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Do you have rust here?

June 17, 2010, 07:33:40 pm

I was puttering around the coach this morning and found a small area in the front right  corner of the  propane compartment with some serious rust damage. The photo was taken after treating with Ospho and priming with a Rustoleum primer. {Ospho seems to be more readily available in areas close to large bodies of water.  I found some at a Do It Best Hardware in Jasper, TX.}

The small hole does not terminate to the outside.  What it appears to be is a hole in the steel compartment.  No nearby sturctural damage is visible or detected with an awl.  After some snooping around I found an opening remaining from the manufacturing process.  The opening is in the front passenger side wheel well (toward the rear of the well) about 19 inches up from the bottom of the coach and in about 7 inches from the outside of the coach.

My theory is that when driving in the rain the tire spins water up into that area.  Helped  by the movement of air the water was forced upward to this opening and accumulated in the space between the frame and the stell shell of the propane compartment where it would promote the formation of rust.  After 10 years, of which many were spent in the Texas Gulf coast area, the sea air and the water took its toll.

I filled the opening with silicone caulk.  I will repaint that portion of the compartment with a  black satin finish Rustoleum.

This might be something you owners of similarly built coaches  would want to check out.

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Re: Do you have rust here?

Reply #1 – June 17, 2010, 10:32:45 pm

Hello All;
  My 99 295 has an opening in both the propane AND the battery compartment just aft the front wheels. I found these openings only after a days drive to Alaska on a muddy road. No rust damage in these areas but I have installed closed cell foam blocks to solve the problem. I figured these openings were for air ventilation for these compartments.
Gary & Sharon

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Re: Do you have rust here?

Reply #2 – June 18, 2010, 12:44:05 pm

•     George,
  I also have rust  showing, but in both Diesel Fuel Oil Fill compartment forward bulkheads (both  compartments immediately aft of the front wheels).  I had Derek look the situation over very carefully  in January of this year.  Derek and I  poked and prodded extensively with awls and concluded that there is no framework  deterioration or concern,  just cosmetic damage to the thin metal forward  bulkhead material (3/32" sheet metal, maybe?) that maintains a moisture barrier  integrity for these two compartments. It seems to stem from the same roadway liquid  chloride issue that I have had with my bulkhead joints, although it is a  mystery as to how it migrated to these inner sheet metal (not structural)  walls.  The frame box tube structure is  sound and barely shows any oxidation at all.  Also, we could find no lack of integrity in the exterior wall of this  compartment, anywhere.
  This is really all one compartment  because the Fuel tank goes all the way across the coach, except for the propane  vapor seal barrier in the street side, battery compartment.
  What Derek advised me to do was to open up the rusted areas  up by excising an area of the metal sheeting a good amount larger than the rust  damaged area, then thoroughly cleaning and phosphoric acid inerting all available surfaces, finally preserving the area with our Corrosion-X friend.  Then make a sheet of material to cover up and  cosmetically cover the excised area, making it easily removable so that I can get  into it and inspect for water/oxidation (rust) intrusion in the future.
  This project is on my list but not started at this point.  I inspected the two areas carefully when we  got back to NH in early May, to make sure that they are still stable and I'll  take pictures when I get into this project. 
  Right now I'm working on rounding up exhaust system parts  since our exhaust system didn't take kindly to the Northeast frost heaves and potholes  on the way north and I have some pinholes showing up at the dissimilar metal clamps.  I'm attempting to come  up with a better designed exhaust, but we'll see.  I'll take pictures of that project too.
  Love the ForeForum format but the photography tasks are picking up!
  Neal
  

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Re: Do you have rust here?

Reply #3 – June 18, 2010, 12:57:05 pm

An you see the opening that I illustrated in my photo?  If you can stop the water coming in, you should be able to keep the deterioration from spreading.

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Re: Do you have rust here?

Reply #4 – June 18, 2010, 02:17:20 pm

George, have you inspected the weatherstrip to ensure water tight when compartment door is closed?  This is very often a source for water intrusion into the compartment(s)

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Reply #5 – June 18, 2010, 02:55:30 pm

The gaskets are good.  When I wash the coach, no water intrudes into this bay.  Had water blown into the bay it could not have started rust that high off the floor.  I am convinced I have found the manner in which the water entered the space in back of the compartment.

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Re: Do you have rust here?

Reply #6 – June 18, 2010, 10:37:23 pm

George,
The coach is down at the warehouse and I will take another look at the area tomorrow.  I'll look again at the area outboard of the air bag (that you provided the photo of).  Derek and I went over that outside bulkhead, behind the front wheels, very thoroughly and we could find no rust, hole or breach at all.  I also spent more than an hour one night in James' shop, looking over that whole area and James' bulkhead joint repairs on our coach, and I'll be darned if I can figure out how the inside sheet metal has rusted. 
I will volunteer that I have had a fuel oil spill in that compartment, but I have never had any water.  On two occasions over ten years ago (once on each side of the coach), I  filled the fuel tank and then parked the coach without driving any appreciable distance.  Both times were in cold weather and I have surmised that upon cooling, the tank dimensions shrunk just enough to cause the overflow.  The tank was hot before fill, then shrank a small amount overnight in Flying J parking lots, just enough to raise the topped off fuel above the top of the filler neck and pump a pint or two of fuel out through the vented cap.  If that fuel seeped in between the two metal sheets that sheath the forward bulkhead  box-steel framework, I wonder if that would be corrosive enough, in the trapped environment, to attack that interior sheet metal?
I started being careful not to top off my fuel too aggressively, and have never had another incident.
Neal

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Re: Do you have rust here?

Reply #7 – June 18, 2010, 10:52:11 pm

Neal,

Your description of filling the tank aggressively is food for thought.  I've never thought that it could be a problem.  So far I've pretty much quit filling when the pump kicks off. 

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