Roof Seam Flex

[Cincinnati Kid]

I noticed on our new Jayco that the roof was kind of bouncy when you walk on it. Not real surprising, since they use thin plywood. But what did surprise me was the amount of flex at the seams. You can see that they move about 1/8 inch under the plastic. You can clearly see most of the seams down the length of the roof, and the plastic bulges a little at each one. When I step on the seams, they move quite a bit. That surprised me on a brand new rv, and the way that Jayco talks up their screwed, not stapled, plywood roof.

The roof was a major consideration when we decided to to get a Jayco over a Grand Design. (There are other reasons we are still glad we went Jayco)
We didn't want a particle board roof to disintegrated on us. But maybe the Grand Design people are right to have a single sheet, seamless roof.

So, does your Jayco roof flex this much? Is it something to have the dealer look at?

[Siamese]

Jayco 26BH here. I weigh 157 ish. I certainly notice flex between the frames, but I've never noticed anything going on at the seams. I was just up there yesterday, as we're doing our annual big maintenance on our rig.

[Dan]

I think your roof is perfectly normal. I weigh 250 and walk on my roof all the time. I try not to step on the seams but sometimes do anyway. The flex is normal. I would rather have something that flexes on a trailer than something rigid. Rigid can break eventually because, well, it's rigid and not flexible. I could be wrong but that's how I see it.

[Siamese]

I was up on the roof of my 26bh again today, and looked for flex at the seams, or the bulging at the seams that you described. Saw none.

[Neo1130]

Originally Posted by Siamese

I was up on the roof of my 26bh again today, and looked for flex at the seams, or the bulging at the seams that you described. Saw none.

Same here. Been up on the roof 5 times on our 26BH the past week getting things ready for our trip and NO flex at the roof beams.

[Cincinnati Kid]

Originally Posted by Siamese

I was up on the roof of my 26bh again today, and looked for flex at the seams, or the bulging at the seams that you described. Saw none.

I guess that's something I'm going to have to show the dealer next time I take it in. There is definitely movement at the joints, and if they were screwed and glued, they shouldn't move at all. (I do expect flex between the joists as you walk on the roof) I haven't seen any screws popping up, but probably will if the boards keep moving like they are.

[Cincinnati Kid]

I posted here a while ago- now I have some photos. The roof always has some amount of ripples, but they are in different places each time. It's like the adhesive never stuck.
Then there are the seams. They move a lot, have a gap between the wood panels. Either they weren't screwed down tight, or the screws are pulling loose, and pulling up the plastic roof when they flex. The photos don't really show it that clearly, but when I'm on the roof, I can see several other rv roofs, and none of the seams or wrinkles are as noticeable as mine.

[Learner]

That's pretty discouraging. We've been through our share of issues with Jayco, but not the problem you're describing (or maybe we haven't looked hard enough yet!).

Could it possibly be the rubber roofing only, and not the structure?

The dealer definitely needs to check this out, IMO.

Please let us know the outcome.

Best wishes,

[Cincinnati Kid]

Originally Posted by Learner

That's pretty discouraging. We've been through our share of issues with Jayco, but not the problem you're describing (or maybe we haven't looked hard enough yet!).

Could it possibly be the rubber roofing only, and not the structure?

The dealer definitely needs to check this out, IMO.

Please let us know the outcome.

Best wishes,

Thanks for the input. Since this is our first RV of any kind, sometimes I'm not sure what is considered a problem and what is normal. Overall, our Jayco seems to be well built. One slide is a little wonky, but it works. We're taking it in to the dealer July 9 to look at a few things. I don't think it's just the rubber, because there are gaps at the seams and some of the wood panels are loose. I imagine if they decide to reroof it, we will be going to Elkhart. Thanks again.

[Learner]

Originally Posted by Cincinnati Kid

Thanks for the input. Since this is our first RV of any kind, sometimes I'm not sure what is considered a problem and what is normal. Overall, our Jayco seems to be well built. One slide is a little wonky, but it works. We're taking it in to the dealer July 9 to look at a few things. I don't think it's just the rubber, because there are gaps at the seams and some of the wood panels are loose. I imagine if they decide to reroof it, we will be going to Elkhart. Thanks again.

It does seem that things are hit or miss with Jayco (and probably other manufacturers).

Obviously they haven't adopted the "Toyota" method of total quality control, now used by most car manufacturers and other manufacturers, to identify problems on the assembly line!

It would seem that they would benefit from having a QC overseer every so many steps during the assembly process. Maybe they do, but they don't have enough? Or maybe they are discouraged from truly pointing out issues (having an appearance of "quality control", but not really controlling the quality!).

I suppose if I were to look at the glass as "half-full" instead of half-empty with regards to RV quality, I would be grateful that Jayco gets as much right as they do!

Best wishes,
Frank

[Cincinnati Kid]

Update:
We were at the Jayco Factory last week getting slide toppers installed, and asked them to look at the roof.
Result: We are scheduled to have the entire roof removed, new decking, vents, rubber and all trim replaced.
We'll take it back to the factory in February to have this done. Meanwhile, we have full use of the 5th wheel.
Great response from Jayco.

[Learner]

Originally Posted by Cincinnati Kid

Update:
We were at the Jayco Factory last week getting slide toppers installed, and asked them to look at the roof.
Result: We are scheduled to have the entire roof removed, new decking, vents, rubber and all trim replaced.
We'll take it back to the factory in February to have this done. Meanwhile, we have full use of the 5th wheel.
Great response from Jayco.

That is great news!

Did they happen to speculate on what they thought might be the cause of the problem?

Best wishes,
Frank

[Cincinnati Kid]

Originally Posted by Learner

That is great news!

Did they happen to speculate on what they thought might be the cause of the problem?

Best wishes,
Frank

They thought the decking was not properly screwed down during manufacture. So human error, probably.
Same thing with the TPO adhesive- not properly applied.

I think they probably sank the screws too deep, and they pulled through.

[GL243]

Originally Posted by Cincinnati Kid

I posted here a while ago- now I have some photos. The roof always has some amount of ripples, but they are in different places each time. It's like the adhesive never stuck. . . .


Attachment 51108

Interesting new wrinkle on roof issues, no pun intended (or intended, take your pick . . .). Looking at your last picture, it looks like the rubber membrane is also not glued down along the right and left edges of the roof. I had that issue on our 2018 SLX267BHSW, but also had the problem that the metal siding on the trailer extended about 1/4" above the roof decking so it resulted in a sharp metal edge directly touching the underside of the membrane. Our CW dealer noticed this and tried to get Jayco to approve 35 hours of labor to fix it, Jayco denied, I then got into a back and forth phone call & email exchange with a Jayco customer service rep that eventually resulted in Jayco approving 14 hours of labor to pull back membrane from edges, trim metal siding down, tape it, reinstall and glue down membrane, which I thought was fair and appropriate. However, the dealership decided they didn't want to "trim" the metal but would only "bend it over" and then tape over it because they thought trimming would still leave a sharp edge. So I acquiesced to that, but now I'm seeing that the membrane is loose again along the edge, so am struggling with whether I need to complain and demand more. The Jayco CS rep I dealt with said it's normal for the membrane to bubble up and shrink back down in places so just seeing wrinkles doesn't warrant a roof membrane replacement.

So, did you get something in writing from Jayco that describes the problem in addition to describing what they have agreed to do to fix it? I'm curious to know if they described something about the "loose membrane" part of your problem that I could point to in my case? Thanks for any further insights.

[RipinSC]

I am convinced that the RV industry has no idea what QC stands for or the meaning of it. Just throw them together and let the dealers and the customer find the issues.

[Cincinnati Kid]

Originally Posted by GL243

Interesting new wrinkle on roof issues, no pun intended (or intended, take your pick . . .). Looking at your last picture, it looks like the rubber membrane is also not glued down along the right and left edges of the roof. I had that issue on our 2018 SLX267BHSW, but also had the problem that the metal siding on the trailer extended about 1/4" above the roof decking so it resulted in a sharp metal edge directly touching the underside of the membrane. Our CW dealer noticed this and tried to get Jayco to approve 35 hours of labor to fix it, Jayco denied, I then got into a back and forth phone call & email exchange with a Jayco customer service rep that eventually resulted in Jayco approving 14 hours of labor to pull back membrane from edges, trim metal siding down, tape it, reinstall and glue down membrane, which I thought was fair and appropriate. However, the dealership decided they didn't want to "trim" the metal but would only "bend it over" and then tape over it because they thought trimming would still leave a sharp edge. So I acquiesced to that, but now I'm seeing that the membrane is loose again along the edge, so am struggling with whether I need to complain and demand more. The Jayco CS rep I dealt with said it's normal for the membrane to bubble up and shrink back down in places so just seeing wrinkles doesn't warrant a roof membrane replacement.

So, did you get something in writing from Jayco that describes the problem in addition to describing what they have agreed to do to fix it? I'm curious to know if they described something about the "loose membrane" part of your problem that I could point to in my case? Thanks for any further insights.

No, I have nothing in writing, but we do have a repair date scheduled at the factory. I feel confident that Jayco understands the problem and will fix it properly. I would not want to have this major repair done at a dealership. Jayco has a bay dedicated to repairing roofs. We are retired and live in Ohio, so we don't mind traveling to Elkhart to get it done.
My advice is to contact Jayco directly, and ask them to look at it. We happened to be at the factory getting slide toppers installed, so if you can travel there, great, otherwise send photos. Good luck.

[GL243]

Ok, thanks. Sounds like the loose decking is the main reason they're redoing your roof and not the wrinkles in the membrane. That, plus reading the other posts here indicating the membrane is typically not adhered to the decking in all spots (that's actually what the Jayco rep told me also), is actually encouraging that I don't have a serious problem. Congrats on getting the resolution Jayco is doing for you.

[Cincinnati Kid]

Originally Posted by GL243

Ok, thanks. Sounds like the loose decking is the main reason they're redoing your roof and not the wrinkles in the membrane. That, plus reading the other posts here indicating the membrane is typically not adhered to the decking in all spots (that's actually what the Jayco rep told me also), is actually encouraging that I don't have a serious problem. Congrats on getting the resolution Jayco is doing for you.

Funny thing is, sometime it's loose all around the perimeter, and other times the edges are tight, and the rest of the roof has random loose/wrinkled spots. I suppose it changes with heat, humidity, etc.. But the adhesive has failed, and it's as much of a problem as the loose plywood is. I was wondering if mine was normal, then when I was on the roof at the storage place, I could see a lot of rv roofs, old and new, and they all looked tighter than mine.

[eighty4glj]

We had same issue on new '20 Eagle 355MBQS. I got on roof during PDI and had dealership service rep look at with me. He took pics, sent to Jayco, and they authorized a new roof. We're in Florida. No taking back to factory for repair. Dealership replaced about a month ago. Had to also replace plywood in process as removing membrane caused plywood to peel apart in some areas.

[Siamese]

Sounds like a reasonable resolution. Good thing you're not too far from the factory. Have to figure they can fix it right, even if the messed it up in the first place. Gotta wonder what the heck happened. Forgot the screws and glue? Got in a hurry and hustled it out the door? We'll never know.