Roof Repair
 

Hello my name is Jack - this is my first post but a long time follower of this forum. I have a 2007 44' United Specialties w/garage. Over the weekend I discovered an outer roof seam had separated and rain water had seeped into the ceiling and wall of the bed over the truck cabin. As a result I have a couple of questions - 1. What is the best method of repairing the roof? 2. Who would you recommend repair the interior damage (ceiling, moulding, framing). The unit is in the pan-handle of Florida right now but I live in Michigan. I will gladly go anywhere in between if the repair facility is highly recommended. One of the companies over by Elkhart was a thought. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

GeoffKaye and the River City Group does that kind of stuff here in Cincy. He used to be on the forum all the time.

Good luck with the fix.

How often does this happen? Is this pretty rare? common?

Usually, what is the cause? Poor construction or stuff just happens?

United Specialties used to be in White Pigeon, Mich. Just across the border from Indiana. They've closed up as United Specialties but somebody told me they opened under a new name. I bet they'd be the best place to fix it if you can figure out how to contact them. Their old number and web address are shut down.

Jack, is there any chance that you could post a picture of the leak on the outside?

Thanks Doc I'll try to give him a call.

Thanks Bob - I heard that somewhere too. I'll start searching the web and see if I can find something. If I do I'll pass it along.

Hopefully the picture will accompany this post! I've isolated the source of the leak to be where the corner cap meets the roof. The caulk pulled away at the top and the water seeped inside down along the corner cap. I cleaned it out and added some new caulk temporarily. The caulk is 5 years old which doesn't seem all that old but it may be time to replace the caulk along the other roof seams just to be safe. i'm open to suggestions!

I am wondering if any of the other t/c convertion companys like Renegade would fix things up for you. Last time I was at Renegade they had a Haulmark in for some sort of work.

Hay, one other thing. When I brought my United Specialties back to the factory for a visit (since we were driving nearby I wanted to go check it out) the guy came out to look at it and told me the clearance lights they used are bad. They found out after building many units they shouldn't have done it that way. They used regular truck type 2" round clearance lights that fit into a rubber grommet placed into a hole in the siding. Here's the type of lights they used:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-B...0/SDC10090.JPG

He said the problem is they allow water into the wall. The side walls it isn't a big deal because any water getting in there will drain down and eventually probably dry out. But it'll get the fiberglas insulation wet. The bigger problem is with the ones on the front of the cab overhang. If you're driving in the rain it's going to push that water in there in much higher amounts. And, the water then goes and pools above the bottom panel. Mine had that problem. There was some pitting in the aluminum sheeting and the paint was coming off. He said the paint was being pushed out by the water sitting on top of that panel. There isn't any drainage there. He told me to figure out some other type of light that seals up. He showed me how they had switched to a surface mounted light with only a small hole in the aluminum sheeting for the wires to come through and they seal it with silicone. So, I found some lights from truck lite that are a l.e.d. type with a gray plastic housing around it. These lights are sealed units so there is no way for water to get from the front to the back, I checked several of them to be sure. They needed a slightly larger hole to fit into my siding so I used a air die grinder to open it up a bit. They don't use the rubber grommet. Once I got the hole the right size I ran a small bead of silicon sealant around the new light housing flange and put the light into the hole (of course I hooked up the wiring first and tested to make sure the light lit). I just used the silicone to hold the lights in, no need to screw or rivit them in. Good silicone, they're not coming out. And they're all now waterproof. And the l.e.d. looks way better.

Here's how I had to get up there to do the fronts:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-B...0/SDC10207.JPG

And here's doing the backs, showing the grinder I used:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-z...2/SDC10197.JPG

And here's the new light in place, they actually have two l.e.d.'s in each housing. And you can see the silicone coming out the holes that you would use to screw them in if you were screwing them in:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_...0/SDC10093.JPG