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Old 07-16-2018, 03:43 PM   #6
blw2
Senior Member
 
Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: 2013 31L
State: Florida
Posts: 2,184
THOR #908
Mine is exactly like that. While it's not even close to how I would specify it, or how I would do if building it myself.... but... I don't think all of that is really so much an issue.

I think that if these areas were so sensitive to moisture there would be some serious problems after just one drive in the rain. Mine is getting a few years on it now, and as of the last time I had a look around under there I had no obvious issues.

In fact, I'd be hesitant to completely caulk and seal all of those areas...some maybe, but not all. Virtually impossible to completely dry it in, and when water does get in it'll have no place to go so it'll just stay there and have all the time it needs to do it's thing.....and that's when you'll have problems (such as the rot I had behind my tail lights).

I'm not sure, but I believe that the plywood is probably some sort of exterior grade, so the glue is going to separate with simple water contact. I would have liked to see marine grade, or at least pressure treated plywood used here, but at least it seems to be exterior grade. Case in point, your last picture. In this exact same area, I had an issue on one side but not the other....but it was a leak from above that did it. Seriously shoddy work up on my roof membrane and the nose cone skin left me with a slow leak, that ran down the frame above into this little bulkhead wall on the passenger side. Because the water couldn't get out it stayed in there and rotted out significant areas till it finally worked it's way down to the bottom edge you show in that picture.

With all that said
for areas that you feel need to be sealed, I'd guess that a traditional undercoating would probably work for some...or maybe something like flex seal. Some larger openings could probably use some spray foam, or caulk...depending

but definitely not silicone. IMO that stuff is horrible. It's like those split lock washers that you see almost everywhere, but that really serve no purpose.... except it's even worse. The lock washer at least does no harm in most cases.

Silicone on the other hand will prevent anything from ever sticking or sealing that area again, without significant effort. It's a horrible adhesive, and because it doesn't stick well, it's a horrible sealant....then it leaves a nasty residue.

I've thought a lot about silicone, and the only examples I've been able to come up with where silicone seems to work well is for glass fish tank corners (where it's factory applied in what I guess to be a very carefully controlled way... and the other is the RTV sealant used in places like engine gasket surfaces...where it's not depending so much on it's adhesive qualities as it is just forming a simple rubber gasket.
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