oops on the roof!

[turledee]

:cry: Christmas/New Years adventure left us with a small v-shaped rip in the vinyl roof. The edges approximate well, and it was temporarily repaired with the handy duct tape. I have tried to find information about a more permanent solution, but I have not been successful with learning about the right products and procedure. I have read about repair for rubber roof, but is this the same? E-mail to Tom Peck at Doubletree has not been answered [Is he still there?] I am worried about the rains approaching this w/e, especially after the freeze in East Texas this last week. Trailer is in open air storage, and I will need to travel about 100 miles to go and repair it, and I hope to do it VERY SOON. Any and all good advice is welcome!

[Diesel-Gypsy]

Gary, I know how you feel....
This is what I used: http://www.eternabond.com/

Now please don't think I caused the tear in my roof.....I had nothing to do with it. :lol:

Good luck

Rick

[wingnut60]

Use Eternabond and forget about it.

[turledee]

Thanks for the advice--I have read about Eternabond, and that is what I will do. And of course Gary had nothing to do with the tear--It was those limbs that fell from the SKY! {LOL}
Thanks again!

[Motor31]

I plan on doing some sealing of the slide out rooms using the same stuff. I want to go over the top seams of each slide out rather than just using more lap sealant. I'll also be looking at doing the same for the upper seam of each end cap after I make sure there are no more broken screws installed by the factory.

[bstark]

Motor 31: Ditto here. The tape they've used on the slideout tops is starting to lift and curl being dragged under the seals on our rig and also ditto on the eternabond over those trim pieces of the end caps - a much neater solution than the ugly gobs of caulking. Sad to say also; ditto to the broken screws just about everywhere on those trim strips. Seems like a never-ending job lifting the trim away from the body of the coach by removing enough screws to get a pair of narrow jaw vice grips on the ends of the screws and very carefully easing them out of body. Then resealing the trim with care so it doesn't look like a butcher's waste bin.

[Motor31]

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine what kind and size of screws that should be used on these things. For crying out loud, for outside use, stainless steel screws should be a no brainer. It does rain outside ya know. For structural uses like the end caps, a heavy duty screw would be nice to hold things together especially since they KNOW that trim strip is hard to hold down and the caps, roof and whole trailer does flex when moving. DUH!!.

In addition, the power screw drivers should be set to a torque that does not shear screws or break the heads off. When one does get broken the proper thing to do is to remove the broken screw and replace it, not just dab caulk on the spot and put the screw head into the caulk to hold it in place. If I were to build a house and the contractor said he was going to use Amish labor, I'd find another contractor after what I've seen in my trailer.

[turledee]

THANKS for all the help guys. I finally found the Eternabond I wanted at a Walmart--I had to shop at several-- and I placed it on the tear. Here is hoping that it will last and no leaks. We will be able to check when we next go back to our trailer.
We haven't had trouble with the screws yet, but the putty looks to be drying up and will probably need to be changed this year, when weather and time permits.

[jenroof]

I've used the Eternabond last time when my roof needed some repairs. It really worked on my roof. You might just need to read first the instruction for a best result.

[missourijan]

I used Eternabond on those metal pieces at the top edges of the slides and then plenty of caulk around it. Those metal pieces were "poking" through the caulk the factory put on them. I even had a small leak on a corner of the bedroom slide and had to take off that piece of trim at the top side of the slide and pull up the vinyl a little and let it dry, then re seal everything. Found 3 broken screws.

[retiredchuck]

eternabound is great,but it shows up badly if you have a tare at the side of the roof. I heard that there is a patch of the same material that you heat on, melting it on with a heat gun,making it less noticesable.You can contact the viynal roof company for infomation and location of a repair shop.

[sr]

I had a tear in my roof and my insurance company paid for a new section of vynal roof about 10 feet long. I had Paul Cross at International RV Service install the roof. Did a very good job. No leaks and it looks like I never had an issue. He did have to install a 1" strip the width if the rv where he cut the vynal and pieced the new on in. Can't tell there was an issue if you didn't know I had it done.