My Shopping list - stuff to get this roof rebuild done. Let me preface by saying that the entire roof structure will need to be stripped down to the aluminium frame, all the OEM plywood, foam, wood and screws will be scrapped. The frame will be cleaned up then the rebuild can take place. If anyone else is looking to do this sort of challenge, I urge it because it's been a lot of fun learning about this so far and, if in door space permits, the cost isn't something that will cause you to shy away from tackling this project.
Again, depending on your particular approach and preference, the completed cost shouldn't push past $1000.
All prices below will be in Canadian funds and tax will not be added because obviously my American friends will see taxes higher or lower than what I'd put in (which are 13% on most purchases of this type here in Canada).
Ceiling Covering - Vinyl wallpaper; white with a plaster texture, made by Wall Doctor and sold at Home Depot, made in England. Costs about $22.97 per roll. I bought three rolls @ 56 square feet - $68.91
Eternabond White roof tape - 4" x 50' roll, purchased 1 roll at Home Hardware for $89.99 and then another 4" x 50' roll with a steel roller from an Ontario Eternabond distributor in North Bay for $70. - $159.99
Plywood - 4' x 8' x 1/8" mahogany underlay. Primarily used as a sub-floor for laminate and hardwood flooring installs. Price quote from Home Hardware is $16.49 per sheet, I need ten in total for ceiling and roof. - $164.49
Styrofoam insulation - 4' x 8' x 1-1/2" solid Styrofoam, exactly the same appearance as what is there OEM. Sold at Home Hardware for $16.49 per sheet and I need 6 sheets total. - $98.94
Adhesive - Lepage Press tite green contact cement at Home Depot, great for all the things I need to stick together and costs $39.99 for a 1.5L can of it. Needs to be the water based type so as not to melt the foam. Seems kind of expensive so I may look at the RV place and see what they have instead, at least I know the RV shops use what is safe for this particular application regardless of the cost. - $39.99
Wood - the headers at the tail and nose will both be replaced so I need at least 2 pieces of 2" x 4" x 8' lumber which I already have at the shop I am working in but the cost can't be much more than $10 or $15. - $15
Screws - I need at least 20 x 3" metal screws and about 200 x 1" metal screws, I'm looking at roughly $20 from Home Hardware. - $20
Grand Total for supplies so far will be $468.88. Not bad for a job that would run me in the area of $5800 if I had the dealership do this replacement!!
Hey Tex, I hear ya on that and I was sort of in the same frame of mind when I first realized just how "into it" I was getting. The plus for me is that I have been allotted ample indoor and heated space within which to work at no cost to me. I have access to tools and I can also rely on (when they are available which seems not too often) people that have construction, electrical and mechanical skills.
As was suggested by others in other posts on this site, I could just sell the thing and buy something else or get it done by an RV dealer but those suggestions come with costs and/or risks in their own right; buying new will run me a minimum of $21,000 Canadian for an equivalent. Buying used, what's the point in acquiring somebody else's trailer just to find out that it too has problems, I'm better off keeping mine and putting the effort into it after all, I already know and like mine!! Getting it done by an RV dealer will run me no less than $5800 Canadian, that sounds pretty steep but I now know why it costs that much for the pro's to do it. If I weren't in the spot I'm in with space, time, tools and help, I'd be screwed. Fortunately for me though, as I said already, I have been granted a pretty good situation to work with.
Here's a bit of a big post but I'm providing this in the event that others will stumble upon this while looking for help on their 2003 Jayco Kiwi 23b roof issues. All the information I am supplying here has been compiled by me during the tear down phase of my roof replacement project. None of this information has been provided by the manufacturer, RV dealers or any other source, it's all from my hands on work only.
Warning: All info following may not be entirely accurate including but not limited to the measurements provided. Use this information at your own risk - There may be things I did not account for or include, some details may be missing or less than sufficiently explained.
Here's the Blueprint and word document of the trailer I created to provide a plan for tackling this project.
Just getting past a cold that's been kicking the crap outa me for the past three weeks, man that sucked! Here's where I' at with my project;
The roof is off the trailer and sitting on the floor of a heated shop. The floor's heated too, that's so nice. I've stripped the plywood and foam from the aluminium frame and all that's left is the frame, the wiring still in the wire channels and the headers both nose and tail.
Here's what I have so far to start my rebuild;
1) 1 Gallon of Dicor Boding Adhesive - 901BA
I needed this because the application involves foam and the Dicor is water based which means it will not melt the foam.
2) 2 rolls of 4" x 50' White Eternabond roofing tape
I'll use this in various places where self levelling caulking would be used.
3) 3 rolls of 56 square foot plaster style vinyl wall papering to be used as the finishing for the ceiling.
I still need (and will get tomorrow) 10 x 1/8" sheets of 4' x 8' plywood for the ceiling and roof, 6 x 1.5" sheets of Styrofoam insulation to return the roof to its OEM build and a bunch of 2.5" and 1.5" metal screws to put this whole thing back together again.
Well, it's been quite some time since I've last posted. The winter was quite a rough one up here in South Western Ontario. From Mid January through to just the last week or so, the temperatures have been brutally way below what they are normally and getting down the driveway of the farm I have the trailer at has been rough with it's 1KM long driveway full of huge drifts of snow.
Here I am though and I have some updates.
As I posted in the last installment, I still needed the Plywood and foam, I did get both but the Plywood I bought was actually 1/4" because the 1/8" seems to be something that most places in my area do not stock. No big deal, it'll be good anyways.
The rebuild of the roof started today and will continue tomorrow. With the all the factory foam, wood supports, wood framing, plywood and metal backing plates removed and scrapped, the only thing left of the factory installed roof was the aluminium frame and wire channels.
Today we started to rebuild on the ceiling side.
My brother in law is helping and I tell you, he's really added a new dimension of thought to this process. We decided on using 2" x 4" supports rather than the original 1" x 2" supports that were installed by the factory, we used the 2" x 4" everywhere that required wood framing, including the bathroom vent as well as a full run from side to side along the A/C vent. The 2" x 4" were cut to the width of the roof then holes drilled for running wiring through them. We also decided to add additional supports where there were none before. To insure a secure installation, we first squared the frame, measured cut and fit the 2" x 4" lengths into place then used L brackets to hold the new supports and all the originally located supports in place. That made a huge difference, sorry I have no pics of that but basically the L brackets were secured to the supports on one side and the aluminium frame on the other side with 1.25" self tapping wood/metal screws.
With the supports installed, the bathroom vent framed in and the wiring channels roughed into place, we then cut the foam to size for each section then placed them where required. We then moved on to cutting the plywood to size; lengths and width, then moved on to cut the wiring and vent holes where required.
Tomorrow the agenda will have us finishing the ceiling side plywood and remaining vent holes then glueing all the plywood and foam to the frame so that it can cure through the week. We'll continue on next weekend with the roof side.
I will also add that I have decided to replace the EPDM that was factory installed with some new TPO from the dealership. I wasn't going to because of the cost but I have done some recent Laptop repairs and also bought and sold some Laptops to make a few bucks so I should be able to cover most of the cost for new TPO.
Thanks Crabman, I'm feeling good about getting it going again. That was a tough winter. I'm hoping to be ready to go by May but I'm not going to stress about it if it takes longer, I just like the challenge and I want it to be done right given the fact that it's going to come close to $2000 with the new TPO.
Hey Fivepak, the roof is rebuilt and I am hoping to get it lifted back on to the trailer within the next week or so, this will allow me to tie it back into the the trailer, apply the new roofing membrane and seal it all back up again. I did not even bother with a quote to have the bunk replaced, I now know that doing this myself will be easy enough and cheap enough. Here's how I'll handle it;
- Remove the current bunk from the trailer
- Strip the attachments, pole support holders, hinges, buttons for the canvas to connect and such
- Strip the outer tough shell, this should be easy enough if the bunk was subjected to moisture but if not, it may be a little tougher. With the appropriate patience and time taken, you'll get it off.
- Once stripped to the wood, measure the thickness and the remaining dimensions, go to your local lumber supplier and get a piece cut to your needs and reverse the process.
Keep in mind that, so I've discovered, applying the tough shell and any other type of material directly to the plywood with any adhesive will fail if you don't use some type of surface primer on the plywood first. I used Zinnser Bulls Eye 123, it provides a proper seal that allows the adhesive to stick.
It's been a while and I don't have pictures to share just yet but I thought I'd share the progress. To start with, the beginning of summer has been wet here in South central Ontario, I've also had way too many things that have pulled me away from getting this project completed sooner than I'd hoped for but the good news is, the major stuff has been done and I only need to put the awning back on the trailer and seal up the drivers side roof.
This past week had me working my regular work shift then another 4 or 5 hours a night after that working on the trailer but the progress this week was insane and I'm happy about that. As I preluded, the lost time hasn't been missed much because the weather hasn't been camping appropriate just yet any ways!
I will post completed photos when I am done which will hopefully be before the end of the month. We have a ton more rain on the way so I'm not going to rush it because let's face it, I'm saving money by not paying site fees for a camping spot I'm not going to use since it's been raining this much.
A bit late but here's a few pics of the inside of the trailer. I don't have any from the top for some reason, I had them but they seem to be missing.
Sorry for the wait on this people but know this, the build is done and has shown no failures over the past two seasons of use. This project taught me a lot and I would certainly tackle another job like this without hesitation. A word of caution; be sure to seek the assistance of others when you need help but don't fear to go it alone when it's safe to do so.
Also consider using Eternabond instead of caulking, that stuff absolutely rocks, I used just over 3/4 of a full 50' roll to seal up the edges of the roof - side to side both ends and four corners downward on either side of the bunk ends.
Also consider using Zinsser 1-2-3 primer to prime both sides of the plywood roof so that your ceiling covering material sticks and so that your rubber roof sticks too. Don't actually consider it, just spend the money and use it, you'll kick yourself if you fail to do this.
I'm hoping to find more picture but for now enjoy these ones of the inside
I know, bringing this back from the dead, but I am in the middle of the exact same project...I am doing it a tad bit differently, I am unable to remove the aluminum top rail so I have left it. I put new 2x3 rafters in every 24' on center riveted to the aluminum frame, and deck screwed to the rafter, and put foil faced polyiso R9 rigid foam in between. I am working on it from the front back, and ripping the roof off as I go. I unfortunately have next to no driveway, so my work space is limited. Thankfully so far, I only have a little de-lamination right above the slide out, so Ill be putting some adhesive in there and clamping it back together and hoping for the best.
Hoping to have the rear part of the roof pulled off this weekend, and start working on getting it finished up in the next 3 weeks.
Does anyone know if you can upgrade the bunk shelf from the prop bars to the cable supports?
I think you just saved my sanity, I plan on doing this strictly over a few days. Thankfully have full access to tools and materials. but mainly outside now since I wanted to air it. Thinking should have taken it to my job at a scrap yard and put it in one of the mechanics shops just to do this. Here’s hoping. Wait till I tell my husband found a gold mine. Also how did the floor repair go. We want to do both. I have already pulled all windows and seams are resealed. After all this is done then I will reseal and do the outside seams.
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