Possible dryrot in ceiling

[paulitzlee2]

FF X-139 2006, the smallest model.

Ok, the rainy season is over.

My roof had a leak this winter, the roof felt like a sponge, so I tarped it and made it unlevel. I also blasted the furnace on the few days it didn't rain to help dry it out.

Now it's almost May. The roof and ceiling feel dry, but if you push up on the ceiling, it still feels soft.

The frame of where the A/C vent comes in is wood and has some dry-rot and mold.

So my questions are:

How much wood is in the FF roof? Just a few beams, the whole roof, or none?

If there is dry-rot or mold in the roof, and we do nothing to fix it, but keep it covered in winter and are religious about caulking, is this a problem we can ignore? We only camp a few times a year, and we can't even tell there's dry-rot in the roof, assuming there is. Unless we go around pushing up the ceiling, it's invisible to us. It's not very noticeable except for a slight almost unnoticeable sag in the ceiling. Granted, it would probably reduce the value of the trailer, but that's not a major concern. Is this a problem we can safely ignore, since fixing it may cost as least a few thousand, maybe more than the trailer is worth. Just opening the roof to take a look may cost a few thousand.

We did do a mold test with a kit from Lowe's, having it sit on the counter, and it came up negative. We also can't smell mold, and my wife's nose is like a drug-sniffing dog. She can smell anything, and she didn't smell mold.

What do you think?

[webslave]

That sort of thing is hard to guage from the inside. The roof of your model has wood cross beams, insulation between them, thin sheets of plywood on the inside and a plywood sheath, I believe 1/2", on top with the rubber membrane glued to that.

The reason it is difficult to tell from the inside is that the interior plywood is thin and will "feel soft" when you push up on it if you are between the rafters even if the wood is dry (hard to tell "soft" when the wood is that thin to begin with). The better test would be to go "up top" and see if you have soft spots on the actual roof sheathing. If you can find the leak and get it patched early enough, and the spot is small enough, you may be able to get away with it...depending on where it is. If you have roof rot around where the mass of the A/C is sitting, it will only deteriorate further from the weight of the A/C causing roof flex from bouncing down the road.

As you said, the repair may exceed the value of the TT, but, a good repair facility may be able to cut out the bad spot, spanning the rafters, and replace just that small section for a reasonable amount of $$$.
My biggest concern would be if the bad spot is near the A/C unit...you could well pull into a campsite and find the A/C and a portion of the roof sitting in the middle of the floor with a brand new skylight where the A/C used to be

[chupp21]

Hi Don,
My 2008 189FBR has a welded aluminum frame for the ceiling, still has the plywood top. Did they use wood framing in the 2006 model? If so, do you know when they switched from wood to Aluminum? I spent a day last week resealing the roof. After a few years the sealant has already cracked a bit although it was still in pretty good shape, I live in Southern California so we don't get much rain, when we do things dry out pretty fast.

[webslave]

To the best of my memory, the '08's were the first to have all aluminum framing. '06 models were wood framed and the transition to aluminum began with some of the end of the year '07's as the assembly lines were changed over for the various models.

That's based on a conversation I had with an engineer with CruiserRV a while back...