The Great Flood – and the leaks

I’m currently in a location which I think God may have decided to destroy… again… with another flood.

Obviously, LOTS of rain!! For a guy from the desert, it feels like the world is ending. However; it has proven to be an excellent test of the water proof-ness of Missy. Would she leak or would she remain dry?

On the first day of constant rain, things started out pretty well. There were only two, very small leaks.

Then it got worse.

The inside/middle parts of the coach is pretty good. There are a few obvious leaks where some water is running down the wall and traces of it can be seen on the wall insulation.

The aft wall is where the leaks were REALLY bad. The marker lights were acting like a funnel. So, on a dry day, I pulled all of them out and resealed.

The foam weather stripping was still good in some of them so I just cleaned it up and re-installed – with the screws being much tighter.

The foam was entirely shot on some. Most of them I cleaned and bed the lights in butyl tape. That was probably a really dumb thing to do as butyl is supposed to be permanent. However; these are LED lights and I wanted to try it as a test.

A few of them I used a very thin foam weather stripping from the hardware store.

The tall marker light “strips” on the rear cap were a slightly different matter. For some reason, MCI elected to install a fiberglass U channel vertically in the rear cap with the bottom of this channel open. The open part I get – it is for the wires. It is putting this open part at the bottom part that I don’t get. All the water that gets into this channel is fed inside the bus. In my experience, water flows down – I would think putting the opening for the channel on the TOP would have prevented a lot of leaking. The rubber grommets at the bottom were shot. So, I cleaned up the entire thing and bed the bottom of the lights and channel opening in sealant. I cleaned up the red acrylic panels and re-installed them with double sided tape. I’m afraid this tape will prove to be a bad idea, but again, another test.

I also got up on the roof and applied some sealant in all the places that looked like they could possibly be a leak. There are a lot of rivets up there and I suppose the best approach would be a thorough cleaning and then apply sealant over the entire roof.

Then I waited. The weather guessers said the rain was coming and it did – I did not have to wait long!

I very quickly learned that my fixes were about 65% successful. Some of the leaks had stopped but many remained.

It seems the foam seals around the marker lights are a waste. I will be replacing the few that I kept. The strip lights on the rear of the coach continue to be a real problem.

I took a different approach with the roof on the next dry day. I started applying sealant to every rivet and seam on the roof. At least in the area of the rear cap.

Then it rained, again, on and on and on.

The leaks were better. Clearly, the ‘apply sealant to everything in sight’ approach was a better solution. I need to do this again – with a broader sight line.

More rain in two days….