Flooding when driving in the rain.

Cory-HILO

Cory-HILO

Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2016
Messages
10
Location
Brackettville, Texas
Hey guys we are noticing a lot of water getting inside of our trailer as we are driving in the rain. obviously the rain is coming in underneath the trailer as the water splashes up. Is there a fix for this or have any of you experienced this before and how did you deal with it???
 
Cory said:
Hey guys we are noticing a lot of water getting inside of our trailer as we are driving in the rain. obviously the rain is coming in underneath the trailer as the water splashes up. Is there a fix for this or have any of you experienced this before and how did you deal with it???
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If you know for a fact the water is splashing up, then it sounds like you need to replace the bulb seal that is on both halves of the trailer. Even when I had bad bulb seal I never experienced water splashing up, though I have never driven in extremely heavy rains. We did and still do get dust inside.
 
Well the carpet and floor are soaked but I don't see any leaks on the ceiling or windows so I am assuming the road spray must be entering the trailer from the bottom. I am not really sure how to know for sure. I figured someone out there has experienced this before.
 
Cory said:
Well the carpet and floor are soaked but I don't see any leaks on the ceiling or windows so I am assuming the road spray must be entering the trailer from the bottom. I am not really sure how to know for sure. I figured someone out there has experienced this before.
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Cory, what size of trailer do you have as plumbing could be the issue. This year when we were camped in Banff, Canada and with hook ups, we had water leaking from the inlet water connection. Soaked the carpet and part of the floor.:(
 
Have you checked the fender/wheel well areas for gaps or cracks? You could get lots of infiltration in those areas. The roof vents and A/C could get water coming through as well. I would think if water was getting past the bulb seal there would be wet walls rather than on the floor.
 
I'm with Garry here. Check under your sink(s) first for leaks there. Then, if you don't find any, look at all the piping in the vicinity of the water pump.

It would be hard for water to splash up from the road, between the halves, even if there were NO bulb seal. Were the windows all closed? How about the skylight vent?

- Jack
 
Agree with all the above. If it WERE road splash, then the curtains would be wet. Even more wet than the floor or carpet, like Jack says. Must be coming from another area. Might be tough, but a camera setup would show something. But waiting for a rainy situation, setting up a video camera and taking the unit for a short trip would be a pain. Water must be coming from somewhere.
Tree
 
Garry said:
Cory, what size of trailer do you have as plumbing could be the issue. This year when we were camped in Banff, Canada and with hook ups, we had water leaking from the inlet water connection. Soaked the carpet and part of the floor.:(
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Pex tubing, which seems to be the norm in the RV industry is not very forgiving. If you have any connections that get bumped or tweaked, they can start leaking, based on my experiences. I have replaced both hot and cold water lines from the back of my water heater, using brass adaptors, with better quality flex hoses used in house plumbing. I also replaced the pex
that was hooked to my fresh water inlet, which as mentioned, had soaked carpeting and floor. An RV repair shop told me they use regular flex hoses all the time. So far I have not had any problems with the revised plumbing.:)
 
The only time I had water come in was ice melting from the A/C after running it during very humid weather. I learned then that when weather is like that it has to be run on high speed.
 
If the overhead vent isn't cranked down tight I could see it lifting in the wind and allowing water to get in , then, closing lightly when not mving so it isn't noticeable.

Rick
 
Do you have a tip out on your Hi-Lo? If your Hi-Lo does, 1) check the seals around the opening where the tipout meets the edges of the opening or 2) when you have camped in heavy rain and subsequently prepare to decamp and get ready to tow and bring in the tipout, the tipout sometimes will have a certain amount of water which puddled on its top from blowing rain. When the tipout is laid in the prone position inside of the Hi-Lo on the carpet area, the carpet and the floor will get wet. We try to towel dry the top of the tipout before bringing it in if we have had blowing rain occurring.

I know, I know--there are so many things to checkout!

Dee
Summerville, SC
 
water in HiLo when traveling/raining

One time we had to have our dealer patch the inside of the wheel wells. The prior owner had a tire shop and he put tires on that were slightly too wide. The tires were starting to rub a hole.
 
I had a similar problem where my floor and carpet would get very wet but no signs of leak on windows, ceiling or walls. Turned out the leak came from the AC unit. Rain would blow in through the vents in the AC shroud then run into the camper and straight down to the floor leaving no sign of where it came from. It took quite some time to find the problem.
 
All very good suggestions. Since it only happens when driving in the rain I was thinking of recreating a rain at highway speeds by having my wife spray with a power washer from a distance while I lay inside the trailer when it is down. Maybe with a flashlight, I might see where the water is entering.

After the two rain situations when we found the floors wet, It seemed most of the water was towards the front of the camper (near the tounge). There is a seam on the outside that may be compromised perhaps. Hopefully the pressure test will help us figure this out. I want to put wood floors in the camper but I can't until I solve this problem.
 
Water getting in when it rains

What year is your trailer? You have been given a lot of good places to look for water intrusion. This past summer we had to take the inside cover and tighten up our AC seal. They come loose with travel and the seal squishes up.
 
I noticed a pretty soaked rug during one heavy rain. The curtains were dry but it was over by the door. I thought it could have been the bottom of the door, or the front of the wheel well on that side. I never got to the bottom of mine either.
 
Well recreating the highway speed rain scenario has seemed to have paid off. We detected leaks in the main room sky light. Next project will be to replace that. I saw a YouTube video which explained how to do it. Seemed relatively simple but I have two questions: if the aftermarket replacement does not have the same screw hole alignment, can I drill new holes into the roof? Don't want to do something stupid. Also, I have heard many mention a special caulk but would that be appropriate for this scenario since I will be doing a complete replacement?

If this discussion already exists in another thread please don't hesitate to point me in that direction. Thanks for all the help folks!
 
Cory said:
...<snip>... if the aftermarket replacement does not have the same screw hole alignment, can I drill new holes into the roof? Don't want to do something stupid. Also, I have heard many mention a special caulk but would that be appropriate for this scenario since I will be doing a complete replacement?

If this discussion already exists in another thread please don't hesitate to point me in that direction. Thanks for all the help folks!
Click to expand...

When I replaced my OEM crappy fan and skylight with a FanTastic Fan, it was a simple plug and play. The screw holes were the same, as I recall and it fit the opening perfectly. If your screw holes don't line up, however, you can certainly drill new ones.

The old fan and skylight were packed with Butyl tape into the opening between the skylight assembly and the trailer roof. That is a non-drying, gooey, sticky, grey compound that forms a water-tight seal as long as you fill all the voids with it. It's the same thing that is packed around the windows in our trailers. I replaced that stuff when I installed my new fan and then, used Lexel Caulk around the outside edge of the skylight, where it meets the roof.

Haven't had a single problem with water penetration, and I've driven through some real frog-strangler rains since then.

I think you'll find the replacement to be a straightforward process, that requires a minimum of tools, and very little skill. Just be sure you get the same size as your old unit.

One more thing - make sure you install the skylight with the hinge facing FORWARD, so that airflow won't lift it when you're on the road.

- Jack
 
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