Water Damage Rant!!!!!

[doug hodder]

Mike...I'd put something to keep the tarp from laying directly on top of your tear...2x2 etc...you need to allow some air movement under the tarp. Doug

[Arne]

you mentioned the epoxy in the sun getting brittle.

I had a 'kind-of-similar' problem where the cheap 1/8" ply was curved and stressed on the outside of the curve and it was uncoated. The sun started to dry out and shrink the top layer and I got a lot of tiny cracks. I caught it soon enough and put it in the shade and cpes'ed it. I'm not saying I cpes'ed it to fix it, that was just the next step I was going to do anyway....

After that, I used primer and house paint (white)...

So, I was lucky.... if I had not been paying attention, I might have have to put a lot more work into the fix.

[benzu]

Doug, thanks for the tarp tip. To everyone else I took the galley door off yesterday to see if there was anymore damage, not too bad but the galley door started to have dark spots bleed through from the underside out so it's official now I have to replace the galley door, should be faster the second time. I hope we can get one more camping trip out of it this year.

Mike

[Gage]

<snip> I have to replace the galley door, should be faster the second time. I hope we can get one more camping trip out of it this year.
Mike

It'll go much faster because you know what not to do.

[RPH]

See, now, you'll just have to come to the Last Gasp 08 and pick everybody's brains about the best way to fix the hatch and weatherseal the trailer.

We've chased and repaired cabin leaks in boats over the years and all the other builders will surely have some ideas. Just have to pray for dry weather. This morning the forecast was 10% chance of T-storm saturday.

Don'g give up, your trailer looks great. There will be a way.

[zelix]

Sorry to hear about your TTT. I hope that you can get it back to square A soon.

[S. Heisley]

Oh, Mike! I'm so sorry this happened to you. I think you just took it on its maiden voyage this past July! And it is soooo pretty!

Gage and some of the others gave you some good advice, though. Maybe, if you can get it dried out right away, you'll find it's not as bad as you thought and can be saved without tremendous effort. Let's hope!

[benzu]

Thanks sharon, i've actually not done anything to the trailer since my first post of the water damage. I haven't had the time nor the money. I'm not sure when I will get to it and since I don't have a garage it makes it even harder to work on it during winter. We will see... It will for sure ready for spring camping.

mike

[CrocTears]

I'm sorry about your camper. That's just heartbreaking! It's sooo pretty!

I am also in windy, windy SW Colorado. We bought a cheap metal bender and built an open-ended greenhouse. I was planning to build a 'garage' for my TT when it's built out of that, because the one we have already built has held up in the wind really well.

However, I have seen people build them out of pieces of metal tubing from old free trampolines off of Craigslist, which you can probably find up in Denver. I think you could probably build yourself a very durable almost free garage out of trampoline tubes covered with your heavy duty tarp...



Each tube running down sits over a rebar piece, and then you can drive some T posts and stake the whole thing down extremely well. Should be a pretty decent cover for a TT, and the tarp won't be blowing around on your camper finish, messing it up or holding in too much moisture.