Ventura trailer leaking at the seams

[hollyjustholly]

I bought a 1973 Ventura trailer a year ago, but just now have the time and money to fix it up. I've gutted the entire inside down to the frame, as there was a lot of water damage. A significant amount of water is coming in at the seam between the top and bottom pieces of the trailer, and the wood strips on the inside are mostly black and rotted. Any suggestions on the best way to seal the seam to avoid any future leaking would be much appreciated.

[Dirtguy]

I am a brand new Ventura Owen myself,I'm gonna remove all the old sealant ,clean the seem really well and then reseal with a good sealant


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[Mike Magee]

Looks to me like Ventura is one brand the mfr did not do as good of a job as they should have at glassing across the seam. Most other brands don't have this trouble.

That said, it should certainly be fixable and I'm glad these trailers are getting the TLC to bring them back to what they were meant to be.

[hollyjustholly]

My first thought was - why wasn't this seam fiberglassed over to prevent rot, and then I wondered if this is some kind of expansion or flexibility issue. Fiberglass does seem to be the obvious long term fix rather than caulking and sealing every year, but does anyone know if there is a good reason why the seam shouldn't be sealed with fiberglass?

[Joe MacDonald]

Look up belly band with the search engine, you will find many threads about repair techniques, and lots of advice
Joe

[Luc Riezebos]

Holly, I have a 76 Ventura and found similar issues with mine when I started to repair it. I replaced the wood that was rotten. And rescrewed the top into the wood after removing the bellyband. I then used fiberglass cloth and epoxy to seal the halves together. As there was dips in the area I used fiberglass body filler to level and smooth out the band area. I did not reuse the band.