newbie has a leaking roof vent

[chinatrain99]

my wife bought a 1985 scamp 16'. her idea was dry and off the ground. this scamp isn't in the best of shape. original windows and roof air vent. went camping this weekend in a downpour. water was dripping in from the roof air vent. we used to have an rv and it had a plastic "cover" over it so that water (and air) only came from the rear. rather than cauking the crap out of my scamp's roof vent or replace it, i was wondering if anyone has just put a "cover" over theirs? I'm not sure what size cover fits over a scamp ceiling vent or how to attach it. I'm thinking silicone/caulk and squish it on and hope it sticks. Screws would come thru the ceiling which would get me in trouble with the wife. Another thought I had was putting some kind of "protector" over the tops of the windows to force the water around windows and not down windows. I know they make them for cars but I wasn't sure if there was such a thing for a scamp. thanks for any thoughts on either of my questions, jeff

[Bob Miller]

Hi and Welcome to the group

There are a number of vent covers available that will do what you want, but why not just take the vent off and clean off all the old junk, the reinstall it properly with RV putty tape..

BTW: If by "Caulking" you mean silicone caulk, fergit that idea, it doesn't work well with fiberglass, will leak again, and the more that's piled on, the harder it will be to take it all off.

[Jay H]

Hey Jeff, what a timely post. I am curious to see what the responses are. I too have some roof vent issues, no leaks yet, just a sagging roof on my boler 1300!
Jay

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by chinatrain99

my wife bought a 1985 scamp 16'. her idea was dry and off the ground. this scamp isn't in the best of shape. original windows and roof air vent. went camping this weekend in a downpour. water was dripping in from the roof air vent. we used to have an rv and it had a plastic "cover" over it so that water (and air) only came from the rear. rather than cauking the crap out of my scamp's roof vent or replace it, i was wondering if anyone has just put a "cover" over theirs? I'm not sure what size cover fits over a scamp ceiling vent or how to attach it. I'm thinking silicone/caulk and squish it on and hope it sticks. Screws would come thru the ceiling which would get me in trouble with the wife. Another thought I had was putting some kind of "protector" over the tops of the windows to force the water around windows and not down windows. I know they make them for cars but I wasn't sure if there was such a thing for a scamp. thanks for any thoughts on either of my questions, jeff

As far as the leaking vent is concerned, what you propose is the wrong way to address the problem. Drill out the rivets, clean the surface, and use butyl tape under the flange of the vent. Rivet it in place, and then run a bead of caulk, preferably not silicon, around the edge and on top of the replacement rivets. Putting a cover over the vent will only mean that instead of having an uncovered leaky vent you will have a covered leaky vent.


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[chinatrain99]

I saw in another thread where somebody used clear life seal and sprayed around it. He also re weatherstripped it. I'm looking for something easy.

http://mobile.walmart.com/ip/As-Seen...-Seal/20850472


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[C&G in FL]

All I can say is you either want easy or you want the leak to stop. There is NO EASY FIX here. You have to remove the vent and seal it properly, otherwise it will continue to leak. If you want easy, park it inside a garage and if the garage's roof is in good repair, the trailer vent will never leak. Sorry, but there truly is no easy fix.


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[Bob Miller]

Ditto on the leaky windows. You take out the frames, remove all the junk, apply RV Butyl Tape, and put it back together. Preventive maint., done correctly, is what keeps RGRV's alive forever. My Hunter is 41 this year.

[Donna D.]

I wouldn't say fixing a leaking roof vent is hard. Just like some maintenance issues, it's just a bit time consuming. But, if done right.. the repair will last for years.

Yep you can take the easy way out and redo and redo and redo and STILL need to fix it properly down the road.

Your trailer is an asset. Take care of it and it will take care of you.

Silicone on the exterior?

[Carol H]

You can buy vent covers for RV's vents if it is a standard sized hatch you are talking about. If its the big escape hatch that Scamp uses I don't think you will find a cover for it.

As Carl & Donna suggest putting anymore gunk of any make on a leaking vent is a short lived fix. Not to mention you will hate yourself in a year or so when it starts to leak again and you have to waste even more time trying to clean off what ever gunk of choose you used. Better IMO to bite the bullet and drill out the rivets and clean up the hatch and roof and reset the whole think using butyl tape and it will be good for another 20 years or more.

Lots of info here in regards to redoing the Scamp Escape hatch using butyl tape ... just use the drop down search function on the top bar and choose the bottom Google search option for best results.

[gage]

Originally Posted by chinatrain99

I saw in another thread where somebody used clear life seal and sprayed around it. He also re weatherstripped it. I'm looking for something easy.
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Like Bob, Carl and others have said, fix it the correct way with butyl tape. It's not that hard. Or what you could do is sale the '85 Scamp and buy a new one that would solve your leaky vent and any future problems that may come up with an vintage egg. Come to think about it, that would also be the easiest way to solve your problem.

[sarahspins]

Originally Posted by CPW

All I can say is you either want easy or you want the leak to stop. There is NO EASY FIX here. You have to remove the vent and seal it properly, otherwise it will continue to leak. If you want easy, park it inside a garage and if the garage's roof is in good repair, the trailer vent will never leak. Sorry, but there truly is no easy fix.

Ditto this.. and honestly doing the "fast and dirty" repair ends up taking nearly as much effort and time as doing it "right" would - so why not just take an afternoon and do it right and not have to mess with it again for a long time?

Butyl tape and rivets are fairly simple to work with - do be afraid to jump right in there. Do yourself a favor and buy a decent rivet gun (not the $4.99 variety from Harbor Freight) - odds are good you'll be using it a lot as you find more things that are in need of repair

The hardest part is actually finding the correct size rivets - you may not be able to find them long enough locally, so you may have to order them, but Scamp sells all the sizes you could possibly need.

[deryk]

Its not a hard job...hardest part was scraping the calk away to expose the rivet heads lol. I replaced my unit with the much better Airxcel | Maxxair | Maxxfan Deluxe (Manual Opening)

check the video!

[Carol H]

Problem is if its the large escape hatch on the Scamp that is leaking the OP will not find a Maxxair vent or any other auto vent that will fix it. On scamps those are normally added in addition to the big escape hatch.

[deryk]

then he pulls the hatch properly cleans it and re-beds it...it isn't an overly complex job or requiring a lot of tools or skill. check YouTube I am sure there are several video's how to remove a vent hatch or escape hatch.

[C&G in FL]

I would also add that back in February or March, I can't remember, I had an acquaintance in NH who had the same problem. As hard as I tried to talk him out of the "easy fix," he did it anyway. Well, it leaked on him again in July and he has now fixed it properly.


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[Carol H]

Originally Posted by deryk

.it isn't an overly complex job or requiring a lot of tools or skill.

No it is not - when I did mine I spent more time cleaning up the frame of the vent of all the old caulking & who knows what else that had been put on it over the years than I did actually removing the old rivets and reinstalling them. The nice thing about the large escape hatch is that you can actually stand up through it making it very easy to get at all the rivets that need to be drilled out and then reset.

Suggest the OP buys his wife a good quality rivet gun for her old trailer as this will not be the first and only job a rivet gun will be needed for it.

As far as getting all the old caulking & other goop off the frame goes I tried a number of different products but found that once removed that leaving the frame heavily coated with DAP Silicone Be Gone overnight worked the best.