Thor Forums

[Cwray]

Howdy folks,

Thought I’d share a “small win” that’s driven me nuts ever since buying our 34J. That is the main window over the couch creaking like nuts! As I slowly progressed from the wife and I practically needing to wear hearing protection from driving it more than 30 minutes (we both had slight ringing in our ears afterwards) to today—there’s a world of difference in how loud it is when driving. My quest for dampening sound now has the RV on par (or slightly quieter) than the wife’s minivan inside the coach.

This lead to some interesting side quests, one of which was trying to stop all the loud squeaks that come from all the shifting inside the RV as we drive on the highway. Not the impossible quest, as one might think. ;-)

A few square bolts to tighten here, to loosen there. Tucking in a bit of old dust rag or piece of felt between a cabinet and wall, putting some P-shaped rubber “window jam“ strips on the underside of the stovetop glass cover and putting felt pads between the screen and main door did wonders.

That lead to the (possibly now) loudest noise, that giant window. It has many parts, and the crackling was so loud (in my mind) that it was a wonder that it never shattered under all that apparent stress while we were driving. Searching this wonderful forum didn’t turn up any answers on how to stop it-much to my surprise. Maybe no one else is bothered by this problem? Or my rig suffers more than most? In any event, I found a fix, and thought I’d share.

There’s a black aluminum seal around the window that’s the main source of this noise. You can’t tighten the screws tight enough to keep that thing from slipping/sticking against the wallpaper and other parts of the frame—I’ve tried. Loosening all the screws that you can get to (without taking down the valence) solves the noise problem, but not good to do, as that allows for too much movement and could potentially allow the window sealing to start to open up to outside elements.

With the screws loosened, I pried the seal out from the wall a bit and ever-so-lightly dribbled silicon spray behind it. I had to keep a rag handy to mop up the drips, but kept it relatively under control. Tightening the screws back up and giving the window one quick push/pull Back and forth to get a last CRACK out of it did the job. For a while, anyway. It lasted a couple of weeks, and then came back. Another downside to this approach is the smell of the silicon spray for a day or so.

What I’ve tried now is getting a bottle of PFPT powdered lubricant and brush it behind the frame. It seems to give the same noise relief by letting the frame seal slide easily and not stick/slip as before.

Don’t know if this treatment will last longer than the spray, but has no smell at least, and is easier to control. I also no longer worry about the solvent-based application breaking down the wallpaper or the glue under it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this last longer than the spray, and will update the thread. Unfortunately, there’s only a couple more trips on the horizon for us, so a true comparison would need to wait until next year. But so far, so good!

Just thought I’d share in case anyone else out there was looking for a solution to this albeit minor annoyance.