We have...well, had....a small (18"x24") rectangle of black non-skid material on top of our U320 roof, right where you step off the ladder.
At our recent visit to Xtreme, Rance did his walk around preventative maintenance check, and as tickled as we were that everything seemed to be in excellent condition....he did say that we should IMMEDIATELY get the black non-skid material off of the roof. As in ASAP. He warned that the longer we leave it on there, the more damage it could be doing to our roof, i.e. cracking.
On the last full day we were there when our coach was sitting out front already completed, I told Rance I was ready to climb on the roof and take it off myself. With big smiles on their faces, he and Greg wheeled out their shop ladder to the parking lot, and I climbed on top of the roof with a power tool, and took to it. After all the black was removed, we hit it with a little acetone, and it cleaned up really nicely. It took less than an 1 1/2 hours, with Scuba Guy's help, and we are so glad we did it. Rance looked it over after it was completely removed, and he said we got it off in the nick of time, and that we were very lucky we didn't wait. No damage underneath! Whew.
We had no idea that this type of non-skid would cause damage to our roof. It was there when we bought the coach, and we didn't think anything of it. Thanks to Xtreme for catching this before any damage occurred.
Plus, I think the guys got a kick out of me doing the work myself. :D
Hey Siren, how's it going? Tell scuba hi.
Question. Who put what on there? What is that black stuff, did the owner install it before you owned? Maybe just bought and put on some anti-skid commercial tape?
Mike
My 2002 has it on ...by the factory.
Mike,
They all come from the factory white.
They all turn black from UV SUNBURN.
How quickly depends on exposure time and sun intensity plus outside temperature and cooling (breeze, wind).
Some are 5 years. Some are 25 years to reach Siren's stage.
Took mine about 14 years and it looked identical to Siren's, but was pure white when new.
Neal
What sort of "tool" did you use to remove that? Maybe I need to get my very dark stuff off too.
To Michael & Jackie - HI! I passed along your regards to Scuba Guy. :) Neal explained the answer to your question perfectly. We believe our non-skid material was the original white material that the factory installed, and had simply turned black and cracked due to intense heat and sunlight.
Hi, Brad & Christine,
Absolutely! If yours is looking black and cracked like ours did, it is pretty crucial to get that stuff off of there. Rance showed us a portion of the black non-skid stuff that he had to cut out of someone's roof, because it had cracked the fiberglass underneath. The way I understand it, is that as the black non-skid cracks, the adhesive will pull the fiberglass underneath, and cracks will form. Rance was so happy to find that there was no damage underneath, and so were we....because our non-skid material was looking an awful like that which he had to cut out of someone else's coach.
Regarding how long it takes for the UV rays to make it that black, and begin the cracking process, our new-to-us (April 2013) coach was garaged kept for the first 16 years of it's life albeit in Arizona, Nevada, and California. It's first summer out in the Texas sun was last year, and I don't think that making it through one more summer in Texas would have left us with the same positive outcome.
The power tool we used belonged to Xtreme, but it was something similar to this: Shop PORTER-CABLE 3-Amp Oscillating Tool Kit at Lowes.com (http://www.lowes.com/pd_20265-70-PCE605K_0__?productId=3851689&cm_mmc=SCE_PLA-_-Tools-_-RotaryToolsOscillatingTools-_-3851689&CAWELAID=1594388978&kpid=3851689+&%22cagpspn=pla%22)
Looks like; Rockwell, Sonic saw
Great to have in your tools; will take off tile, plunge cuts, sanding on and on. ^.^d
I bought the super cheap version of that tool at Harbor Freight for 30% of that better tool price.
I have used it a couple of times. Yesterday I cut the wet bay access fiberglass panel to install a new access port. Easy plunge cuts, or scraping, or with the correct blades almost any task.
Ok
Have noticed on a few posts the "thumbs up" or down.
Are these from readers or authors?
You add these as you want to your messages.
There is a line of them too choose from above the posting box.
Re the tool. I have one and they are great for cutting wood or metal(different blades) and "plunge cut" great. When taking 1/4" off the right hand cabinets by Microwave (I wanted to move it over that amount) I used it and took 5 mins to do, was neat and tidy and just wood dust to vacuum up after. Decent one costs around 100-150. Get the highest amps one you can afford-it matters.
John H ^.^d
Thanks guys. I have somehow missed getting a tool like that over the years. Looks like it might be time.
And as John suggested, buy a good one. I cheaped out thinking it was just another handy tool that I might need someday. Come to find out, it is like a wonder wizard tool, that can do almost anything. Do buy all the blade options you see. In the middle of a project it is nice to have another sharp one, or a different size. Another feature is the ability to load the blade facing anyway you need for the task at hand.
When I kill this one, I will replace it with a higher amp and cost one ASAP.
FYI, I get the blades @ HF. Found little difference between the "rockwell" and HF.
Truly a great tool, found a 3/4 round cutting blade works for small cuts.
Well dang it all! Just when things seemed getting well resolved, I gotta think about a sun burned coach!
Neal, and Siren, since that material on our coach is white, I wonder if it has been replaced or Darryl jones and jerry wright, prior owners, kept it in the shade most of its Texas life? But with 145k miles, it had to go out some.
Do you think that the Extreme roofing coating protects it? And yet I only did that a year ago.
Mike
Michael,
I would be willing to bet that Xtreme removed the old stuff and repainted with quality material that will still be white in many years to come.
Don
When we were at Xtreme with our 98 several years ago, Rance told me about the black non skid on the roof and I went to Lowes and bought a paint scraper and very carefully removed the non skid. Once again Xtreme helps us out of possible troubles.
Mike,
I'm sure that Extreme took good care of the area. From my experience, unless a customer directs otherwise, they carefully prepare and preserve any surface that they work on for long, trouble free service.
Are you saying that you have some sort of non-slip material applied over the top of your Extreme roof coating?
A picture might help.
I was of the impression that Extreme adds (or will add) non-slip to the base roof coating material and that they recommend
not replacing the original ladder "step off pad".
Neal
Hi Michael,
As others have said, I would bet that if you had Extreme do a roof coating you don't have much to worry about. I would assume they removed the non-skid pad before they did the roof treatment, and I don't think they would have reapplied one, unless you specifically asked them to.
Give them a call, they can probably look up what work they did and put your mind at ease.
Hope you (two) are doing well, we really enjoyed seeing that nice looking coach of yours in person.
As with the others Rance recommended it be removed. I used a scraper with a single edge blade. I had it cleaned off in a matter of minutes. This stuff gets brittle and it scrapes right off. The roof is a little stained, but the black anti skid is gone. Not sure you could anything would remove the stain short of sanding and buffing.