Front window gasket pulled out of top corners

[Graceric]

Hello all. Thanks in advance for suggestions and comments concerning our issue.


We own a 2002, 19’ Safari. We are the 3rd happy owners of it. We recently discovered that the sub-floor gets moist after a hard rain. The sub-floor issue is near the water tank which is located under the dinette on the right side (when viewing the camper from the outside). We have spent a lot of time sealing up on the roof, around lights, along rails, around windows, etc, etc. Thanks to this forum, we are using the correct sealants such as Sikaflex 221, ACRYL-R and even Capt. Tolley’s penetrating sealant on questionable rivets.


We noticed that the front window gasket is pulled away from the top corners. One of the previous owners used a clear sealant to repair that. In our opinion, this may have made the problem worse. So we cleaned out the clear sealant on the side where we have the leak. Then we were able to press the gasket all the way back in. Unfortunately, after about 5 minutes the gasket partially pops out again. We've searched the forums but have not found a fix for our particular problem. Is it okay to superglue the gasket in place? Has anyone done that? Or does the entire gasket need to be replaced?


I attached two pics. The first pic is the left side where we don't have a leak showing what the PO did. The gasket was not pulled away as much on that side. The second pic shows the right side after we cleaned the clear sealant out. Note: The second pic was taken before we pressed the gasket back in. in other words, the gasket stays in better than the pic shows but does not stay completely in place.


Thanks again,


Grace & Eric

[rmkrum]

Looks like time to replace the old gasket material. It’s probably shrinking and hardening from age.

[Graceric]

Thanks Rich. Is that something we can do ourselves or do we need to take it to a dealer?

[rmkrum]

There are threads on Airforums about replacing window gaskets. Have a look at them. Once you locate the right material it’s a tedious job but doable. A dealer will charge a lot for the labor. I’ve never had the problem on my 2007 (yet), so I cant speak from experience.

The main challenge is cleaning out every bit of adhesive from the channels and getting the right replacement material according to what I’ve read.