New camper need help

[ron halverson]

I just purchased a used 1995 coleman fleetwood utah pop up the previous owners did not take very good care of it but after doing alot of fixin its in decent shape especially for 700.00 one thing i have noticed is in the back corner on the side of the inside roof it seems like there is a little rotted wood the bracket that the canvas is attached to there is about 3 screws that have pulled through and they wont retighten the majority of the bracket is tight and no rotted wood also there is no sag in the roof at all is this something i really need to be concerened about and is there a quick fix to get those screws to hold i wouldnt want that bracket to pull down also were could the water get in at i have no air or vent on top could the screws from the awning bracket have leaked i just want to make sure no more water gets in there ,

[austinado16]

I'm not familiar with your roof, but basically water will get in where ever you have an exterior seam, whether it's verticle or horizontal.  Once it gets to the wood, it wicks its way inside, swelling and rotting the wood.  This usually makes the seam worse, so more leaking occurs.

I'd suggest recaulking all the exterior roof seams and if there are external screws it might be worth loosening them one at a time, putting some caulking under them and tightening them back down again (and the wiping off the excess caulking).

As far as what you have now, there's probably no way to repair it short of taking the roof apart and replacing the wood in that section.  Maybe you could remove the screws and take a tube of that Gorilla Glue and force glue into the screw holes.  Then install the screws and tape the bracket and them tight against the roof if need be until that glue dries.  At least  you've have a pretty snug connection there.  Gorrilla Glue is just amazing, so this might be a very permanent solution.

Nice score on the camper for that price.  I bought a fixer myself and am glad I did.

[beacher]

I agree with finding the source of the leak, and sealing it with a good polyurethane based caulk, (do not use household silicone based caulk on an RV).  

You can marginally repair rotted out wood with epoxy ,especially where mounting screws are involved.  People with wood boats do it frequently.

If you can gain access to the rotted out wood section, and it is a small area, you can repair it with epoxy.  Any two-part epoxy glue will work for small areas.  Simply build up the rotted section with epoxy, re-drill the holes, and it should hold reasonably well.


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