Great….found a rotted out corner in my “new to me” 2011 TT.

[iqraceworks]

I recently picked up a nice 2011 Crossroads Zinger 19RDS TT. Before I bought it I walked around on the floor checking for any soft spots, checked the inside and outside of all the walls, looked in every storage area and checked for signs of water, inspected the roof for any bad spots, checked all of the caulked joints and seals on the outside of the trailer…..and aside from a little waviness of the front outer “hung wall” on the nose of the trailer, everything looked great! The previous owners took really good care of it ….and never really used it much.



Fast forward to last night…..I pulled out the rear bench/couch in order for my wife to get to some areas that she wanted to paint. And what do I find? The rear corner of the TT that was covered by the bench, was spongy…and after cutting out a piece of linoleum to inspect, is completely rotted out. At least it’s in a spot I can easily get to in order to make the repair. It should be an easy fix, I’ve done this type of work before.


There are two things that boggle my mind……1.) Where did this water come from? All the seals look great, the roof looks great, no delamination of the fiberglass walls on the outside of the trailer, and there is nothing in that area on the outside of the TT that would lead me to think water was getting in. 2.) This thing is only 5 years old……are these TT’s really put together so badly that only after 5 years, they leak bad enough to have a part of the floor rotted out!! I can’t imagine what I would have been in for if I would have bought a TT that was 10-15 years old.

[JamieGeek]

Is the rotted out section near the taillights? Are they recessed into the back of the camper? (If so you might want to remove one and check)

[iqraceworks]

Originally Posted by JamieGeek

Is the rotted out section near the taillights? Are they recessed into the back of the camper? (If so you might want to remove one and check)

It looks to me like the water originated around the wheel well area...but I will take a closer look at the brake lights also.

[Chance]

Just one thought: If the trailer spent a lot of time parked in the same location, and the affected corner just happened to be the low point due to parking area slope, it is possible the leak could be just about anywhere on the unit. I would not limit search to that corner, although I would certainly start there.

[iqraceworks]

I didn't see any other areas where water would be running across the floor and under the linoleum...but I guess that's a possibility. I'm going to get in there with the saw tonight and start cutting out everything that needs replaced. Maybe I will have a better idea on where the water is coming from.

[Yosemitebob]

Around the wheel wells is a trouble spot for many trailers, and MHs. The first thing I did when I got mine was seal all the laps and joints under the trailer around these areas. As water is pushed up into these areas with pretty good force during any rains. I took the hose with a sprayer on the end and looked for any bad spots as well. I have no leaks, knock on wood.

[iqraceworks]

Well, I pulled out everything in the rear of the trailer....and started pulling up the linoleum to see how bad the floor really was. The only soft spot was in the corner.....but the more linoleum I pulled up....the more bad floor I found. Pretty much the entire 4x8 sheet of plywood at the rear of the camper needs replaced. The insulation was soaking wet....I'm sure that didn't help things.

I was able to get the entire section of plywood out, now I'm going to put a fan on it to let it dry out...and then start cleaning up all of the wood around the edges. Install my new bracing, new insulation, new resin coated plywood piece, and then new vinyl flooring on top.

I still wasn't able to find any areas on the trailer were water could have gotten in. Once I get everything cleaned up and dry....I'm going to have my wife start spraying up under the wheel wells, and on every window, light, and sealed up place on the outside of the trailer with a garden hose...and I'm going to stay inside with a flashlight and see if I can see any water getting in anywhere. If it all check out..time for the new floor.

Here are some pics......I never would have though that I was getting into this when I bought this 2011 "well taken care of" trailer.









Would the gaps in the seals on the outside windows let water in? Or does it just run out of the little drain holes on the bottom of the window frame?





The caulk around the outside of the window frame looks very good.

[kannon]

I had a water heater leak that was slow and rotted my floor around it on a previous trailer.Just a thought.

[iqraceworks]

It looks like as soon as I get up to the area where the wheel wells are, the wood goes back to looking like new. Wherever the water came from....it wasn't any farther forward than the wheel wells. The water heater is more towards the front in this camper.

So are those gaps in the black rubber window frame seals a concern, or is that just for cosmetics? I'm assuming that when water gets in those seals, it just runs out of the window frame drain holes?

[iqraceworks]

Well, after digging around in and under the camper.....I think I found the problem. It looks like at one time there was a huge gap between the wheelwell and the floor where water must have been getting in. The previous owner filled the gap with expandable foam. I could see the foam on the top side of the wheelwell under the sink area, and it was coming through the bottom side of the camper also. It must have been a big gap.

After I got all of the bad wood and insulation out, and dried everything out....I sprayed water up under the wheelwells...every everywhere else around the camper......no leaks. I think I'm going to do a pressure test anyways...just to be sure,but I'm pretty sure the think is water tight now

I have the new supports in, the new insulation in, and the new plywood in..I just need to finish up a little more calking around the edges, and put some new vinyl flooring down...and it's all ready to go