On my Casita about a year ago, I had some water that dripped a little bit at corner of the fantastic fan. I looked on top and some of the caulk didn't look as good as I thought it should and re-caulked. Seemed to be ok since then until recently driving in rainstorm. Leaks again.
Is the only way to seal this correctly is to remove it and put a new butyl rubber gasket? I'm not even sure where to get that. Is it in a roll and you put it in place and smash?
Rather not get into that and wondered if maybe there were screws on inside that might be loose or something? Seems like there should be an easier way.
If I need to remove is there an assembly sequence somewhere I can look at?

Thanks for the help, Chris

Hi Chris!

I had a leaking FF on my '02 Scamp 16. I was awakened in the middle of the night by getting dripped on in a steady stream! My solution during the night was putting a plastic grocery sack over the vent, and cranking it down... and that did the trick; but in the morning, closer examination showed that the dollops of silicone sealant on most of the screws had lost their adhesion, and the rainwater was just dripping through the screw holes.

Check for obvious signs of poor adhesion of the sealant around the perimeter, but if you roll your fingertip over the screw head sealant, you'll undoubtedly find one or more that have loosened up.

I'd recommend replacing the factory silicone sealant on and around the vent with RV roof acrylic sealant available at most RV stores... you shouldn't have to remove the vent or the existing gasket to do that.

Roger

Roger.... thanks
I'll definitely try the outside lke you say.
By the way, there are 4 screws holding the trim plate (garnish) up, inside the camper. What are these threaded into? One of the 4 of mine just pushes into the hole and is hanging in there by almost nothing. Is there just foam or something up there? I tried and tried to get it to grab somethig but no avail.

Chris...

The manufacturer recommends (and uses) Dicor Lap Sealant 501 LSW. It's a self-leveling lap sealant. I had mine installed with this product last May...no leaks so far.

On my new to me Casita I had leaks there too.
I got on the ladder and discovered what looked like 2 or 3 tubes worth of Silicone blobbed all over the fan install.

I took my trusty Fein tool(unbeleivable what this can do) and made short work of removing the entire mess.
I cleaned the area as well as I could and resealed with GE 100 percent silicone per Victors advice.

Today,less than 1 week later I drove with it thru Kentuky,Georgia and Florida in the worst rain I have ever driven through.
I am sitting right now in a campground in Ocala typing this and not a drop got through.

I am even amazed!
It is about how well it is sealed not how much.

What is a Fein tool? It sounds like it might be a useful addition to a camper's toolbox.

http://www.fein.de/fein-multimaster/us/en/main/

This is a truly amazing tool.
I don't use it every day but when I do it is because nothing else does exactly the same job.
REALLY!

I have had one for years but I noticed they are now on Infomercials too.
Nothing can ruin a good reputation as fast as an infomercial to me but despite this the tool is one serious problem solver.
Along the same lines......Little Giant ladders.
Really worth the money and weight for the utility and security they provide.
But I digress.

The Fein will take off silicone with the scraper like no other method I have tried,and I have tried all of them that I have heard of.

Very pricey but most decent tools are.

Ed

Hello,

My neighbor who had an RV repair service for 20 years taught me his way
of installing roof vents and skylights. Whether it is a membrane surface,
fiberglass or metal roof the same method works great.

-Clean the surfaces with denatured alcohol.
-Mount the vent using butyl tape and screws. Make sure the tape is soft and plenty oozes out to trim off.
-Last and most important, use Dicor lap sealant self leveling caulk on all edges and up on vent flange lapping over onto the screw heads.

I have been using this method for years and have never had any leakage
problems.

Good Luck, Larry H

Last month in Dallas, we came back to our 2007 13' Scamp and the area of our bed directly below the FF was wet. The next day I borrowed a ladder and sure enough, the sealant covering the rivets has lost it's adherence to the roof/rivets. I went to a RV dealer and he recommended a tube of C10 adhesive( it's in a RED tube). I totally removed the sealant from around the rivets and around the base of the FF. The C10 is self leveling and really did a nice job of neatly covering the rivets and putting a bead around the base of the FF. When traveling home to Iowa, we were in several rain storms so strong we had to pull over on the shouder of the interstate because we couldn't see 10 feet ahead of us. The interior stayed perfectly dry and I inspected the repair job when we got home and everything is stuck down tight. The C10 is great stuff and made to stick to fiberglass. Some of the other sealants are made to stick to rubber roofs so it's important to choose the right product!