1998 HiLo 28B Classic Semi-Rebuild Project

Replacement blinds

I hope someone knows where to get the blinds you are describing. Post a picture if you have no luck finding them on the internet.Maybe JR repair knows.

stabilizer jacks

mine were either frozen or bent beyond belief, so i took them off, took pb blaster to them to loosen them up, took off angle supports and straightend them then reasembled and used spray lithium grease on all moving parts, what a difference it made

butyl tape

sam said:

Years ago we reinstalled our large dinette window with two inch butyl tape and have had no trouble with black streaks. The inside rim of the window where the buty tape is applied is quite wide and I can"t see where !?2 tape would give you enough coverage. Our Rv dealer that has been selling HILos forever also told us to seal the exterior window with caulk. JR also follows this procedure. Different points of view and that is okay. Typo 1/2 inch tape.

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Sam & vdubn,

After reading your posts, I have decided that the butyl tape is probably the best way to go. After today, I will have removed all the roof penetrations except the AC unit. The butyl material has been in good shape once you get past the edges that are exposed to the elements. I will be covering the outside edges with the eternabond tape which will stop the exposure once I have applied it and the elastomeric paint.

If I have to repair the window seals, I will do as Sam suggests, use the butyl and then seal it with a good pliable caulk.

So far, I have removed all the roof penetrations but one vent and the skylight over the shower. I'm beginning to think these steps weren't necessary but I want to be assured when I finish that I will have 100% protection on the roof. I believe the electrolysis holes and the lateral metal strips covering the aluminum roof joints are what led to my interior leak and feel confident the eternabond tape and roof paint will ensure a stable and reliable roof.

I have removed and cleaned the gutters, vents, side vent covers and the rain guards over the slide out and door. I will try to find a good matching white automotive spray paint for the gutters and side vents before re-installing.

I am undecided on whether to remove the end caps. If I can repair the two splits without removing the end caps, I will not remove them. I have removed the old sealant from the rear cap and the cap seems to be rather fragile and I may do more harm than good if I remove them . I certainly don't want to have to replace them. $$$$. Why Hi Lo ever went with plastic end caps over fiber glass is beyond me.

I have cleaned all the gunk off the gutters, roof & wall junctures, and vents. I bought some simple green for washing which will be the final step before I begin applying the tape and painting. Any suggestions on my procedures?

Jerry Curtis
2406 T

Jerry, it sounds like you have been very thorough. Like you mentioned, you probably don't need to remove some of the stuff that you removed, but if you have the time, it will only make for a better sealed roof.

I opted not to actually removed everything, as my skylight would have surely broken. My skylight is pretty yellowed, not sure what color they were when new, but I am guessing much more transparent than mine is now. Next year I may pull it and replace it, as the inside trim ring on the skylight is broken in like 4 places.

The heavier crack and seam filler that we used, really did an awesome job around the perimeter of the roof, and on each of the seams, and I was really surprised at how sturdy the roof was when crawling around on it.

I think you will be happy with the trailer when you are done, we should have ours pretty much finished this weekend, and I will have some more pics to post.

Here is the list of items to address in this build, along with a status on each. All should be resolved by tomorrow:

1. Leaking Roof - FIXED - $125
2. Broken awning arm and arm knob - FIXED - $21
3. Awning lower bracket pulled from the lower rail of the top section - FIXED - $6
4. Broken city water door - FIX Tomorrow - $70
5. Broken Roof/TV Antenna - FIXED by removing and patching roof - No Cost
6. Dry Rot in the door side wall - Replaced whole inner wall, wall papered whole front section back to bedroom - $150
7. Freezer door wouldn't stay up by itself - FIXED - $16
8. Broken window glass by the couch - FIXED - $25
9. Broken window mechanism by the dining table - FIXED - $18
10. LP Regulator and hose leads were pinched against both tanks, causing the tanks to wear into the rubber lead hoses (I think it was because the previous owners upgraded to the 7 gallong tanks) - Replaced to the newer auto-switching regulator and new leads, and moved the regulator up higher so that it wouldn't pinch into the tanks - FIXED - $75
11. Factory Fiberglass LP covers - Replaced with lighter plastic covers, with access panel on top to elliminate removing the whole covers to turn gas on and off - No Necessary, but convenient - $45
12. Cabinet next to door was almost hanging completely off the wall - FIXED - Cost absorbed into wall fix
13. Broken Clock - Fix Tomorrow
14. Sagging wall section on door side - Fixing Tomorrow with outrigger to support middle - $40
15. Broken Guide Block - FIXED with fabbed bracket to make replacement easier - $20
16. Dry Rot on Kitchen Side wall - Fix Next Season, ok for now
17. Outside Amber light not working - Fix next week - Unknown cost
18. Front Kitchen side Leveling Jack Bent - Fix later - Unknown Cost
19. Missing Blind over dining table - Researching

So, we have made very good progress, and after totalling up the cost for our semi-rebuild project, not too bad at just over $600. I am sure there are some smaller costs that I didn't factor in, like a few stops at the hardware store, but all-in-all, not too bad.

robobd said:

mine were either frozen or bent beyond belief, so i took them off, took pb blaster to them to loosen them up, took off angle supports and straightend them then reasembled and used spray lithium grease on all moving parts, what a difference it made

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I wish I could remove mine, they look like they are welded in, as they are part of a frame that hangs down a bit. Is yours a classic? I know ours are about 10 years apart, so they may be totally different.

Either way, good idea with the PB Blaster and regreasing them. I need to get under there and regrease the guide bar for the lift mechanism as well.

Roof repair

jcurtis 95, your plans seem good to me. Keep in mind that we have had not had to do roof repair. I might consider taking all vents and the Ac off at this time. That way you wouldfn,t have to deal with them for a number of years. Just yearly checks. I would hate to see you have problems in a few years. Again I am not an expert. I can only guess as to why HiLo used plastic end caps over fiber glass(as you said.) Possibly to cut down on costs and weight. Someone thought this would pan out from an engineering perspective. The reason we took out all our windows is because of the age of the trailer (21) yrs. and severe water wall damage. The black seal was all squished out and better material is available (butyl tape and Lexell caulk). This a good question as to when you take out all windows and reseal? If you wait until the windows leak and the walls are water dammaged then it is too late!!!! What is the criteria for when the windows need to be resealed.? We will lord willing be able to get our trailer home this week. We are going to have no rain for four days and will try to bring it home Thurssday. Sometime after that we will be making an apt. for insp. at our Hi Lo dealer and I will ask him the window reseal question. We are going to have him do a propane pressure test to make sure we are okay after our cracked fitting was replaced on our stove top. This has never been done by us and would be a good thing given the age of the trailer.

Sam,

I take a lot of stock in your experience and advice. I thank you so much for the encouragement on my project.

Today, I have removed the remainder of the wall vent covers, with the exception of the sky vent over the shower and the front center roof vent. After looking at the good seal on those I removed and considering the coverage the eterna-bond tape, which is 4" wide, will provide, I do not think this step is necessary. Sam, I chose not to remove the AC for three reasons. It covers the roof penetration well, the penetrations I have removed so far have looked very good and were actually needlessly removed considering the eterna-bond tape and paint that will follow. The roof slopes from the center therefore there is no pooling to worry about. And, I will add a fourth reason, from an aesthetic standpoint, if it were to begin to leak, I can apply the same procedure later and not be concerned with the looks on the roof for it covers such a large area.

Now, I have two additional questions. The simple one first. Have you or hopefully anyone reading this on the forum, ever painted the plastic covers for the air vents, stove exhaust vents, etc? Since I have them off and they have 'yellowed' considerably, I would like to buy spray paint to improve their yellowed appearance. Anyone ever try this and if so, what were the long term results?

Number two, I would also like to know if you or anyone reading this post have ever removed an end cap? I am concerned with the flimsiness of the plastic end cap and the difficulty I may have in sealing it good and may decide to take it off. I am assuming that I must remove the window? On the rear and front end caps, the splits are located up very high. Would it be possible to remove the screws, pull the upper portion out just enough get behind it and place some strong backing material, then I will fill in the two slits with a white or clear caulking sealant. Anyone?

I will remove all the windows for each one of them has a black appearance around the edges that I know will run black down the side walls. I will take Sam's advice, use the butyl tape, but apply it in such a way as to leave a small crevice on the outer edge for a clear or white sealant to cover it to prevent any aging and future black streaks running down the wall.

Thanks for any advice on these two questions.

Jerry Curtis
2406T

Roof repairs

Your report and work seems right on track. I have not painted anything plastic. My husbands boss sprayed something plastic and it did a beautiful job. I am aware that plastic paint is available at walmart. I don't blame you for not wanting to take the ac unit out. It is a pain. When our ac needed replaced our dealer forklifted the 125lb unit up on the roof. I hope someone can advise on the end cap replacement.

Unfortunately, I have no experience on the end cap replacements, but I can say, just unbolting the bumper covers has caused me issues getting screws to bite again, so I would be really cautious, and I would probably not mess with it. On our Classic though, our end caps are fiberglass, so they seem to be mounted very sturdily.

We made some good progress last night and most of the day today. We got half of the blinds back in, and got a quote on a Levelor blind for the 60" dining window. It came back at $131 with strings, or $181 for strinless. We actually want the string version though, not just for the cost savings, but also to keep the bottom of the blind from wagging around when transporting the trailer. We are checking some online sources as well, so looks like we have it covered.

The most time last night was spent positioning the outrigger, and man can I say what a pain. I spent about 4 hours actually getting it set to the correct height, making sure it was level, etc. Everyone I spoke to, friends, JR Repair, etc., all said, just weld it to the frame in front of the tire. No extra details, and honestly, JR really gave next to no advice on how to calculate where it should be mounted.

It was the easiest thing to say, but actually getting it positioned so that it wasn't too high (causing it to hold the door side of the top to sit off of the front and rear stops) or too low (totally ineffective), was aggravating. So, I actually ended up checking the height of the top at full up, and ended up realizing that I needed to adjust 3 of the 4 cables. Once I did that, then I took a lazer and cast it from the rear where the top touches the rear bumper cover, and set the height of the rubber bumper on the outrigger just about 1/8" above that. It worked out perfectly.

It held the slightly sagging portion of the wall just in front of the door, so that when the top is all the way down, the door closes perfectly and the top sits level. It is clear that HiLo should have built the trailer with these in the first place, at least on the door side.

Here are a bunch of pictures that show the process I went through, and how it ended up:

Here are the final pics that show how it looked finished:

For anyone that has a problem with their freezer door not staying closed, here are the pieces that were broken in ours:





Also, I got under the front and using a cut-off wheel I cut off the leveling jack, here is what it looked like (it had apparently been bent pretty bad by one of the previous owners):



I picked up a standard leveling jack, and will be checking to see if it mounts cleanly tomorrow. If it does, I will probably get another for the front, that way there are matching pairs in the front and rear.

I also fixed the LP Regulator, installed the LP hoses to the tanks and installed the new city water inlet box. The door was broken off on the old one.

Tomorrow we will be picking it up from our friends house and bringing it home to finish up all of the small details. Hoping to hit an early camp trip in a couple weeks. I'll try to post some pics of the whole trailer shortly.

vdubn said:

For anyone that has a problem with their freezer door not staying closed, here are the pieces that were broken in ours:

Also, I got under the front and using a cut-off wheel I cut off the leveling jack, here is what it looked like (it had apparently been bent pretty bad by one of the previous owners):

I picked up a standard leveling jack, and will be checking to see if it mounts cleanly tomorrow. If it does, I will probably get another for the front, that way there are matching pairs in the front and rear.

I also fixed the LP Regulator, installed the LP hoses to the tanks and installed the new city water inlet box. The door was broken off on the old one.

Tomorrow we will be picking it up from our friends house and bringing it home to finish up all of the small details. Hoping to hit an early camp trip in a couple weeks. I'll try to post some pics of the whole trailer shortly.

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Keep in mind that the "leveling jack" is really a stabilization jack. It isn't meant to level the trailer, just keep it stable.

Good point.. although I knew that, because my RV store always tells me to stop calling it a leveling jack, and call it a stabilizer jack. I should probably just call it by its correct name.

On another topic.. we brought the trailer home today, and it is towing nicely and its nice to finally have it ready for the camping season. I did notice one thing the last few times that I have lifted the top. Right about the middle of the process of lifting, it seams that the top does a bit of a jig, where it very slightly wiggles front to back. I am thinking that it must have done this before, but I just never noticed. Since I have been adjusting the cables, I have been paying very close attention to every movement (maybe I'm being too critical). Its not something that would be measurable, I can just see it slightly as it goes up and down. Also, I haven't really been able to see it, since I am the one pushing the button, and am usually the one to notice things. I saw it for the first time when I had my wife do the lowering and raising.

I just lubed all of the cables, and all of the pulleys, and they all are in great shape. Lots of adjustment on all of them, all pulleys are in great shape, no issues that I can see at all. It did it before and after I lubed everything.

Can someone tell me if this is normal, or if I should be looking for anything that I may have missed?

The glide blocks and the vertical rails may have something to do with that. If you have a piece of paraffin laying around give the rails a good rubbing with it. That's something that JR Repair suggested to use. Make sure to get around the back edge of the rail. You may want to check the glide blocks to see if they are looking okay.

Hmm, interesting.... I just sprayed white lithium grease on all of the guide rails, but also, the door guide block was one that has been broken for a long time before we owned it, and consequently the corner of the wall pulled away from the bottom section by about an inch. So, when I replaced the block, I had to push the wall back into the rail, and hold it there while I fastened the block. Basically, there is some pressure against that block while its going up and down. Maybe that pressure is what is causing what I am seeing, if its binding a bit half way up on that guide rail.

Window blinds.

sam said:

I hope someone knows where to get the blinds you are describing. Post a picture if you have no luck finding them on the internet.Maybe JR repair knows.

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They are called day/night shades and the newer Hi-Lo has them. My 2006 had them on all the windows.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fleetwood-5...ies&hash=item35bc65c94d&vxp=mtr#ht_500wt_1202

Biffsup said:

They are called day/night shades and the newer Hi-Lo has them. My 2006 had them on all the windows.

Fleetwood 58 x 22 RV Camper Trailer Window Day Night Blinds Shade Oatmeal/Olive | eBay

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We ended up just getting some from an online source for regular blinds, and it worked out pretty well. They have the ability to slide up or down, but not a setting where it lets only some light through. That would have been perfect, but the one we replaced works fine.

Here is another possibilty for blind repair. I haven't used this method but had found it when researching for replacement of some of my day/night shades. It looks like a couple of my blinds just need to be restrung or have the strings tied off somehow, as they will not stay in the up position. Maybe someone else out there has used the blind repair kit from this link? I have to agree that the day/night shades are a better alternative than the normal household blinds.

RV Shade and Blind Repair

block repair

vdubn said:

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.

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The guide blocks are held by two screws that go into the wood 2x4 that is screwed in place to the bottom metal frame.
How i repaired this as the wood was rotted, was
1. went to lows to the lumber section and purchased an L bracket used to brace corners on 2x4s..the bracket is about 4 inch by 2.5 b2 3.5 wide
2. i removed the lower trim to access the metal frame.
3. I cut the top leg of the bracket to a height slightly above the width of the block.I used a metal grinder potable thin disk to do the cutting. drilled four holes to hold block to bracket an attached with a nuts and bolts.
4. I slid the block up the guide into place and drilled holes through the bottom of the L into the metal frame.
5. I then took the grinder and cut the bracket flush with the side of the trailer. i notched the trim around the bracket. and the block has held fine. i have done this with all the slider blocks on my 1991 30 foot