Roof Leak?

[5 Speed]

I had the camper sitting and not driving for two real downpours. Both rain storms in total was about 5 inches. I have always thought I had a small leak but thought it could be because of driving in the rain, this time the camper was not moving. The far front of the camper on the drivers side bed is where it got wet. I had a foam pad on top of the regular pad so nothing got wet but it did leak quite a bit. The roof support was wet and maybe channeled the water into the area. My only thought is that it could come in by the upper roof latch / catch or the roof screws both of which I just put a small amount of silicon on. The upper roof catch latch did not have any silicon around it. Any thoughts? It was limited to just that area .

 

[Tomas Tierra]

5S

Do you have a roof rack??

 

[5 Speed]

Yes I have Thule Racks but the leak is more forward than the racks. I put in the tracks for the rack in myself in the exact same holes as the roof bolts with new silicone plus the proper plastic thule spacers with new rubber washers for the screws

 

[Tomas Tierra]

I had some pretty good leaks on my old Fleet FWC from the roof rack.

I to have a mystery leak forward on the right corner. I'm pretty sure it's coming in through the caulk line that holds the drip edge and roof together. I really don't want to re-caulk that whole dang roof.

 

[benburnett]

Roof leaks

Without seeing the camper and the leak, this is just a guess.

One, it could be the rack. Even though the leak is forward of the rack, the rack is screwed into a beam that runs the length of the camper, if it did leak, the only place for the water to go is down the tube and come out in the front or back depending on where the rack is mounted.

Two, could be a roof latch if it was not sealed when it was put on. Simple fix, pull the latch and put silicone in the screw holes and put back on.

I doubt that any leak comes from the seal on the trim piece that goes around the roof. The liner actually comes up and goes under the roof skin, then the roof skin is folded over the liner. Water has to run up hill and around a corner to leak in that way. Chances are that is it a screw or two that is not sealed.

 

[Puffins]

I have the same leak on my front drivers side. I does seem to be worse after driving, and got really wet after a trip to the snow where I didn't pop the top. I feel that it is coming from a vertical seam. I have tried tightening the latch and just picked up some seam sealer. I am way past due to reseal the seams.

 

[5 Speed]

I know it doesn't happen when driving, just sitting closed in the rain. I looked at the top roof latch and it does not have any sealer on it like all the screws on the roof, I hit them with some silicon and will see what happens, it will probably rain in a week or so, if not I will see if I can make it leak with a hose. It is really only above the driver at the front of the bed and it is very local, no water anywhere else. I think it is coming in at the front edge as it flows off the roof, across the hinge edge and then inside and then traveling along the wood roof support about a foot or two inside to the top of the bed. If that won't work I will take off the thule track on the roof and reseal the holes but when I put it up there i did a good silicone job plus new screws with rubber washers but time will tell and when it is solved, i will post.

 

[Mark W. Ingalls]

(I'm sure you already checked this, but...) If you have screws in the top that are slightly loose, water can pond up around them when you are sitting still, infiltrate the screw holes, and then run down the beams to drip out through the ceiling elsewhere. It only took about a quarter turn of 'looseness' for this to happen on my Hawk. I went around and tightened all the screws (only a few were actually loose) and this particular water problem subsided. I didn't bother to caulk the screws, only tighten them.

 

[Puffins]

Mark,
Good catch, I just tightened one of my loose roof screws, left front. That may have lead to my leak.