Wood sided trailer is having issues. Suggestions wanted

[lacofdfireman]

So I built a custom off road style Teardrop trailer and decided for exterior to use 1/4” Baltic Birch Plywood. After the trailer was built we filled in all the screw holes with bondo then sanded the wood and sprayed the bare wood with Raptor liner. It when on think and dried super hard. I thought with as much as we put on this was going to be bullet proof. But seems with Heat, cold and rain the wood is contracting and shrinking and causing the Raptor liner to crack and now I’m seeing bare wood and having seam gaps. At this point I don’t want to have to take all the wood off because it will destroy the trailer because the screws were counter sunk and bondo’d over and I’ll never get them all out. Is there anything I can do to save this trailer? Is there a light weight fiberglass or something I could put over the top of this or do I just keep piling on the Raptor Liner. I was considering maybe trying to find some type of rubber seal like Flex Seal and just painting the entire trailer with a bunch of cans of that but not sure if that going to work either. Any suggestions?











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[redbicycle]

I would not try and remove the wood unless it was the last resort. I think I would go with filling the seams with bigstretch and top coat with exterior acrylic paint.

Multiple options will probably work. This is one.


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[Woodbutcher]

Cover it with aluminum sheet stock.

[John61CT]

Yes bedliner coating is more for over metal than wood.

Remove / replace may be "too much" time & cost but IMO the only way to go, if you want to try to "get it right".

Patching will be easier but likely needs ongoing maintenance.

Maybe research adhesives to get a stable sealed base then overcoat?

[tony.latham]

Ouch. (and by the way, I can't see the problem in the photos)

After the trailer was built we filled in all the screw holes with bondo then sanded the wood and sprayed the bare wood with Raptor liner.

Was the wood sealed in any fashion before the bedliner?

I’m seeing bare wood and having seam gaps.

Wood seams? At the front angles?

I'm trying to understand what's going on here.

I'm with Woodbutcher. You could pull everything off it and sheath with aluminum. A brutal suggestion.

T

[working on it]

So I built a custom off road style Teardrop trailer and decided for exterior to use 1/4” Baltic Birch Plywood. After the trailer was built we filled in all the screw holes with bondo then sanded the wood and sprayed the bare wood with Raptor liner. It when on think and dried super hard. I thought with as much as we put on this was going to be bullet proof. But seems with Heat, cold and rain the wood is contracting and shrinking and causing the Raptor liner to crack and now I’m seeing bare wood and having seam gaps....

*Where you filled holes with non-pliable bondo, I used semi-flexible PL polyurethane adhesive (also used to fill all seams, inside and out), and instead of coating bare wood with liner spray, I did intensive wood prep by saturating the plywood thoroughly with the polyurethane/paint-thinner "mix", until the plywood became practically plastic . Then pure poly overcoated it, and topcoated with 2 or more coats of acrylic enamels (chosen for usage on outdoors equipment/buildings, and because their high solvent content would intermix and bond with the poly and the "plasticized" plywood. Works so far, after 6.5 years since completion.

*If it hadn't turned out so well, my plan was to use a bedliner (Durabak, Monstaliner, Raptor, etc...), but it looks like the current paint & poly might outlast me. at 68+ years. Only time will tell.

*Maybe you could scrape off the failed coating, prep the existing plywood with many applications of the "mix", caulk your opened seams with Loctite PL Premium adhesive (several layers if seams are really opened-up), then re-apply the Raptor once more (I bet it will stick to the poly "plasticized" wood then). I'm sure the new Raptor coating would cover-up any imperfections, since none are really apparent (to me) in the photos.

[lacofdfireman]

Ouch. (and by the way, I can't see the problem in the photos)

After the trailer was built we filled in all the screw holes with bondo then sanded the wood and sprayed the bare wood with Raptor liner.

Was the wood sealed in any fashion before the bedliner?

I’m seeing bare wood and having seam gaps.

Wood seams? At the front angles?

I'm trying to understand what's going on here.

I'm with Woodbutcher. You could pull everything off it and sheath with aluminum. A brutal suggestion.

T

Here are some closer up pics of a few of the worst spots






I’m really thinking of maybe trying to paint over this with maybe something like Flex Seal that can expand and contract. I will tell you there is no way I’m pulling this all apart. I’d rather start over and build it all the way over again before attempting that. But I’d really like to find a way to preserve it. What are your thoughts on flex seal?

As you can see in the first pic to the right I’ve already used silicone caulk with success on the right part of the seam. Should have used it all the way across but up until that point that was my only issue so I stopped half way across.

Any suggestions appreciated. Sheeting it with sheet metal at this point would be super heavy. Wish you could buy sheets of that stuff they make showers out of. Don’t remember what it’s called but you could probably sheet right over this with that stuff. I’d think it would be pretty light. Just not sure how you would get it to stick on.


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[John61CT]

Stop using anything silicone anything!

Nothing sticks to it, not even more silicone.

If that horse has left the stable, maybe go all in with it, look at the **very** flexible roof waterproofing sealant systems used for old RVs.

Kool Seal, Henry brand, something called "Geocell tripolymer"

But will need re-doing, maybe even every few years?

[tony.latham]

I agree with not tearing it apart.

It looks to me that two things are going on. The plywood has moved at the joint and some of the plywood is checking –and the surface product isn't moving.

I'd consider scraping as much of the bedliner off as you can ––maybe using an oscillating cutter with the appropriate blade which may make quick work of the Raptor–– and then sealing with thinned polyurethane. And then recovering.

I don't think covering over the issue with a rubberized product is going to stop the underlying issue. The wood needs to be sealed with something that soaks in. In a sense, the fibers need to be glued. I have no clue about Flex Seal but it's not going to seal into the offending wood. I would suggest a thin epoxy like Raka 127 but Monstaliner advises against that and says to seal the wood with polyurethane. It too is a two-part urethane bedliner. (But Raptor says this: "the surface must be sealed using urethane, acrylic, or epoxy wood or concrete sealer.") So Perhaps CPS would be the answer.

And BTW, stay away from more silicone. Nothing is going to stick to that spot unless you remove some wood. If need be, use a polyurethane caulking sealant.

This isn't a fun thread.

Tony

[tony.latham]

[lacofdfireman]

Well lessons learned I guess. But there is no way I’m going to try and peel this raptor liner off. Already tried sanding and I don’t have a month to spare to try and do it. I’m afraid I’ll either just try and either just fiberglass sheet over it or maybe something like Formica or something. Worst case scenario I’ll do a real thin layer of sheet metal. This won’t be a show piece and never was. I just don’t want it to totally rot or I will have to remove all sheeting.

May just start simple and try and cost it with something else first. But I need to do some thinking first which way to approach this first. Thanks for all the suggestions. Keep em coming. I’m listening I promise.


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[gudmund]

I, speaking from experience, I agree with John61CT - stay away from silicone based sealants!! and from what I have seen of the 'Flex Seal' branded stuff so far, it sure looked to be silicone!! The worst nightmare of my working life (back when I did 'work' for a living - after 4 layoff's I hired on at the prison-31 years and retired now) was at Boeing when the 'first' 37 - '767's' rolled off the assembly line were (1982) than gutted/striped of their 3 man/pilot cockpit which than was rebuilt into a 2 man/pilot setup's instead. Someone inside the factory, 'had taken the short-cut' of using silicone sealant as a quicker/easier way of sealing the counter-top surfaces of the food-prep galley's and when this was found out on the flightline before delivery, I ended up being the 'chosen one' for re-sealing them with the proper seal that was a two part sealant that you had about a 3 hour time limit to work with. Well after the use of silicone on the stainless surfaces - what a cleanup 'nightmare' (it's been over 30 years ago and if I remember right - ketone and or/some kind of alcohol - nasty stuff - that they we weren't even allowed to have on an aircraft had to be used, I had have 'special' permission to use) It would take washing the area 'over and over' again so as to get the silicone out of the pore's of the metal so the 'right' sealant would stick !! It took quite a few planes before word finally got sent back inside the factory to stop using the silicone!!. Per food-prep rules & regs., silicone was not even allowed to be used on food prep surfaces do to it's -peeling problem- after drying and thus getting into food - and what I had also been told back than by one of the Boeing engineer's, was that silicone has a problem with 'drawing moisture' over time to which - 'yes' I think this is true, being I have seen rust on some of the oil pan gasket surfaces over the years that I have removed and resealed in my auto maintance dealings.

[lacofdfireman]

After doing more research today I had someone suggest on another forum to give FRP a try over the existing raptorliner. I’ve been doing some reading and seems those who have tried it have had good results and one guy has had it on his Teardrop for over 7 years now and never painted it with excellent results even though it says not UV safe and not recommended for outdoor use. Some other have said if you paint it first with rattle can Plastic pain first you can then paint over the top of that with good results. This is much more tempting to try then to have to try and either strip the Raptor liner off or tear off all the plywood. I’ve got a few questions in to people who have actually used FRP and if it does turn out to be a viable option this could be the way to go for me for sure.


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[pchast]

How did you seal the inside against moisture?
Could that have been a factor too?

[lacofdfireman]

How did you seal the inside against moisture?
Could that have been a factor too?

Well I guess it could be as the inside isn’t treated either. I have 1/8” Baltic Birch plywood for the inside walls with outdoor carpet on the walls floor and ceiling.


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