Warm Weather, Projects, and Weekends

During our family ride to the west our home in tow began to show a little ware. Little cracks began to develop in the glassed skin. The breaks in the glassing would let moisture in and the cracks would spread. Our temporary fix, which was only intended to get us home, was tape. Fortunately I had packed some aluminum foil tape normally used by HVAC installers. I broke the tape out while we were caming in Ten X campground just outside the Grand Canyon.


Over time the number of patches increased until a pattern developed. It seemed a single sheet of luan n the roof was the primary offender. Finally by spring - yes the tape remained on the roof for around 9 months - I got around to fixing the bad spots. Initially the plan was to fix them as soon as we were home, but I realized only time would bring out all the bad spots that remained hidden. So, the tape remained in place through sun, rain, melting snow, cold, and heat and in all that time none of the patches failed. Good stuff. I strongly recommend carrying some with you on any trip. The stuff can save a faltering road trip.

I began by scraping the tape off and wiping the sticky residue off with a paper towel dipped in gasoline. (I'd rather not hear from you risk ninny's). With the tape off I could see that the patches had completely arrested any water damage, but I still needed to see what was under the epoxy and paint. I began to pick at a spot with the scraper I had used to get the tape off. I found that in most cases the damage seemed to be caused by knots in the luan. I used luan to skin the camper. At other times the problems seemed to be a result of the filler used by the luan manufacturer. In two cases a bad spot developed over a void in the luan.

Tonight I mixed a batch of epoxy and filled in all the wounds. It was too dark for pics, though.