to fix if handy. Beats $90 to $120 an hour for a dealer to fix half a$$. Just seen a YouTube video on replacing a delaminated front wall with aluminum, and it looked great.

[norty1]

As earlier stated, I hope you got a great deal on it.
I would open it up before mold/ mildew takes over.


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[Bassdogs]

Faced delamination over both front and rear ends of my 06 Keystone TT. Damage also around entry door and both sidewalls along the front 5 feet back from the front cap.

Since your problem is on the front, I would remove the front cap and then work from the outside. My guess is that the water is coming from where the cap meets up with the roof and / or along the edge trim coming down both sides of the cap. After opening it up [hopefully you have a barn or large garage where you can do all this away from the weather as this is going to take some time] the source of sources of the problem should be fairly easy to trace. Water has a habit of leaving behind a stain and the damaged material will bloom away from the point of invasion. Its likely that even though the unit is a 2010, the problem didn't begin until a few years into the trailers life. Lack of significant damage to the front cap leads me to believe it may have occurred in the last 2 years before the original owner decided to sell the problem without trying to fix it.

If u are lucky, the wooden frame on the front can be dried after you expose it to the air. The insulation and cardboard like backing on the front cap will be where the damage shows up first. You can't plan anymore until you get it opened up which will include pulling back the weather barrier attached to the underside of the floor. Again start up front working underneath the TT and remove the material until you get to dry. If its wet on the underside, its likely wet on the top of the sandwich floor so you will have to cut out the vynal flooring [not a big deal and its easy to recover it if the luan is wet but not falling apart. Let it dry and then seal it with Thomsons waterseal. You probably won't be able to get a new oem cap so the alum sheet approach is probably the way to go and can be made to look as good as the original [but noticeably different]. I would consider using thin diamond plate all the way up.

Like others have said this is not rocket science nor will it be overly expensive if you do it yourself or have a DYI friend willing to help. The end result will be personally rewarding everytime you use your camper after the fix.

Good luck!

[Bassdogs]

After blowing up the pics, it looks like delamination can be seen on the lower portion of the driver side of the front cap. The inside picture seems to show that the hole drilled is on the same side but drilled into the side wall. If what I'm seeing is true, the problem is almost certainly on that front corner where the roof/sidewall/front cap seams come together. If the sidewall is not showing delamination you may get lucky and prevent further damage to the sidewall by removing the paneling covering the bottom foot or so of the inside where the hole was drilled. That should expose the actual sidewall. You might want to drill a hole directly up from the bottom into that section of the side wall to drain water settling all the way to the bottom. Then I would remove the edge trim covering the front leading edge going down the driverside front. Look up top as the problem on my TT was obvious after I started investigating the problem. The corner of the top / front cap / sidewall was sunk down enough to form a small depression that allow rain to pool and then as the caulk aged the water made entry into the seam and down the front edge. My problem was on both front edges and all across the top of the cap so your repairs might be more easily repaired. If you are lucky and can remove the cap from the front frame without destroying it, you may be able to reinstall it and only cover the lower section with the diamond plate to cover up the delaminated area.

I am not an expert on this subject but did live the hell you have discovered. Contact me via personnel message if you have questions.

[bankr63]

Where ae folks getting the idea that someone sold them a bill of goods? Reading the OP's 3 posts over, I don't see anywhere that she says it is a new to them unit. It's entirely possible they've owned it for the full 6 years. Maybe we can help them fix it and not go off telling them how to get revenge...

[Bassdogs]

Originally Posted by bankr63

Where ae folks getting the idea that someone sold them a bill of goods? Reading the OP's 3 posts over, I don't see anywhere that she says it is a new to them unit. It's entirely possible they've owned it for the full 6 years. Maybe we can help them fix it and not go off telling them how to get revenge...

In your info it says "senior member", in the OP's post it indicated "junior member" which could mean they just joined the forum but more typically it indicates a new to them 6 year old TT. If it was their's all along, I suspect there would be more info concerning the life of the TT and when they first noticed the problem. I owned my TT for 4 years when I noticed the delamination on my 06 TT. I got on this and a different forum [not a Jayco] to seek advice and was up front to provide info about the history of the TT and when the problem was first noticed.

Yes it is "entirely possible" that they were the original owners, but it is also not a stretch to think that it was a problem passed on to them by a previous owner. The latter is unfortunately an all to frequent occurance when you are talking about a 6 year old RV. Keep the Round up handy!!

[norty1]

Originally Posted by bankr63

Where ae folks getting the idea that someone sold them a bill of goods? Reading the OP's 3 posts over, I don't see anywhere that she says it is a new to them unit. It's entirely possible they've owned it for the full 6 years. Maybe we can help them fix it and not go off telling them how to get revenge...

I see no one offering revenge suggestions. Whether its new to them or just bought used, the rig will be soon worthless unless the front is opened up and the repairs made.

Usually a new members first post about problems is with a recently purchased rig. Maybe the op can clear that up while the repairs are progressing.

[bankr63]

Okay, someone edited their post about dumping Roundup on the lawn of the person who sold them the unit. Now I look like an idiot...