Need advise on a leaky slider

[Earl E. November]

I had a similar issue with the rear glass on a 13'.. in time the plastic shrinks and the joint pulls open.. I agree it could be in a better location..
What I did was:
1. I stuck a razor blade down between the glass and the seal..
2. I covered the outside with black electrical tape.
3. I used black silicone and injected it into the void in the joint.

I did that both inside and out, and after clean up you could not even see the repair and it seemed to work..

You'll need to make sure you get the silicone into the are directly under the glass as well as just into the crack.

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by ruscal

The leak is back! It is leaking from the butted joint in the extrusion which is positioned......(you guessed it, at the bottom center). The scuppers don't even have to be plugged to let water go out this joint! some water goes out the scuppers and some drips from the joint. I don't know what Hehr was thinking when they decided on that butt location, but now I have to think of a way to fix it. It appears the window has an external frame and an internal frame. The external frame has the joint located at 3:00 o'clock. The inner is located at 6:00 o'clock. Directly under the divider mullion. I don't know how to dis-assemble the window, but there are exposed screws around the perimeter of the inside frame. Perhaps I could pull all those screws and see if the window will pull loose on the inside, leaving the sealed outside frame glued to the trailer? If so, I could dis-assemble the inside frame and caulk it from the gutter side. Anyone have any experience with Scamp/Hehr sliders?
Russ

The inner frame is called a clamp ring. Yes, pull the screws and with someone on the outside to make sure the window doesn't fall out, carefully pull the window out (from outside). Clean up the window frame and gelcoat. Reapply the window with butyl putty tape. Reapply the interior clamp ring and screw it down little bits at a time which allows the butyl to squeeze out. Use a plastic knife to trim the squeezed out portion. Two or three days later, tighten the clamp ring a bit more and repeat the plastic knife scrapping. It's not hard, even I've done it. This should give you a leak free window for a number of years. Good luck!

[Gina D.]

if you don't mind folks thinking you are in the Beverly Hillbillies family, you can throw a bit of electrical tape over that joint.

I have the same issue in my Leocraft on the curb side window. I suspected that joint first off due to the water location. Mine is at 3 oclock as you look from the outside. Rather than pull the whole window out to see exactly where the leak is happening, I dug out the silicone, temporarily slapped a bit of electrical tape over that joint and slathered pipe joint compound on it (Easy clean up after the experiment)

That was a week ago and we have had downpours akimbo since than. Its all dry.

This tells me exactly where it is and I can pull the patch, then inject sealant in there when the weather clears.

[Per Walthinsen]

The weep hole advice is good but I also found that the front slider, in particular, had a gap between the exterior molding and the plastic pane. There is a part in the channel which forces the pane against the molding when closed. Available from Pelland Industries, this Hehr part prevents a large gap from overwhelming the weep holes. Initially it may make the window a bit stiff to close completely but that eases off with time. Particularly good if you have a front slider which gets a lot of air pressure when traveling.

[ruscal]

I did some hose testing today and got the window to leak without wetting the top rail where it seals to the trailer body. I had previously rodded the weeps with a welding rod which helped, but not fixed the issue. I decided to lift the lower window track out of the aluminum frame and look around. The lower window track has a fuzzy surface which was clogged with silt. (trailer belly button lint) I was able to take a flat blade screwdriver and squeegie the crud out of the track. Then rinsed it with a jet of water and towel dried. Then I moved below the track and used the screw driver to rake piles of stuff from the window channel. I then used a hose jet to clean the channel working down the side to the drain, and then from the fixed side of the window drain back to the other drain. After several minutes with the hose the water ran clear with no floaters. I couldn't believe how much "stuff" was in there! I pressed the rubber window track back into the frame. What caused my leak was a dam across the channel near the bend where the vertical jamb joins the bottom of the window. The water would work into the channel, run down to the dam, overflow inward toward the screen channel and seep out the clamp ring joint at bottom center of the frame. After getting everything spiffy I retested with the hose. I couldn't make it leak.

Moral: There is no such thing a rodding out the scupper drains! It just pushes the crud farther back into the darkness. It can break up a dam though, so you will get some temporary relief, but the stuff will float back and form another dam.

It did'nt take much time to do the job right. I did all 5 sliders in about a half hour.

In it's former life my trailer lived under some trees. When I got it the roof and upper surface of the awning were black. This probably led up the my worse than normal buildup. Also the rubber gasket that rubs up against the sliding half of the window is shrunken back leaving a 1/4" gap for small leaves, twigs, etc to enter the trough near the center mullion and not fit back out through the weeps.
Russ