Hi to all. Just a few more pics, I had trouble keeping water from coming in the roof, so I found this stuff on the Web and used it.

I applied three coats, the booklet said two is mandatary I had plenty left so put on another for good measure, it looks great only comes in white that worked? 

Also a foldown to the end of the sink unit.

All the best David.

David,

Could you elaborate on where the water was coming in? It shouldn't be able to come in through the fiberglass, so I would think it could only be around roof fittings (such as a vent), or fasteners (such as screws or rivets).

That said, I've never seen a Boler 17; does it have seams or etc. on the roof?

Flip-up tables are so handy

Hi Ok, one spot I found was on the rear roof curve. I tried a spraying extra paint in the area, it worked for a while but heavy rain found its way in, the water was weeping through the fiberglass.
No seams on the roof, and now no more leaks.
The thing about this stuff, it covers over the rivets as well.

Hi David this roof paint sounds exactly what I am looking for. I have a 13 Scamp Where did you get it? what brand is it? and how much do you think I would need? A quick side note I got an awesome deal on my used Scamp but the biggest problem is the previouse owner used tar, ya tar roof stuff to fix roof leaks, its just in patches on the roof but I dont think I can remove? so I want to at least make it look better and seal up the rest of the roof.
Thanks

Barry,

Have you tried a solvent to remove the tar? Fiberglass gelcoat will stand up to quite a bit, actually.

I would remove the tar, then remove the leaking hardware on the roof and rebed or re-seal it.

I don't understand what is happening with David's fiberglass; that it would let water in is not usual or normal. I have seen a few cases in boats where the boat was struck by lightning and that resulted in thousands of pinholes in the fiberglass, but even then it was where the lightning charge exited (so on the bottom, not the top). In my experience it is fittings or fasteners that leak. (Skylight, a rivet, etc.)

As you have found with the tar, just sealing over these things does not work in the long run, and it is a pain to remove. If you take off the fittings, put sealant underneath (not around) them, and then reinstall them I think your leaks would be gone.

Raya

Hi Barry.

Polycoatings International 324 Saunder Road Unit 8 Barrie Ont.

www.polycoatings.com 

I used to repair the roofs of semi trailer and Elastometic Roof Coating was the stuff we used in the repair area as it worked the best..... at that time we where able to get it in white or gray...... Really great stuff and i think you will be very happy with the longevity of this stuff.
Joe

This is very interesting thread, cause I have heard of stick built rv owners doing this but molded glass rv's? Wouldn't it been better to have chased down the source of the leak? Rivet? Vent? With no seams, those to me would be the source, cause I guess I have never heard of weeping fiberglass. I guess what I am wondering is, that as you say you have no more leaks but wonder if this is only a band-aid to the issue of the leaks? I guess time will tell..





Raya, boat's struck by lightning? So I suppose that means that an glass egg could be struck as well? Great now I find this out, after 4 day campout at 9000 feet with lightning striking all around us during the afternoon storms........................EEEEEKKKKKKK!

Apart from spraying new (Gel Coat) on the Boler, the price I could buy a new trailer, this stuff they say lasts 20 years has a 10 year Guarantee.so saying it could be band aid-aid fix is not te word I would use.
And who is to say a 31 year old fiberglass trailer cannot get leak.
It was only one spot that was giving my problem, I pulled the foam away from the roof and observed it beading

David.

David, I am not trying to dispute it, but as I said "wonder" because similar products have been used on stickies many times, and I know for a fact it's dosen't last on them. I guess I am clueless as well on the use of gel coat, I didn't realize it was used for moisture protection.

You say you pulled the foam away and observed beading, from my understanding the water can travel to a point so that the area of beading may not be the entry point. The reason I am interested is I have a friend who bought an old molded fiberglass overhead camper that has had moisture issues and was wanting a quick fix to it and asked me just the other day if I thought that snow roof stuff would fix the problem I told him NO! because to me, finding the leak entry would be the best way to fix the problem. So this is why I find this thread interesting. I also wondered if the product has a texture? Or is it smooth? Reason I ask is I wondered if it's like that bed liner spray on stuff?


As for someone saying that 30 year old fiberglass can't leak, I don't think anyone has, I truely don't know but would assume that if it did there would be alot of old boats sitting at the bottom of lakes, rivers and the ocean's? I could understand if there were visable cracks, holes but I just haven't heard of weeping fiberglass before. I guess we need a fiberglass expert to answer that one.

All fiberglass laminates are semipermeable, that is why boats get blisters (delaminate)

The fiberglass on some of the eggs is very thin, and can be prone to stress cracks (spider-webbing) at the radius corners. It is then possible for moisture to wick through the fiberglass to the interior. My Scamp did the same thing at the rear passenger side top corner. I thought sure it was leaking at the window, and resealed that, but the leak persisted. I verified that it wasn't leaking at the roof vent, and there was no other entry point higher than the wet spot on my rat fur. I finally went after the spider cracks with Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Sealer (amazing stuff - used to get some discussion on this forum, but I haven't seen it mentioned in a while). That fixed it.

I don't think this is a real likely scenario for our eggs.

Yes, fiberglass sitting in water can be semi-permeable, and "soak up" water after a time, and this can be a cause of blisters. But I can't see how that would apply to a typical fiberglass camper that sits in air, with only the occasional water casually on the surface.

Okay, this is probably boring and basically applies to boats and not campers, but here is my understanding of it:
Essentially, when there is a lot of hydrostatic pressure on a boat's hull (i.e. it is floating in the water), then water molecules can permeate the 'glass. Not all the way into the boat though (that would have to be an incredibly extreme case; I have not see one). What happens is the water molecules seep in through the gelcoat to the first layer or so of glass (or sometimes deeper in more serious cases), and then they combine with some chemical parts of the resin to make a new liquid, and this liquid has larger molecules than the water did. So it can't pass out through the same microscopic holes that it came in through. Hence the new fluid builds up inside in the outer layers of the boat's layup and that is your blister. In the many many blistered boats I have seen or read about, I have not heard of one sinking because of it, although I suppose it is possible in isolated, extreme cases. This does not cause boats to take on water into the inside of the boat; it's a problem in the outer laminae.

On some (typically older) boats, the gelcoat is more permeable, so those boats don't tend to get blisters. The water still seeps in, and still combines with resins, but the new, larger-moleculed liquid can get back out, so no blister. Now theoretically this could cause a starved, weak layup, but that would take a long time, and again, the boat would have to have the hydrostatic pressure of being submerged in water (which a camper is not).

But back to the camper issue, if someone does have an area of thin or permeable or damaged fiberglass, the way to fix it, in my opinion, would be to laminate a new layer or two of epoxy or Vinylester resin impregnated fiberglass cloth on the inside. That would be a "permanent" fix, and would strengthen the camper shell (which, if it's weak enough to let water in, might need some beefing up anyway). In fact, this would almost certainly result in a repair that was stronger than the original (and either of these resins are superior to the polyester our campers were built with).

Likewise a crack could be repaired with new cloth and resin. It wouldn't have to be from the inside, but cosmetically that would be much easier.

In summary, I would still think that 99% of people's leaks would be through fittings and hardware, and for those few that have fiberglass problems, fixing them with new fiberglass would be the way to go.

I'm sure everyone is by this point!
Raya

Thanks Paul for the info, I understand stress cracks so that makes sense that water could seep in threw them I just had never heard of weeping.


Raya, actually I found your info interesting, personally have very little experience with boats that are in the water 24/7. My main boating experiences is from ski boats that we pull out of the water after every trip and as I said had never seen de-lam. Interesting.

What this really boils down to is it's David's trailer and he found a solution he's happy with. It might not be the same solution others would have done... but, so what? IF we take away anything from this topic it may be to remember that there's different strokes for different folks. Whether it's the RIGHT fix for the problem... who's to say? He's happy and that's what matters.

Point taken, Donna.

I think it was his "The Final Solution" comment that made me feel like I had to chip in. It's probably a fault of mine, but I can't help but think of future searchers and....

I'll try to sit on my hands more

David, please accept my apology.

Raya

Oh but I should add this for Robin:

Not that an egg couldn't be struck by lightning, just like anything, but there is nothing especially attractive about fiberglass. Most of the boats I know of that have been struck by lightning are sailboats - and of course they have a 50 "pole" (the mast) usually metal, sticking up towards the clouds.

And yes, that can be a bit scary in a lightning storm!

Raya

Frequency due to environment VS inherent physical properties .....

Seems sort of like comparing apples and Harleys ..........

I thought my single sentence post stated it clearly for the person who did not know undamaged glass can seep, I was not commenting on how common this scenario may be in a glass camper (not likely) nor was I commenting on the type of repair in question (I would not repair it this way) I was simply stating a known fact about the material in question.

And after decades of playing with glass I have witnessed glass seeping with my own eyes so I know it can and does happen in most any application where glass can be utilized.

David fixed his own problem on his own trailer, and as long as he is happy with it that is what matters.

Yes, sorry, that was not worded properly on my part.

I was just trying to get across the idea that although a boat hull submerged in water for months or even years is likely to absorb water into the outer laminae; a fiberglass camper that has (typically) at most a bit of rain or snow on it, but not the long-term pressure of being submerged is unlikely to experience that effect.

I haven't seen undamaged fiberglass seep, but then perhaps that's because my definition of undamaged does not include any condition that would cause such behavior. The fiberglass boats that I know have dry bilges unless there is water coming in through a fitting leak, or the stuffing box, or something like that. On the other hand, our eggs are pretty lightly built, and the quality control was not always that stringent, so I could see there being the potential for defects.

I still feel that if an egg's fiberglass were cracked, or so thin as to be seeping, that it would be better to fix that with fiberglass cloth and resin; but I do realize that everyone does not have to do things my way.

As stated above, I probably shouldn't have said anything, but when another (new) egg owner piped in to ask about the coating, figuring it would be a good way to fix his roof leak, well then I had a hard time not saying more about it. I didn't want to reduce David's happiness with his repair, and perhaps I was being too protective of others, who can also work on their eggs as they see fit.

I have already apologized to David, and I meant it.

Raya

So seeping can exist. Interesting! Thanks John and Raya for the info explanation.






Raya, I will be sure to not add a mast to the casita anytime sooooooooon .

Hello David, I did the same roof coating with three coats each one opposite of the other and also did the decopage on the inside with brown paper and glaze to finish, it looks great! Next will be the hardwood floor and put the cabinets back in. Then it will be ready to roll. Bryan

Good Day to all, thanks for all the feedback maybe wording it the final solution was a little off, If I offended I am sorry for that.
No apology needed, all informative input is good, being a retired plumber sooner or later all things breakdown, leak, etc.
Have a Good Day David.