Sealant

[Joe1261]

I have a question concerning sealant.

My wife bought this sealant called GE Silicone II, It says it is for Aluminum & Metal. She bought it at Lowes. It says that it has a rating of 10 for Stainless Steel. I just wanted to make sure that it was good for sealing leaks on the outside of my trailer.

Has anyone used this stuff Before??

Thanks
Joe

[Hawk_Man]

Joe, Try this thread here for a little education on sealing the seams of your

Airstream,

http://www.airforums.com/forum...+seams+trailer

This helped me out when I was fixing the seams and joints on mine, rule that

I've come to understands is never ever use silicone.

regards, Keith

[Hawk_Man]

I forgot to mention the search feature of this site is quite helpful in the top

right corner of the blue bar, between New Posts and Quick Links. Just type a

question or a particular item of interest and it will give you some available

threads.

Regards, Keith

[davidz71]

Originally Posted by Joe1261

I have a question concerning sealant.

My wife bought this sealant called GE Silicone II, It says it is for Aluminum & Metal. She bought it at Lowes. It says that it has a rating of 10 for Stainless Steel. I just wanted to make sure that it was good for sealing leaks on the outside of my trailer.

Has anyone used this stuff Before??

Thanks
Joe

Stop, do not use the Silicone sealer. Once you do, the residue is extremely hard to get off and it will not do a good job of sticking to the aluminum on your trailer. I have tried several types of Vulcum and found them to be second best to Silkaflex 221. One of the Vulcum sealers was grainey and seemed to dry out over the year. The Silkaflex goes on smooth and after a year was still smooth and pliable. It is good for larger seams. I have also tried ParBond for small seams but after a year it seemed to develop cracks. Acryl-R appears to be what Airstream is using on many of the panel and window seams now.

[CanoeStream]

Let's make this very clear:

Originally Posted by davidz71

Stop, do not use the Silicone sealer. Once you do, the residue is extremely hard to get off and it will not do a good job of sticking to the aluminum on your trailer. I have tried several types of Vulkem and found them to be second best to Silkaflex 221. One of the Vulkem sealers was grainey and seemed to dry out over the year. The Silkaflex goes on smooth and after a year was still smooth and pliable. It is good for larger seams. I have also tried ParBond for small seams but after a year it seemed to develop cracks. Acryl-R appears to be what Airstream is using on many of the panel and window seams now.

Silicone is an all or nothing proposal. There will be significant areas to which it will never bond, resulting in leaks. And the other areas will stick harder than putting your tongue on a flagpole at 10-below zero.

Just like Craig I'll put my vote on Sikaflex 221. It has a nice body, is smooth and can be syringed, skins over and is fairly set to the touch after half a day. The gray color is a very good match for aluminum. Vulkem stays tacky & runny for several days.

[lewster]

Originally Posted by Joe1261

I have a question concerning sealant.

My wife bought this sealant called GE Silicone II, It says it is for Aluminum & Metal. She bought it at Lowes. It says that it has a rating of 10 for Stainless Steel. I just wanted to make sure that it was good for sealing leaks on the outside of my trailer.

Has anyone used this stuff Before??

Thanks
Joe

Silicone has no place in ANY RV!!!!! There are many FAR SUPERIOR sealants out there and not a one is silicone. The Airstream Factory used to use Vulkem and Par-Bond but now uses SikaFlex 221 for most sealing jobs and Acryl-R for the smaller seams. Polyurethane sealants are superior in EVERY WAY to silicones and don't leave a residue when you try to get them off. In fact, they are so tenacious that getting a polyurethane sealant to come off is practically impossible.

Sika also makes specialty adhesives such as Sika550FC which has unbelievable bonding properties between glass and metal. Prevost bus converters use this to adhere a certain model of automatic Zip-Dee awning brackets to the curved glass found on some Prevost models. I have worked on some and I could not believe how strong this stuff was.

USE SILICONE AT YOUR PERIL!

[lewster]

Originally Posted by Canoe stream

Let's make this very clear:Silicone is an all or nothing proposal. There will be significant areas to which it will never bond, resulting in leaks. And the other areas will stick harder than putting your tongue on a flagpole at 10-below zero.

Just like Craig I'll put my vote on Sikaflex 221. It has a nice body, is smooth and can be syringed, skins over and is fairly set to the touch after half a day. The gray color is a very good match for aluminum. Vulkem stays tacky & runny for several days.

Bob,

There is a neat trick to get SikaFlex221 to kick quicker. PM me if you need the info.

[davidz71]

Well, I see that I have misspelled Sikaflex. I've used the stuff for several years now and it goes on smooth as silk so..........

[bibbs]

I am about to start calking my leeky argosy 26 MH.Where do you get this wonderful stuff?

thanks everybody,Love this fourm sight

Doug

[davidz71]

Originally Posted by bibbs

I am about to start calking my leeky argosy 26 MH.Where do you get this wonderful stuff?

thanks everybody,Love this fourm sight

Doug

The Airstream factory store carries it. I think I did a yahoo search but can't remember who I ordered my last tube from.

[cameront120]

Originally Posted by bibbs

I am about to start calking my leeky argosy 26 MH.Where do you get this wonderful stuff?

thanks everybody,Love this fourm sight

Doug

It's hard to track down if you want a local source and don't want to deal with mail order. You might get lucky and find 221 at a hardware store, but it is likely you'll need to go to a wholesaler of window sealants. That's what I ended up doing. Try calling a window manufacturer or repair company in your area and ask them if the use the stuff and where they get it. Sika is a major supplier of sealants to the construction industry.

[lewster]

Originally Posted by cameront120

It's hard to track down if you want a local source and don't want to deal with mail order. You might get lucky and find 221 at a hardware store, but it is likely you'll need to go to a wholesaler of window sealants. That's what I ended up doing. Try calling a window manufacturer or repair company in your area and ask them if the use the stuff and where they get it. Sika is a major supplier of sealants to the construction industry.

Just a quick note of caution about SikaFlex221. All tubes have an expiration date on them and the stuff gets VERY hard to use after that date. Be sure to check out that little white label on those tubes to be sure that they're fresh!

[bibbs]

Thanks again everybody, I will look around ;should be eazy to find now, thanks for the tip on expiration date

Doug