CEILING LEAK THROUGH LIGHT PORTS

[eric@babin.com]

I have a 2014 Itasca Ellipse 42QD. (Winnebago Tour)

It was raining pretty heavily, and wind was blowing rain at about a 45 degree angle.

We began having water leak from 2 lights, side by side, that I now know are directly under the most forward A/C unit.

I got on the roof today and can't find any obvious issues that would cause a leak.

I took off the A/C cover, then another cover under that and I think I found the issue. 

If you look in pic 1901 you'll see the hole for wires and air flow for the A/C unit (Unit is a Coleman Mach). 

There was some water still in that hole.

There is no way for water to get into that hole from the A/C unit... HOWEVER, the A/C unit does sit about 2 inches above the roof.  There is a foam gasket (about 2" thick) that sits between the A/C and the roof, around this hole.  I THINK the rain, when blowing sideways, got under this gasket and into the hole.  

Has anyone had this same problem.    In order to seal that gasket using silicone or caulk, I'd need to find some with a very long applicating nozzle. about 3x the normal caulk nozzle length.

Or..... I guess the "right" way to fix it would be have the gasket replaced.  My guess is I could do this myself.  

I'm just wondering of anyone else has had this issue and had it fixed??????  

[jleamont]

Check with Coleman, get the torque specs for the unit, go inside and check to make sure the unit is tightened properly. They can shake loose. Bedroom unit leaked once, while raining tightened the corner where the water was dripping, it stopped. When I got home I was surprised how loose both units were when i went around with a torque wrench.

[manholt]

Do not believe that's your problem.  How close is your front cap seam to the lights?  Water travels by capillary action and the culprit is hardly ever above the interior!  Last one I had, water came out under a cabinet in the kitchen....the source turned out to be a crack in the shower sky light, 10 feet diagonally away!  

[eric@babin.com]

3 hours ago, manholt said:

Do not believe that's your problem.  How close is your front cap seam to the lights?  Water travels by capillary action and the culprit is hardly ever above the interior!  Last one I had, water came out under a cabinet in the kitchen....the source turned out to be a crack in the shower sky light, 10 feet diagonally away!  

Maybe 10-12' from the front cap..... and there are 2 pair of lights that are NOT leaking between the cap and the lights that are leaking. 

[wolfe10]

Yes, if you see a  "water path" where the wires go through, seal that.

Definitely properly torque the unit--- in most cases the spec is 50% compression on the gasket.  Yes, it is easy to overtighten it, so go with Coleman's recommendation.

[wayne77590]

If you do try and use a calk, try a 1/4" pvc pipe of the right length. If it needs to bend, use some copper tubing. Force the calk through either and seal the hole. Yep! going to waste a lot of calk but the cost is small compared to the leak.

[richard5933]

The only thing that sealed our unit to the roof was the gasket that went around the perimeter of the 14" x 14" opening, and it took a bit of tightening to get the gasket to compress to the recommended point.

If there is water getting past the main 14" x 14" gasket and the unit if properly tightened, then I'd suggest getting a new gasket and resealing the thing to the roof. Like any other gasket, they can (and do) dry out, get over compressed, or fail for a number of reasons. If your gasket is not sealing, no amount of caulking will properly fix the problem, and if you put caulking on the surface of the gasket itself it will make it nearly impossible to remove the unit later on when it's time to replace it.

[manholt]

Richard.

There are not many RV owners out there, who have 45 year old coaches.  Majority of coach owners, specially 5'ers and TT's, get a new or new to them coach, about every 10 years!  Therefore it's not necessary to change out roof AC units.  Motors and fans, with shafts, yes, but you don't have to take the whole unit off, to do so!  From 1967 to present, I have never had to buy a new, whole unit.

Eric.  What do you have behind the 2 lights that are leaking?  Are the 2 lights in the ceiling of the main coach body or in a slide out?  Not trying to be nit picky,, just isolating the issue, that your having.  You mentioned rain coming in at a 45 degree angle...Front, rear or side?

Carl C.

[hermanmullins]

A bit off the topic, but I had a leak at the windshield. Found out I had a broken clearance lens on the top of the coach. It was broken on the top creating a cup catching the water and funneling into the hole for the wiring. Replaced the entire light and sealed it, now no more leak. (at least not there. Who knows where the next one will be.)

Herman 

[eric@babin.com]

1 hour ago, manholt said:

Richard.

There are not many RV owners out there, who have 45 year old coaches.  Majority of coach owners, specially 5'ers and TT's, get a new or new to them coach, about every 10 years!  Therefore it's not necessary to change out roof AC units.  Motors and fans, with shafts, yes, but you don't have to take the whole unit off, to do so!  From 1967 to present, I have never had to buy a new, whole unit.

Eric.  What do you have behind the 2 lights that are leaking?  Are the 2 lights in the ceiling of the main coach body or in a slide out?  Not trying to be nit picky,, just isolating the issue, that your having.  You mentioned rain coming in at a 45 degree angle...Front, rear or side?

Carl C.

The 2 lights are on the ceiling of main coach, not slides.  Rain was coming in from the side.  Which is why I thought to look "under" the A/C unit.  If the rain was coming straight down the A/C unit would "shade" the rain from that gasket, and run down the sides of the coach..... rather than towards that gasket.  

I think I'll contact Winnebago and get the part number for that gasket...and place the order.  

What is the best source for online ordering Winnebago / Itasca parts online?

As always, you guys are a great source of info and help!

[wolfe10]

I (and I think most RV techs) would recommend AGAINST caulking around the gasket.  If in good shape and properly tensioned, they work just fine.

[richard5933]

2 hours ago, manholt said:

There are not many RV owners out there, who have 45 year old coaches.  Majority of coach owners, specially 5'ers and TT's, get a new or new to them coach, about every 10 years!  Therefore it's not necessary to change out roof AC units.  Motors and fans, with shafts, yes, but you don't have to take the whole unit off, to do so!  From 1967 to present, I have never had to buy a new, whole unit.

Not sure about this. I've read more than a few threads on the FMCA forum about a/c units and the problems with them, including owners having to replace a/c units.

Replacing a roof top unit is really quite simple and having to replace a gasket not difficult if you can find someone to help lift the unit.

Whether an RV is new or 45 years old, there are always repairs to make and once they are out of warranty many people like to do things themselves.

[jleamont]

I want to replace ours, even considered adding a 3rd to the roof . They both work but i'm sure they are getting tired, one has rust inside figured I should swap it out before it fails...on my time so to speak. I wanted to upgrade the units and opt for higher BTU's especially since we travel into hotter areas for vacation. 

[manholt]

Joe.  Makes sense after 16+ years, look at Dometic/DuoTherm, they have some new ones out that are lower and also 15,000 BTU and much quieter than what you have.  At 41 foot, 3 is not overkill....I would go with a 9,000BTU in bedroom and 2 of the 13,500's....saves you a ton of $$$

[jleamont]

9 minutes ago, manholt said:

Dometic/DuoTherm

I have a pair or old style Penguins up there now, 13,500 with heat pumps. There is a few blanks on the electrical panel but no hole in the roof or wiring, not a big deal...but... I might dig deeper into this for the future, don't think this coach is going anywhere, anytime soon.

 

ERIC, did you check to see if they were torqued properly? Removing one that is central ducted between multiple units isn't as easy, also factor in the drain tubing and you will most likely spout off a few new words.

[eric@babin.com]

16 minutes ago, jleamont said:

I have a pair or old style Penguins up there now, 13,500 with heat pumps. There is a few blanks on the electrical panel but no hole in the roof or wiring, not a big deal...but... I might dig deeper into this for the future, don't think this coach is going anywhere, anytime soon.

 

ERIC, did you check to see if they were torqued properly? Removing one that is central ducted between multiple units isn't as easy, also factor in the drain tubing and you will most likely spout off a few new words.

Good idea..... torque check will be step 1. 

 

[wildebill308]

2 hours ago, ERIC@BABIN.COM said:

The 2 lights are on the ceiling of main coach, not slides.  Rain was coming in from the side.  Which is why I thought to look "under" the A/C unit.  If the rain was coming straight down the A/C unit would "shade" the rain from that gasket, and run down the sides of the coach..... rather than towards that gasket.  

I think I'll contact Winnebago and get the part number for that gasket...and place the order.  

What is the best source for online ordering Winnebago / Itasca parts online?

As always, you guys are a great source of info and help!

Why not just order one from Camco/ Amazon I think I saw a universal 14" for about $16.00.

Bill

[five]

My last roof water leak was one or more of the five marker lights on the top front of the coach.  The leaks, if more than one, were not the gaskets between the lights and the roof, but the gaskets between the amber lenses and the bodies of the lights.  So I resealed all five from the outside, I did not replace the internal gaskets.

[rsbilledwards]

On my units torque is 70 INCH pounds not very much. Do not tighten one all the way. Spread the force gently all around.

[wolfe10]

Yes, different A/C manufacturers have different specs for compressing the roof gasket.  Some do provide torque specs, others just tell you how much to compress the gasket. 

And over-torquing is as likely to leak as under-torquing.

Bottom line-- follow the instructions for YOUR A/C.

[manholt]

I sincerely hope that will take care of your leak! 

I had a new one last week in a hard Texas downpour, light fixture mounted under my Passenger slide.  We think off re roofing, but forget that the same material is covering our slide out and by the time the roof goes, so does the top of slide out.  I had all 4 re done before I replaced my Slide Toppers 3 months ago!  They missed a dimple size hole...at the right angle junction, where the slide joins the body, in the out position.  I'll know in the next storm, if we got it...did a flood test with water hose and no leak yesterday, but can't duplicate wind driven rain!

We all have heard about RV Armor roofing!  But you still got to do your slide out's, even if you have flush slides....Newell, Prevost, Foretravel or King Air!

[jleamont]

Brett, ours has two gaskets, the lower one has the water drains coming through it with Silicone sealing the tubes to the gasket and it appers to be glued to the upper which is a traditional 14”.

Is that common?