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Old 02-26-2015, 07:03 AM   #1
roy
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Default Window leaking

Rear room cargo area XT276. Water visible along inside retainer ring at bottom two corner screws. Looks like the proper fix is to pull the window and reseat it with Butyl tape sealant. Anyone done this yet? Its straight forward on the inside with retainer ring and screws but the accordion blind setup has a valence over the top of the window that I can't tell how it's attached to the camper inside wall. This obstructs my access to the top screws along tye retainer ring.

Don't suppose I could skip the window removal and just recaulk the outside rim along the window frame and call it job done?
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Old 02-26-2015, 09:23 AM   #2
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Yes, remove the window and redo the butyl tape. It is not so hard. You may need another person to help get the window in and out safely. If I recall correctly, the valance is attached to the wall with short square drive screws. You may need a small right angle driver to access the screws. A small ratchet socket driver with a quarter inch receptacle may do the job. Good luck, and let us know if you need any additional advice.
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Old 02-26-2015, 05:29 PM   #3
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Picked up the repair materials today. Butyl tape and went ahead and bought an extra tube of self leveling Dicor for the roof. You can never have enough of that stuff on hand IMO. I removed the blind shade this afternoon. It wasn't to bad but the valence over the top had to come off but was only 4 screws so not terrible. The window is ready to come out with 29 screws holding it in. Have to wait for my helper (my dad) and drier/warmer weather this Saturday to remove the window. If it's not stuck in to good this should not take to long. Looks pretty straight forward. Good thing about doing it this time of year is the butyl tape is not as messy in cold weather.
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Old 02-27-2015, 12:20 PM   #4
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Roy, I meant to ask you – what are "pitbull strapless restraints," which appears in your signature? It sounds like a particularly unflattering evening gown!
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Old 02-27-2015, 12:50 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by profdant139
Roy, I meant to ask you – what are "pitbull strapless restraints," which appears in your signature? It sounds like a particularly unflattering evening gown!
Haha its a device that hold my motorcycles in place minus tie down straps

http://www.pit-bull.com/category/restraints_suzuki.html
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Old 02-28-2015, 09:37 PM   #6
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Did you get your window fix Roy ? I am going to check mine , it's been sitting under the cover with rain and snow on it . Been looking inside a few times to make sure nothing major is going on with it . I will take a close look at the windows too .
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Old 02-28-2015, 10:25 PM   #7
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We just got back from our Florida winter trip this afternoon (maiden voyage) and recently discovered water running down the inside wall in the bedroom from one corner of the window frame .... same type of window leakage I think so I'd like an update as well. I managed to fix the slide out roof leak and the water pump leak and managed to by-pass and remove the seized burner valve in the stove as well as replace all the rollers on the shower door sliders when they failed in transit, so our 2015 FF 214 doesn't seem to be immune from generic issues unfortunately

When I pulled the access panel this afternoon to isolate the water heater in the winterization process, I noticed the floor was wet in there also so it looks like more work there too

Got another trip planned in 3 weeks so I better get busy



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Old 03-01-2015, 03:10 AM   #8
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Neil,

Keep us up to speed on the issues you are having with your 214. We haven't been able to take ours out yet because of the weather here in Maryland, but hope to travel soon.

We are hoping, since ours is a used (2014) unit, that we don't run into the issues you are having, but we don't expect perfection either.

We love your blog and youtube videos- gives us lots of ideas for our travel planning.
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Old 03-01-2015, 06:45 AM   #9
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Hey Gerry and Linda,

Although bothersome, my issues were repairable while in service ... in other words, I managed to remedy the problem while settled into a campsite. I carry a small fold-out ladder in the "basement" which came in handy. Also, I ordered a good memory foam mattress from Overstock.com last night as the OEM mattress that came with the unit proved to be inadequate.

The water-pump leak was simply a loose sight-glass dome that screws into the housing. I'm having trouble getting a new burner valve for the stove. There is a number printed on the valve body but both Suburban and Camping world insist that the actual number for the valve is 116160. When I talked to Suburban they said that they had no record of the number printed on the valve and their records showed that the model stove we have uses the above valve. This is what the Camping World parts manager told me as well. I ordered the valve which came in and of course, it didn't look anything like the valve in our stove. Cost me $8.60 in shipping charges to find this out.

The shower doors are retained (intended) by a flat black rubber strap that loops around each knob on the doors. Apparently, it doesn't hold. If it comes off, the doors bang open and shut going down the road and the rollers at the bottom (on ours) were destroyed. I called Cruiser RV customer service and talked to Dave. As I mentioned, Dave was very friendly and professional. They had to order the rollers and it took 10 days but they shipped me a complete set to replace every one of the assemblies, top and bottom so I have to be happy about that. I now stretch one of the very small bungee cords across the top of the two knobs, make a wrap around each knob and then hook the two ends of the cord together. It's tight and it works.

I don't know what size TV you have or plan to have. The rotary board in the entertainment center intended for mounting a flatscreen is a marginal design and the pivots at the top and bottom are cheap plastic and barely hold the board in place when you're not moving. Ours had all kinds of play and slop in the mechanism and you could move the board in either direction about an inch when it was in the locked position. I bought two small sliding pin gate latches and mounted one in each side in the center. When they're latched, the board is very tight and doesn't budge. You can easily slide the pins back and disengage the latch to rotate the board around if you want to for bedroom viewing.

As for the fresh water tank venting issue, I haven't figured that one out yet. When I got home, I opened the drain under the trailer and for the first time, water actually drained out normally. (I had opened it a half dozen times prior and only a very small dibble was expelled). I'll have to look into that also.

I'm quite pleased that all of the more complex systems functioned normally ..... furnace, refrigerator, toilet, water heater and plumbing in general. No issues with the awning, lights, stereo, tongue jack or fixtures.

We did have problems running our 1500 Watt infra-red space heater a bit. If we used any of the high draw items such as the microwave or coffee maker when it was running, it would trip the breaker. We had nights down in the 20s so we tried running an additional little heater which would also trip the breaker. This was a bit of a puzzle to me as each of these heaters draws about 12 Amps and combined are less than the 30 Amp system but I guess the GFI outlets are on a 20 Amp circuit. I was able to run an extension cord out the back window (in the bathroom) and plug it into the 20 Amp circuit in the pedestal to isolate it's power draw (yes, the window screens do slide open if need be).

Hope some of this is helpful.

Regards,
Neil & Yoly



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Old 03-01-2015, 09:50 AM   #10
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Thanks for all the detail. Very helpful. We will be checking everything out.
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Old 03-01-2015, 12:21 PM   #11
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Neil -- the little glass bowl on our pump came loose, too, after some very bumpy freeway driving. I hand-tightened it, and it has not come loose again.

Also, the water on the floor of the water heater compartment can be from two sources, and neither one is serious. It could be rain water coming in through the vent. Or it could be drips from the pressure relief valve. Either way, the water should run out of the compartment onto the pavement. If it puddles up, you may need to cut a very small channel in the bead of silicone caulk that the manufacturer places along the lower edge of the water heater compartment.

Sure hope you don't have a leak in the water tank itself -- that is very rare.

Also, have you recently serviced your anode? If so, did you torque it to the recommended specs? That could leak, if not properly torqued. (Not too much, though!) I also added a little teflon paste onto the water heater anode threads so that it would not seize up due to corrosion or electrolysis.
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Old 03-01-2015, 02:33 PM   #12
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Hey Dan,

Thanks for the added input ... it gives me some areas to think about. The area vulnerable to the outside exposure to rain as well as the pressure relief valve itself are in a sealed off compartment accessed with the outside metal panel removal. The back side (the bulk of the water heater) sits behind this sealed compartment inside the cabinet area accessed by a wooden panel removed inside the cabin. This is where the diverter valve is where I found the water (the cabin floor inside the compartment). The lines in and out of the tank as well as the diverter (shut off) valve don't seem to be leaking but the floor was wet (not puddled). I agree with you about the rarity of tanks themselves leaking so now I'm thinking that the water found it's way into that area by running off the slide out roof after retracting and then under the wall from the cabin area so it may not be a tank leak after all. I'll keep my eye on it.

I remove the anode to drain the tank when I winterize so it gets inspected. Since it was below freezing when we left for Florida I decided to de-winterize the trailer after we got to our site down in Carrabelle. I totally forgot about the anode which had been stored loose in the compartment and didn't have the right tools for installing it when we got to Florida. No one seemed to have the 1 1/16 inch socket required but I managed to purchase a 27mm socket from the local hardware store and borrow the 1/2 inch ratchet and extension from a camping neighbor. I put a few turns of teflon tape on the threads each time also. Again, all of this area is in the separate outside compartment.

I'm hoping that since March "came in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb" as late March in Branson came still be on the wintery side so fingers crossed. Also looking forward to sleeping on the new memory foam mattress we ordered last night. All of these experiences will serve us well before we head out the beginning of May for our 5 month trip



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Old 03-01-2015, 03:12 PM   #13
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The window repair didn't go as planned. With the cooler temps right now the window wouldn't budge to come out. It's stuck in there pretty good but I think it would be way easier in the summer when the crap putty they used softens up. I took the road less traveled with this, sprayed water on out side of window with the inside retainer ring removed and quickly located the leak. It's very small and appears to have just started on the last trip. No water damage yet. So I returned to the RV place and inquired what I could use similar to the silicone type sealant the factory used in places along the exterior window frames where their putty didn't squeeze out on install. He told me it was straight up 100% silicone clear. I hate the stuff but considering wrestling that window with 100% chance of rain for the next 5 days I purchased a tube.

Returned home and cleaned the old putty off the window frame edges and applied a nice clean bead along the affected leak area. Reinstalled the retainer ring and mini blind, through the cover back on the camper and the rains set in today. The sealant was cured well by this morning before the rains hit. I have not gone into the camper today but I feel pretty positive the leaks stopped. My future plan is once it gets warm and summer time if this continues to be a proble I will pull the window no matter what. It's not going to be easy trust me. In true CruiserRV form it's all very flimsy and cheaply made so I expect to repair more than a leak once I wrestle a window out. I looked at the other windows on the outside and they're all installed the same crap way with cheap putty not Butyl tape which is more expensive to use so they went the cheap route of course.
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Old 03-01-2015, 05:23 PM   #14
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Do you think it would behove me to pay to have my dealer take out the other 4 windows (1 has been re-sealed with butyl tape) and do the same?
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Old 03-02-2015, 05:14 AM   #15
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Quote:
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Do you think it would behove me to pay to have my dealer take out the other 4 windows (1 has been re-sealed with butyl tape) and do the same?
I would not fix a problem that doesn't exist yet. Typically that opens the door to another problem. Fix or repair on a case by case basis is my moto.

The others may never become a problem.
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Old 03-02-2015, 09:58 AM   #16
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Two mottos I live by:

1) Do the easiest thing first and 2) if it works, don't fix it



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Old 03-02-2015, 12:21 PM   #17
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Knowing me, I'll miss "the signs" of a leak (unless it is blatant) and then I'll have a lot more damage. Seriously, can't Cruiser just charge a bit more for the butyl tape!

If I 1) had the know-how, and 2) had the strength, I'd do it myself. I have the butyl tape!

Oh, well - hoping the new garage will keep 'er all nice and safe and dry, out of the intense TN sun (well, not that I have seen it in a while...)
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Old 03-02-2015, 01:24 PM   #18
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My leak was pretty obvious from the get go. The cool metal frame with warm inside camper seemed to suck it right through the wall. These type leaks are typically small in nature but left not repaired over time can do damage. Pays to routinely inspect as you go about your daily activities. I caught mine raising the blind which I do daily on that window when out camping to get more natural ligt in that otherwise dark garage area. Bingo there was a bead of water along the inner most part of the window frame. Dried it off and watched it return. Leak!
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Old 03-02-2015, 03:24 PM   #19
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I had water running down the walls in both cases (slide-out roof and bedroom window)



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Old 03-05-2015, 06:01 PM   #20
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Yes Michelle don't touch anything that isn't broke yet !!! Lol
Well I checked over my trailer yesterday and checked all the windows looked like another winter went by with no major issues . We will see once I hook up my water and check for leaks !! Cross fingers
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