Leak Patrol

We've had two solid days of rain and so I've had the opportunity to further diagnose those leaks we spotted at the Florida State Rally. The one of major concern is appearing right at an interior seam about midway up the wall inside the refrigerator compartment. It's just a very small trickle, but of course over a few hours of rain the water saturates the plywood floor and that will eventually cause the rot problem again.

Water appearing at a seam on the inside of the trailer means that it is getting inside the walls. It gets inside the walls due to a leak above. Trying to find the exact entry point can make you can go crazy. The leak point can be a pinhole in some caulk, a very slightly loose rivet, or a tiny crack in a plastic part.

For now, I'll put a towel in the space to soak up the water that leaks in, and change it every few hours so that the water doesn't do any harm to the plywood. During the March 25-27 work session, I'll have to get on the roof and carefully inspect EVERYTHING. We've done this before, of course, but obviously we've missed something.

If you just replace what you think is the problem, you're guaranteed to go up to the roof again and again. The way to keep from going insane when doing this is to completely strip out any rivets, caulk, or parts on the roof that appear to be the least bit suspect, and replace with new. Parr-Bond, Vulkem, and a box of Olympic rivets will be my major tools in this battle. In particular, I'll be checking each rivet for tightness. A brown or black ring around a rivet indicates that it is loose and needs to be replaced.