Watching Water Enter the Airstream

[Akronguy]

Watching water pour down into the belly in the back of our 25 ft Excella in the thunderstorm that is happening at the moment. Removed the rotted floor in back earlier today which had the twin beds. This started as what we thought was simple carpet removal. I tarped the Airstream for the evening.

SO I need to find the leaks and tomorrow I will begin to try to find the leaks. I will also be re-caulking everything. I have two tubes of Tempro 635 and one tube of Capt Trolley's Creeping Crack CUre that was delivered last week.

My questions are:

Should I recaulk all seams the rivets near ....both horizontal and verical seams?

SHould I dig out all the old caulkng as best as possible aroind windows and use the Tempro 635?

Also will check the roof for the potential leaks. The leaks are on the side of the awning. Could that be the issue?

BTW, They sent me a tube of Tempro 644 instead of Parbond. Is that a mistake or the equivalent?

Thanks in advance!

[Belegedhel]

Ah, you know what they say: An Airstream is like an onion, as you peel away the layers, you just have to cry...

Many a shell off started with replacing the carpet...

Anyhow, easy question first, no, parbond and trempro are not the same thing, but they serve much the same purpose. Trempro 634 is usually refered to by its antiquated name of Vulkem. Not sure about the 644.

The body shape of your trailer has much to do with the rotted floor in the rear. Water glides down the outside of it and when it hits that lower beltline, it is practically channeled into the end-grain of the wood floor. Many restorers have addressed this condition by essentially putting an L shaped piece of flashing at the rear so that the water comes down the trailer, is directed out onto the base of the L, and then runs off into the bumper trunk.

You may have other leaks as well: every rivet and every seam could be a culprit. If you want to shotgun it, then clean every seam the best you can, and then put a bead of sealant along it. Check each rivet and see if it is loose-- a loose rivet will leak quite handily. The plumbing stacks are another obvious culprit. If they are still designed like they were in the 70's, with the rubber gasket between the metal and the pipe, then that gasket is probably completely shot and funneling water right into your trailer.

Some windows also tend to catch water in the frame, and eventually it either overflows, or leaks through a pop rivet hole into the interior.

Good luck!

[xrvr]

Awning mounts notoriously leak. Jim

[Akronguy]

Going to run a strip of Eternabond over the rivets and seam for the awning.

WIll look at plumbing stacks, rivets...etc after that. Thanks!

[Splitrock]

My trailer had 11 leaks from the entry door to the front of the first window . . . about 6'. The hardest to find was a side lap joint that looked fine from the outside. I had to remove the inside skin and sit on a farmer's milking stool in a month's worth of night thunderstorms with a poacher's light to find it. On my antique trailer, the belly wrap is installed on top of the side skin . . . a planned leak. The step release slot is a planned water intake port.

I installed 3 new Fantastic fans in 2010 and all three bases of those fans cracked and leaked. My biggest mistake in fixing this trailer up was using Fantastic fans. The original cast aluminum roof vent bases were perfect when I removed them and didn't leak.

[DavidsonOverlander]

Trempro 644 is not the same at Trempro 635. There is a description of each on the Vintage Trailer Supply site. I recently used Trempro 644 to reinstall the vista view windows on our '74 Sovereign and it worked fine for that. I did it first with Trempro 635 but a few days later I noticed the windows were pulling away from the frames. That's when I learned the hard way that 635 has an expiry date, and I was using an old tube. Not being able to find 635 locally (and it was even out of stock at VTS) I bought 644 at Fastenal. Trempro 644 is a silicone sealant.