Rain, Leak, Dicor but... what happening in walls?

[Jmauseth]

This past weekend I had a leak, after a full week of Seattle rain, took the trailer out and found a fair amount of saturation to the carpet in our front living space of our 5th wheel. Once the rain stopped for a second I got up on roof and noticed a hole in the dicor between the vinyl roof and the front fiberglass cap seam. I covered it with a garbage bag. Morning arrived and I was able to clean the hole, dry it the best I could. Next day I used wifes hair dryer and also some rubbing alcohol to clean it. Heated up a tube of dicor and applied full length of the seam. I used fans, shop vac, space heater and as many towels as i could find to dry up inside. Pretty dry that I could see not in the walls. since this is front living, there is a tremendous amount of cabinetry surronding our fireplace, tv and stereo system. No way i could see to get to the walls behind.

Question for everyone - its still wet/humid here and I dont have storage with power. I am not too concerned about the carpet but what might be going on in the walls that I need to be concerned about? i do not have any ability to get it to dry humid spot for another few months. anyones thoughts would be appreciated. My father is a seasoned RV'er and mentioned the type of wall insulation is the key. I have a Keystone Cougar and am not aware of which type.

Thank you - John M Seattle, Washington

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[TheCaptKen]

Not to be the bearer of bad news but, I had the same problem with a Wildcat. Same build as the Cougar. The front four feet of the sides are plywood before it gets to the aluminum framing. The thin wood the filon is glued to, is glued to the plywood. The front framing behind the plastic cap is wood. When it leaks, it soaks the plywood and the problem begins. You reseal thinking the problem is fixed but a year down the road, it delaminates while driving down the road and starts bowing out. You can replace the plywood but the leak is a common problem due it the movement of the front cap. I repaired mine twice before I traded it in on a new unit.

[ACZL]

Place pans of charcoal as well to aid in moisture removal. Sorry to hear about the leak. Hope you found the source of it.

[MWJones]

You may think this is extreme but it WILL work.
Do the dehumidifier.
Drill a few 1/4" holes along the floor (inside)above the bottom plate.
Turn furnace on about 90*.
Set a good fan blowing toward the wall at the holes.
Let it do it's drying for a few days.
Your Trailer will think it has been to Az.

PS: This will also dry the carpet and floor.

[camperkilgore]

Invest in a de-humidifier. Get a good one. We place ours in the shower so that it can drain into the shower drain, and we leave the grey tank valve open to drain out of the camper. Our fiver is parked on dirt so no problem with the drainage there. We didn't want to keep emptying the dehumidifier's collection tank, or risk forgetting and have it overflow into the camper, causing more problems. Had that happen once.

It'll be almost as good as going to Arizona.

[Terryallan]

Next question. what are the walls made of? More problems if Luan. No wall problem if AZDEL.

[rexlion]

Along with drilling holes as Jim mentioned, get a container of Damp-Rid or similar moisture-sucking compound and set it in the sink. Better than doing nothing. Some folks in the Pacific North-wet use the stuff all the time to deal with humidity in the closed RV, to prevent mold.

[Jim]

Drive it over to the Tri-Cities and leave it in a storage yard with all the vents cracked along with a window or two. The 20% humidity there will dry it out in no time. Four hour trip over, so 9-10 hours all together and you'll be back home. Assuming you arrange for a site at a storage place first.

I'm not there and didn't see this all go down, but if it's a real worry, you could drill holes at the lowest point down from that interior wall to help drain and dry it. Might take some work figuring out where to drill though. Than patch the holes with Eternabond tape.

[path1]

Jmauseth wrote:
thats what my dad said, come visit him, dry the trailer out but have to spend time with him showing me the sites in Tucson for the 10th time and explaining to me over and over 15% in the 401k son 15% in the 401k... I will pass. Thanks for easing my mind a bit.

And invest 1/2 your pay raises, if any.

Tt or 5th wheel?...my trailer I can remove one piece underneath and with good light see all the way to top. Reason is a fan will help dry after you get power if any water made it inside cap. Put in cheap humidity gauge. My gauge is always 3 or 4 percent higher or lower than SeaTac when rv is dry. MY dehumidifier gets turned on about twice a month to keep our wetness down.

[ScottG]

drying it out in Tucson is a great idea!!

[Jmauseth]

thats what my dad said, come visit him, dry the trailer out but have to spend time with him showing me the sites in Tucson for the 10th time and explaining to me over and over 15% in the 401k son 15% in the 401k... I will pass. Thanks for easing my mind a bit.

[DownTheAvenue]

For now, I would not be overly concerned. You dried it as best you could, and hopefully, the water found a direct path and made its own little "stream" without saturating everything in its path. Without disassembly, there is no way to know, and also without disassembly, there is little you can do to dry it out any further. Of course, you could take it to the Arizona desert- good excuse for a road trip!