Camper Wood Undercoating

[mangymarmot]

Good Morning,

I'm inspecting my "new camper" and noticed that the base coat of seal gray paint is worn and thin in spots. I'd like to refinish the bottom to protect the wood. The camper will live on the truck full-time and be exposed to lots of snow and ice here in the mountains. What has worked for you guys?? I was considering rolling on cheap truck bedliner material but don't know it that stuff will stick to the wood. Anyone have any suggestions???

Thanks



My wife and I have been living full to part-time in the big camper for the last 4 years. We're downsizing so the F450 and Eagle Cap camper will be on the market soon. Will be sad to see it go!

 

[kmcintyre]

I've wondered this too. I spoke with the guys @ ATC and they suggested the brush on stuff like that for bedliners. I've also seen some stuff at Home Depot that is for decks which looks pretty good and tough. I'd like to hear some 'real world' insight though too before I redo my wood (on the side and bottom) this next winter.

 

[mangymarmot]

I have a friend that used the Rustoleum Restore Deck roll on from Home Depot on his porch. He said the product started to peel in 6 month with little use.

 

[ski3pin]

Call Marty or Jeff at ATC, they'll help with info on what to use -

All Terrain Campers

 

[iowahiker]

I would think standard exterior wood requirements apply: wood needs a path to dry. The interior floor covering appears to be a a perfect water barrier to contain spills and so the underside needs to "breath". Most exterior house paint allows wood to dry while interior paint seals wood to prevent staining. The original paint under our camper looked thin and so we wondered if it "protects" the wood but it also allows the wood to dry. We touched up some thin paint spots with exterior wood paint but avoided a large heavy coat to allow the wood to dry. Drying the floor wood is an advantage to having the wood slates under the camper to lift the camper over our tall Ford F-150 bed rails. Driving should send air under the camper to dry the wood. If moving the truck/camper dumps water out of the truck bed after rain/snow then the wood would be soaked but parking with the rear lower than the front would prevent this (which we do). The over-the-cab floor is an interesting situation since the wood is sealed on both sides which may explain the older camper reports of needing to replace the over-the-cab wood when moisture gets trapped (we are reluctant to drill holes for a wind deflector).

 

[brianjwilson]

I could never understand why they wouldn't just frame the "wings" in aluminum like the sides. As someone who wants to leave a Fwc on full time in a wet climate, I'm also concerned about tire spray keep the underside wet all the time and the wood rotting. Even the travel lite camper I owned had a glossy laminate style wood under the wings and the water beaded up on it.
I noticed when I look at brand new four wheel campers, the screws on the under side are usually drilled in enough to split the plywood open, after the thin coat of gray paint was applied which exposes the plywood directly. I've also envisioned using a roll on bed liner or similar.

 

[mangymarmot]

We live in the mountains and plan on keeping the Tundra a full-time camper carrier. The back of the camper bottom overhangs the bed by a few inches so the wood base is exposed to the winter elements. Our Ford/Camper sees full-time use here and seems to have ice and slush hanging from the overhang 6 months out of the year. I think I may go the DIY bedliner roll-on route. Will keep you posted.

 

[Shap]

Herculiner do it your self truck bed liner, I did it, works great

 

[Ripperj]

My guess is that bedliner type rubber will eventually result in a rubber coated bag of rotted wood. I say this based on some fairly serious ( many beers worth) of looking at how/ why my 84 Alaskan rotted. The only parts that had any rot were those that had rubber stick on material( like used around windows and doors in a house)applied by the previous owner to try and help keep it dry,the rubber material was applied to the parts that could be exposed to the weather . It appears that I wood still got wet, but couldn't dry.thjs resulted in the wood rotting behind the rubber. Would have rotted eventually, but I think being wet continuously accelerated the rot. On an Alaskan this happens all the time on the upper section where the sides curve to the roof, because when the roof is down and you drive in the rain it forces water to the inside part upper section, which is actually the interior when raised , and is wood paneling vice aluminum. This is an issue that I hope to resolve in my rebuild.

 

[takesiteasy]

My approach is to periodically check the paint and touch it up as needed with the same product used at the factory (in our case, Glidden house paint). In addition, taking care to see that the camper is not sitting in water in the truck bed, allowing the camper to dry out after being exposed to water from rain or snow, and storing the camper in a dry place with good air circulation would all seem to be common sense precautions against rot. I agree that coating the plywood with a heavy vapor proof finish might not be the best approach as water will probably get inside somehow anyway and have a harder time getting out.

 

[craig333]

We had this convo a while back. I remember someone recommended this stuff.

http://www.rotdoctor.com/products/product.html

 

[ntsqd]

Reading this I'm wondering what effect those couple gallons of spilled diesel are going to have on the wood. Wet isn't an issue here, moreso now than usual.