Beach Papa
Member
2002, 24 foot Hi-Lo Camper Window, Wall and Beam Restoration
Summary: Last summer (2013) we were on a camping trip and raised the day-night shades when we arrived at the campground. Unfortunately, one of the screws for the restrainer cords that holds the shade down, pulled out of the trim cap above the upper section beam and we discovered that the beam was rotted. Turns out the manufacturer over-cut the opening for the windows in the walls and they leaked and rotted both the lower section of the walls below the windows and the perimeter wood beam below. Twelve and a half feet of beam was rotted on one side and five feet on the other side. The window under the awning was just as improperly installed but the awning protected it from the rain. The window manufacturer says the minimum required overlap between the window and wall is 3/8”. Unfortunately, there were places around the window which had less than 1/8” overlap. The windows looked great from the outside and inside but they were not installed correctly. The windows were installed using putty tape between the frame and the wall and with so little overlap; the putty squeezed out and allowed water to enter. For five weeks my wife and I worked on the camper almost every day (I am retired) either finding materials, cutting and prefabricating parts, tearing out rotted wood, separating the upper and lower sections of the camper, removing windows, or building back walls, beams, wall finishes and reinstalling windows and a new bulb seal. We are now finished and the final product looks great, although nothing is ever perfect. No one got hurt, which was a blessing, but there were some times of concern while the top and bottom of the camper were separated. (I pushed the tongue jack off a 6x6 block of wood while trying to force something into place and the whole camper shifted about a foot which gave us both some concern since the top and bottom were separated at the time. ) I learned a lot and if I had it to do over again, I would do things a little differently. I am pretty handy with tools so I will say this project is not for the complete novice, although it can be done with time, hard work, perseverance and a dry place to work. A long time ago while on the web, I read that the windows in a Hi-Lo should be taken out and resealed. I thought that was ridiculous. If the windows are installed properly, they should not have to be resealed ever. So I did not remove them and reseal them a long time ago. If I had, I would have realized the windows were in fact not installed correctly in the first place and I would have saved myself a HUGE amount of restoration work to have caught the problem before the leaking windows rotted out the walls and beams. I will share a word to the wise. If you have a Hi-Lo and have never removed the windows and/or resealed them, you should read the complete description of my project and perhaps at least take one of your windows out to inspect to see if it was installed correctly before your camper suffers the same fate as mine. I hope all you Hi-Lo owners can benefit from our experiences. We love the concept, we love the camper. If we were to lose this camper, we would probably buy another Hi-Lo, even knowing all the potential problems.
Happy Camping and Blessings to Y’all.
Beach Papa
To see the whole process:
Summary: Last summer (2013) we were on a camping trip and raised the day-night shades when we arrived at the campground. Unfortunately, one of the screws for the restrainer cords that holds the shade down, pulled out of the trim cap above the upper section beam and we discovered that the beam was rotted. Turns out the manufacturer over-cut the opening for the windows in the walls and they leaked and rotted both the lower section of the walls below the windows and the perimeter wood beam below. Twelve and a half feet of beam was rotted on one side and five feet on the other side. The window under the awning was just as improperly installed but the awning protected it from the rain. The window manufacturer says the minimum required overlap between the window and wall is 3/8”. Unfortunately, there were places around the window which had less than 1/8” overlap. The windows looked great from the outside and inside but they were not installed correctly. The windows were installed using putty tape between the frame and the wall and with so little overlap; the putty squeezed out and allowed water to enter. For five weeks my wife and I worked on the camper almost every day (I am retired) either finding materials, cutting and prefabricating parts, tearing out rotted wood, separating the upper and lower sections of the camper, removing windows, or building back walls, beams, wall finishes and reinstalling windows and a new bulb seal. We are now finished and the final product looks great, although nothing is ever perfect. No one got hurt, which was a blessing, but there were some times of concern while the top and bottom of the camper were separated. (I pushed the tongue jack off a 6x6 block of wood while trying to force something into place and the whole camper shifted about a foot which gave us both some concern since the top and bottom were separated at the time. ) I learned a lot and if I had it to do over again, I would do things a little differently. I am pretty handy with tools so I will say this project is not for the complete novice, although it can be done with time, hard work, perseverance and a dry place to work. A long time ago while on the web, I read that the windows in a Hi-Lo should be taken out and resealed. I thought that was ridiculous. If the windows are installed properly, they should not have to be resealed ever. So I did not remove them and reseal them a long time ago. If I had, I would have realized the windows were in fact not installed correctly in the first place and I would have saved myself a HUGE amount of restoration work to have caught the problem before the leaking windows rotted out the walls and beams. I will share a word to the wise. If you have a Hi-Lo and have never removed the windows and/or resealed them, you should read the complete description of my project and perhaps at least take one of your windows out to inspect to see if it was installed correctly before your camper suffers the same fate as mine. I hope all you Hi-Lo owners can benefit from our experiences. We love the concept, we love the camper. If we were to lose this camper, we would probably buy another Hi-Lo, even knowing all the potential problems.
Happy Camping and Blessings to Y’all.
Beach Papa
To see the whole process:
