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Armor coating, window seals, heater hoses, and more

February 07, 2014, 11:30:35 pm

Hello all, We just bought our coach and have been going through things and I thought I'd post about things I've found...

Our coach had the Foretravel paint department armor coat the roof while it was there for a full body paint.  I've found a few cracks in the roof that seem to emanate from the fiberglass underneath.  I didn't pay for this to be done on my coach but it would seem that this coating might be entirely useless and I'd be a bit ticked if I did.  I'd almost call it a net negative because the grippy texture will prohibit good water seal by eternabond tape (which I swear by) and also very effectively hides hairline cracks emanating from the fibgerglass underneath.  Luckily Foretravel seems to have had the good sense to use extremely high quality plywood throughout and water doesn't seem to affect or permeate it at all.  In the front speaker area (we pulled the speakers to check for leaks), you can see that it's even sealed up at the openings with some kind of shiny urethane type seal.  Planning ahead for the inevitable leak is just smart business.  Winnebago failed here.

We carefully leak tested our windows and found 2 windows leaking around the frame.  When we pulled the windows it was easy to see the source of the leak as there was a bit of black mold on the insulation.  The lamination glues interior and exterior as well as the wall board itself seem to be impervious to the water penetration.  Go foretravel.  The RV dealer simply siliconed the windows using black silicone but I will probably rip them back out to do the proper repair once I find out what that is.  So where do we get replacement o-rings for the windows?  You'd think foretravel would have put new o-rings in when the paint work was done in 2010.  Nope.  Additionally we found substantial leaks at the front clearance lights as well as the CB antenna.  When I tried to remove the clearance light lenses that was not happening.  They are stuck shut somehow.  There was no sealant gluing them shut so I'm confused.  They now have quite a bit of sealant on them

We wanted a clear sealant so we used Loctite polyseamseal clear which is an elastomeric sealant that I thought was polyurethane but it seems more acrylic.  It has a good texture and elasticity but doesn't have the tenacious grip of polyurethane so I am debating ripping it all out and redoing it with a true polyurethane sealant which will unfortunately be white but that's fine on the roof, just not the clearance lights.  I'm not going to use dicor but it would be nice to know what black sealant foretravel used on our roof.

We took a gamble buying this coach without original owner maintenance records.  Additionally it was bought from consignment and the owner was described as a "rich a$$hole".  I never met him   I was not well versed on the fuel line issues when we bought the coach but as it turns out our generator and aquahot fuel lines as well as heater hoses were replaced in 2007 or so.  At least that's the timestamp on all the lines.  The main bay has a diesel smell and I found some cleaner in the bin for cleaning up diesel spill so this coach had a fun past for someone. 

I got into the aquahot bay and there is a tiny coolant leak between one of the circulation pumps and the solenoid above it.  Anyone know what to do about this?  Tighten it or pull it apart to replace fittings?

I've decided all of the hoses are in good enough condition that I am just going to replace the cracked silicone couplers on the radiator and call it a day.  I'll travel with water in the tank as well as 10ft of 3/4 heater hose, 10ft of 1" heater hose and couplers which should allow me to patch or route around any failures we encounter out west.  We broke down in very very rural Montana in the Winnebago.  The one thing I didn't touch before the trip, the in tank fuel pump, failed.  Of course.  Good sam failed to get us a tow, I ended up getting it running when it cooled off, ordered the pump online and replaced it myself on the road.  For whatever reason I am sensitive to breakdown items now

Does anyone have ceramic/porcelain tile throughout?  If so, what did you do about the grout?  We have grout coming out near the bathroom area and figure we could probably pull it all out and replace it with the caulk like grout they sell that flexes.  I was wondering how other people fare in this area.  You can feel the tile shift in the bathroom near the toilet too.  I bet it leaks a bit at the flange when the tank overfills.  Our tank sensors are off calibration too and the tanks are full when it claims only half full

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Re: Armor coating, window seals, heater hoses, and more

Reply #1 – February 08, 2014, 12:15:25 am

Pretty good start on the issues on your coach.  Some of the technical stuff on the chassis is not intuitive and may not show up readily. 

Figure every switch, button and system needs checking in the entire coach. Most things not fixed normally were because the previous owners actually did not know it needed service.

"Never gave me no trouble" to my service buddy and I means everything needs scrutinizing.

As you mentioned the basic body and construction make the work of perfection worth the effort as the list of things needed to be done will finally be almost zero.

Minimum of 10% of the price in the first two years is not unusual. Normally more....

Long term is $1-1.22 a mile in fuel and upgrades to own one of these unless realiy unusually lucky.  Or like some owners you quit looking and just drive it and fix failures only.

Most are reactive not proactive. Seems you know better.

Funny enough I actually like restoring our coach.  You are doing well so far. Lots of help here.

Bob

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Re: Armor coating, window seals, heater hoses, and more

Reply #2 – February 08, 2014, 08:30:19 am

Xtreme uses an excellent rubber seal on all the windows-no caulking.  I'd call them and order what you need.  Try tightening the A-H fitting but you'll probably have to replace it.  I have FT-installed tile through half the coach and no grout cracking whatsoever.  Call FT Parts and find what they use.  I know it's special to be able to handle flexing.

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Re: Armor coating, window seals, heater hoses, and more

Reply #3 – February 08, 2014, 10:37:18 am

I'm not a believer in the rubber o ring window seals, especially after the issues jayco and other manufacturers had with oring windows that it isn't the way to go.  I wonder if our o-rings were in fact replaced in 2010 and they are leaking again only 4 years later.  They weren't cracked up or anything.  I wonder if I could use butyl tape on them.  It certainly holds up way longer.  Our coach was done at foretravel rather than Xtreme.  Not sure the difference in processes.  To me, if you paint a coach you have to remove pretty much everything which means hitting all of the sealants.  On the roof though, the armor coat went over a few things so I'm not sure everything got pulled out of the roof.  For anything to leak 4 years later is a little iffy to me.  The sealant should still be in relatively good shape.  Still as long as I can locate and fix the issues before getting any rot or visual damage I don't care much.  Eternabond on top of that will be good insurance despite that it's not as pretty.

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Re: Armor coating, window seals, heater hoses, and more

Reply #4 – February 08, 2014, 05:38:14 pm

Your roof sounds like fiberglass outgassing.  I had that issue and we filled in 100 small holes and grinded the bigger sections to fix it up.  Odd that the fuel lines were replaced so early but it will save you 3K.  I would reseal the windows with the stuff that Xtreme uses.  It will last you a while.  I changed my clearance lights to LED and put silicone on the face that abuts the coach and a bead around three sides leaving only the bottom untouched on the outside.  I would talk to Xtreme on your roof. Send them a couple pictures.  THey can at least point you in the right direction.

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Re: Armor coating, window seals, heater hoses, and more

Reply #5 – February 08, 2014, 06:10:17 pm

I had FOT R & R the large window on the passenger side about this time last year. They used what they call "D Foam" (1/2" I think) as the only seal. I has an adhesive on the back. Not unlike an o-ring I guess. No problems so far.

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Re: Armor coating, window seals, heater hoses, and more

Reply #6 – February 08, 2014, 10:42:11 pm

If the tile job was done right there should not be a problem. Ours is almost 4 yrs old and not 1 grout crack or loss. I did it and put a 3/8th sub floor of ply down that was 100% glued and stapled before using "thin set with Acrilyc additives" I used the regular grout that has added polymer in it.
John H

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