1998 HiLo 28B Classic Semi-Rebuild Project

So, we just picked up a 1998 HiLo Classic 28B 28foot Camper. For the most part, its in great shape, other than some rot on the door side wall. The lowest channel of the wall looks to be structurally sound, but the wall paneling and the plywood that acts as the anchor for the cabinets was rotted pretty badly.

We also noticed that there is a stress crack in the area just above the door, in the fiberglass outer shell, and its nice and tight when the top is raised, and even through about 3/4 of the lowering process. When its gets to the last 2 inches or so, is when the crack spreads a bit, like 1/16".

So, I spoke with J&R about the issue, and Jim said that they have had to build an outrigger that welds to the frame, for the longer trailers, because on the door side especially, there is a bit of flex as they settle into their lowered position.

I had Jim make the outrigger, and am about to pull the skirt off the side of the trailer, and begin to figure out where to position it. In the picture below, you can see the general area that I will be mounting it, but the real question, is what height should I set it to? If I drop the top all the way until it stops, I think its too low on the door side, so how much from the bottom should I position the outrigger? Any ideas from anyone on here? J&R didn't have any comments, as they said that it would need to be in their shop.

Here is the pic:

It all depends on what the top rests on in the lowered posistion. If it rests on the frame at the front and back then you will have to place a straight edge across the frame at these locations. The straight edge should extend past the edge of the trailer. Then you can run a string between the straight edges on the bottom of the straight edge. This will give you a straight line across the side of the trailer which should match the bottom of the top when it is down. You can position your support accordingly.
If you have supports on the side of the trailer, just run a string between the two and that is the where the supporrt should be located.

A very tight stringline between the front and back outriggers should be as close as you could get it.

My trailer doesn't have any outriggers, it looks to me like it settles inside, where the cabinets come down and rest on the inside rail. There are indentations in the padding of the cabinets, where it sits on the inside wall caps (top of the walls). There is one on each side of the door. Here is a picture of the trailer towards the rear, and there are no outriggers:



That is why I think that J&R recommends putting an outrigger, since there aren't. If you guys know where it should be resting, maybe you could post a picture so I can see what it should be in my trailer.

Here are a couple of pictures of the inside, showing where most of the water damage is. It really looks to only be on the door side, and we have cleaned the whole roof, and will be putting on 3 layers of the elastomeric paint this weekend, so that should fix any leaks that the roof has.

As you can see, there is a 2" channel in the foam, where there was plywood used to anchor the cabinets. I will be replacing that as well, since it was totally rotten.

Trailer repairs.

I am so glad some of our guy forum members where able to help you with your outrigger problem. Your plan to do the roof first is good. Use blue tape to define where you want to stop on the sides.,We didn"t think to do this. Clean any caulk around roof vents and reseal as needed. Next I would take out all windows and reseal with butyl tape and lexell caulk. Check and clean all exterior caulk. You may be able to just apply Lexell caulk over flat caulk. Then you can work on the inside. You will have to do much of the same as we did with our 90 Classic restoration. Take your time and do it once correctly and you will have it for many years of enjoyment. What state and city are you located in? We are here to cheer you on and answer any of the questions you have. It is crucial that you fix all leaks or your your work will be in vain. Keep us posted and take pictures of before and after.

We are going over tonight to tape off the roof, and to apply the heavier sealant around the vents, etc., then on Friday we will apply the first coat of the elastomeric paint. Funny thing, I talked to my local trailer shop, and he thought I was nuts sealing the whole roof with the paint, and I am guessing that he has little to no experience, or has enough money to just always replace the roof any time it leaks

I have one of the windows out, as it has a broken section, and it is getting replaced completely. I'll get some more pics of the progress, the material that we will be using to seal the roof, etc., and update this as we go.

We are out in Oregon, and thankful to find a friend with a large barn where we could store this for a month or so, while we get it all fixed up.

What paneling are you guys using to replace the patterned paneling inside of your trailers? I am thinking of just using 1/8" plain white bathroom paneling, then primering it and the existing patterned panel, so that we can just paint the whole inside a neutral color.

Well, we were able to pull off the lower cap that screws to the wood on the bottom rail, and were amazed to find out that the whole lower wood is in excellent condition!!!!! I almost jumped out of the trailer, as I thought that moisture had really gotten down into the lower section.

One issue I ran into though, was trying to replace the broken lower guide block next to the door opening. Both screws broke off, and were in there really tight. I am wondering if the screws go into metal or wood at the lower corner of the top at the door opening? Does anyone know?

Also anyone ever been able to get into this with a 90 degree drill and drill new holes? If I can't get into there, I might fabricate a U-shaped bracket to surround the bottom of the corner, with a leg that drops down to hold the bracket, then put two bolts straight through the wall to hold that bracket in place.

This weekend I will have a bunch of pictures to post, of the roof, the wall, etc.

Repairs

Don"t forget to clean off any existing caulk before applying new caulk even if it is on top of the old caulk. We have a rubber roof and used a roof primmer and then two coats of elastomeric sealer. Look on the net at koolseal and dicor products. Always read and follow your directions. Not sure how your wall construction is. Look at some back posts of Garyk52 where he provides a link of the material he is using on his extensive restoration. The reason I told you to pullout all your windows is so that you can reseal them with butyl tape and Lexell caulk. When the window is out you will be able to see the condition of your wall layers. Then you will know if the damage is more extensive and you need to do further repairs. Again, I encourage you to look at the postings of our 1990HiLo Classic restoration and you will see all the pictures and descriptions of the steps we took. Go to your local Home Depot and look at paneling and see if you like anything that is !/8 thick. Follow what is in your walls. Possibly 1'styrofoam,underlay and then paneling. Donot put plastic in your walls as this will make them rot again. Do coat your inner walls with 2part epoxy Bondo as this will ensure a waterproof seal Use caulk at the endes of the Bondo. Be sure to read and follow all directions. Above all do it once and right the 1st time. It may well take much longer than you would like. No point in doing the rebuild if you are going to take shortcuts and dammage your new paneling and end up with a mess later. JR repair seals theinner skin and then uses 2part epoxy to put the wall back together. I know this may be overwhelming as their are many steps in the rebuild process. Check out the Georgia Pacific website for paneling. If you are sure you will be leaving some of the existing paneling than you may want to use a panel with a petern or a color to it. No matter what you do it is going to cost you for materials. So nice you have a place to work on it out of the weather. Feel free to keep asking for advice and questions. Just trying to be helpful.Reada story and saw pictures of another kind of Rv rebuild. The guy was cussing because after he put it all back together he still had a leak. You must use caulk and 2part Bondo to ensure no leaks.Then you can assemble the walls. Make your wife happy,pick out some pretty paneling.!!

Replacing guide block/screws

We didn't have to do this repair. I know their are previous posts about this.

So, we made good progress this weekend. We started by masking off all of the vents, the toilet exhaust, the Air Conditioner, removed the solar panel and bagged it up and then taped and masked up all of the walls and each end cap.

Then we used elastomeric crack and seal filler (thicker than the elastomeric roof paint), and we brushed it onto each seam, along all of the edges, around each of the roof vents. We let it sit and cure overnight, then today we rolled on the first coat of the elastomeric roof paint.

Here are some pictures of the progress:

A Couple more....

We also pulled some more paneling from around the bigger window in the front door side, only to find a whole bunch more moisture where the roof was leaking in the front area. Thankful that we are getting the roof done now.

I'll have some more pics of the work inside later this week, when we go back for the second coat of roof paint. We are looking at doing a total of four coats of the roof paint since we got 5 gallons of it, and its going pretty far.

Looks like we may be running some 1/8" mahogany sheets for the interior paneling. Going to look at it tomorrow.

roof repair

Vdubn,

"I'll have some more pics of the work inside later this week, when we go back for the second coat of roof paint. We are looking at doing a total of four coats of the roof paint since we got 5 gallons of it, and its going pretty far".

It was with great interest I read your posts on sealing your roof. It is almost identical to what I am doing on our roof [see my roof repair post]. First, in regard to your quote above about applying[4] coats of elastomeric paint. I didn't get the name of the elastomeric paint you are using in your posts. I am going to use Kool-Seal 63-600. I am including a quote from the Kool-Seal Tech regarding 'extra' coats of their paint:

"Applying this Elastomeric coating to the surface thickly (or in more coats than recommended) will not improve the performance of the coating. In fact, it may deter from the success of the coating. A thick layer of this product will take much longer to cure. This will leave it vulnerable to inclement weather that may damage the coating before it fully "sets." I would advise adding additional product to the surface merely to improve the appearance".

What I get from the tech's quote is that 2 coats should suffice and 4 coats may be too much of a good thing. You might consider the tech's advice before applying the extra coatings.

The only difference I see in our approach is my removal of the gutters after which I will apply eterna-bond 4" webseal tape lapped over the side underneath where the gutter/awning is mounted, and then paint the sides and re-attach.

Did you remove all the old caulking/sealant from around the roof vents before applying your paint? In my post last night I asked for opinions of the forum before I do that since I am using the 4" eterna-bond tape, but I have since decided to remove all of it before taping.

I'm curious to know if you had any small holes in the aluminum roof caused by two dissimilar metals touching that resulted in a chemical reaction causing what I call roof rot? If so did you do any special prep work before painting?

Finally, what did you use as a cleaning agent in the final step before painting?

Good luck on your project. The roof is looking good and I think that is one area that most owners pay the least attention to that may cause the most trouble.

Jerry Curtis
2406 T

Roof resealing

Looks real good to me. Snow white.

Thanks sam!

Jerry, you are correct, and after reading the application instructions, I think that we are only going to be putting two coates on. We might opt for three, but we'll see. We are giving each coat 48 to 52 hours of cure time, so hopefully that will be adequate. It says to only apply this stuff at 65 degrees or warmer, but we were at about 55 degrees both days. Hopefully a longer cure time will compensate for the lower temperature.

The stuff we used is the Black Jack Elastomeric Roof Paint that Lowes sells. The crack and seam repair stuff we used, is also Black Jack, I will get a picture of both products, and post it up so people can see what we used.

It goes on really well, great coverage. Actually, I was surprised to see that basically about 1 gallon was all that was needed for one coat on our 28 foot roof. We bought 5 gallons, so I guess we will have extra to use in 5 years or so when we do it again.

As for the old calk and sealant, we went around and removed as much of the loose stuff as we could, but I didn't spend the time to remove the stuff that was on really good. The crack and seam sealant that we put on first, was really thick, and did a great job of sticking to everything including the old calk.

We used Simple Green to wash the surface, and it did an excellent job. We let it dry out for a week, then we came back and blew off any debris, taped off our areas that we didn't want sealed, and applied the coatings. It all went really well.

I thought about removing the awning clamps, but it was mounted well, and I didn't want to chance breaking any bolts off, etc.

I also had a broken Jalousie window, and am getting replacement hardware, so I'll show how I fixed it when that comes in.

As for any holes or cracks in the aluminum roof, yes, there were two holes where the antenna used to be... I removed the antenna, and the cable that went through the ceiling inside, as we will mount an HD antenna to the side of the trailer later and I would prefer as little coming through the roof as possible.

I am not sure of the name of the patch stuff we used, as the previous owners had some left over from when they had attempted to patch the roof in the past. It is basically like a sheet of rubber, very flexible, and has adhesive on one side that is ridiculously strong. If you look close at the pictures, you can see some of the square patch panels that were used.

As far as corrosion/electrolosis, it did look like there were some pinholes that were coming through in areas, probably from the dissimilar metals like you mentioned. Not sure what to do with that, other than pull the whole ceiling out and try to neutralize it from the inside, but its not bad enough to warrant that for now anyway.

Tomorrow I will be lubing the cables underneath the trailer, and we may wait until Thursday to recoat the roof, which would give it a full 4 days between coats.

We also used the elastomeric paint to coat the Air Conditioner cover, as the fiberglass was getting britle, and even cracked a bit in places. It makes the whole top nice and clean as well.

Window repair

Some years ago I got DH too tight to the fence when we were coming into our storage/driveway and cracked an awning part and the glass in the window. Our RV dealer removed and sent it out to a glass repair shop. We were told that the window cost $600.00 if you had to buy a new one and that was several years ago. We have moved our entrance gates around and it works much better for backing in. I try not to think of the cost of a new window when we take them out for resealing!!

We were able to make some more progress tonight... We checked the roof, and it has cured nicely, but we will be waiting two more days for the second coat. So, we raised the top, and cleared out the rest of the interior walls that were still adhered to the foam.

Here are some pictures that show the interior walls basically ready to be recovered:





I also started to address the issue of the guide that had broken next to the door. All of the screws had broken off inside of the lower rail, and there is literally no room to get anything to drill out those screws, so I came up with an option that looks to have worked very well. The pictures are a bit blurry, mostly because my batteries were almost gone... I'll have better pics later.

I used some 3" x 3" aluminum angle, cut off a 3" section of it, and then mounted the guide block to this material. Then I pre-drilled the underside of the lower rail, and screwed in some stainless lag bolts and mounted it. It is working very well, and holding the wall nicely against the lower half of the trailer.

Finally, I removed the door side lower skirt, and found that there isn't much room to position the outrigger, but it looks like it will wedge into this corner nicely... I'll have to remove the wheel to get the welder in there and weld this in place.