sealing leak

[Bad Monkey]

Our '72 airstream is leaking around one of the roof vents. Is there a gasket there or is it sealed another way? What would be the best way to repair it?

[Belegedhel]

When the vent was installed, it had a fiber style gasket installed between it and the shell, and then it was bucked into place. Over the years that gasket has probably tuned to dust leaving a little gap. The vent was probably also thoroughly gooped up with sealant from the inside, but there may be a water channel through the goop, and there is your leak. I would recommend that your first step would be to get on your roof and have a good look at the conditions up there. Take a scraper and pare the dried up gasket back to the edge of the vent frame, then put a nice bead of vulkem all along the edge of the vent frame to seal it. You might also have loose or leaky rivets, so if you want to go wild, seal around each rivet head as well.

The only way to completely replace the gasket would be to drill out all the rivets, remove the gasket and replace with a bunch of vulkem, and then put the vent frame back in place using Olympic rivets, which might just be a source of a new leak. Not recommended.

Good Luck!

[Bad Monkey]

Is it safe to get all the way on top? Or should I try to stay on the ladder? This is my first airstream, and really don't want to mess the roof up.

[polarlyse]

I try to do things to protect the roof. I cushion my ladder and rest it against the awning roll. I use a quilted movers blanket and a piece of plywood to spread the weight over an area. Having done this I've been on the roof a few times and all is well. They say under NO circumstances to put weight on the end caps. So stay off of dem end caps. I read here that you can walk on the roof. I don't feel comfortable doing that.

Use caution and take a few precautionary steps and you'll be OK

[Belegedhel]

Yep, I try to avoid putting my weight on the roof, so use the ladder technique described above, unless I am really working up there (ie., swapping out AC units), in which case I might rig up some kind of scaffolding. When I do put some of my weight on the roof, I try to keep my feet on a rib, but never, ever on a formed endcap piece--they dent really easily.

[Bad Monkey]

Thanks for the info. I'll be using it this weekend hopefully.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by polarlyse

I try to do things to protect the roof. Having done this I've been on the roof a few times and all is well. They say under NO circumstances to put weight on the end caps. So stay off of dem end caps. I read here that you can walk on the roof. I don't feel comfortable doing that.

Use caution and take a few precautionary steps and you'll be OK

Many years ago, Airstream had a photo of some mechanics and male employees on the roof of a 30 foot Airstream. I personally saw that photo.

They did not have any carpets, boards or anything else for those people to stand on, except the aluminum roof itself.

They then tested it and found NO leaks.

Clearly in the photo, you could count the men that were on that roof.

There were only 30 (thirty) of them, and they were all adults too.

It's not harmful to be on the roof, BUT it does matter how and what you do.

Andy

[Belegedhel]

So, just to veer a bit off topic, I recently saw a picture posted by a forum member, which showed what looked to be a vintage Airstream which had collapsed due to snow load. The remaining snow didn't look like it could possibly have had the mass of multiple men. there were some questions about whether interior skins were in place, but I'm thinking there had to be more to the story...