Can you put in too much roof caulking?

J&SW · 07-04-2011, 12:06 PM

Question for all you knowledgeable helpers out there. Redoing my roof/sidewall caulking on my 04 Itasca Sunrise 32V. Cleaned out the J channel, ready to put in the caulk (Manus Bond 75AM White). The question is - can you put TOO much caulk in the channel, so it gets squeezed down into the space below and gums things up? Or, is it inherently self limiting?

Duner · 07-05-2011, 12:09 PM

I think the answer is yes, you can put too much in and plug up the weep holes and the inside of the rail. When you do get a break in the seal, the water will travel inside the rail and out the weep holes. With that blocked, it's conceivable that water could go over the inside ridge and down the inside of the wall.

Here's a picture from Winnie what it looks like where the black dot is the sealant you're adding:

The complete guide to apply sealant from Winnebago is here:
http://www.winnebagoind.com/resource...%20Sealing.pdf

I sold my 1999 Chieftain to my nephew in '04 and he didn't maintain the roof seal. In '07 he was caught in strong side/head winds in the pass by Palm Springs and lost about 4 ft of the fiberglass roof. The seal outside had to be long gone years before the fiberglass ripped loose, but he never had any water leaks inside.

The factory seal on my '04 Chieftain was really poorly done....very thinly applied. So I had to redo some of it in yr one, and the whole thing in yr 2. I applied it about 1/4 to 3/8 inch deep and it has held up well for about 5 yrs now. I think the channel is about one inch deep, so you would have to try hard to get it all the way down. Maybe if you used the wrong stuff and it was too runny and flowed down to the bottom. But if you use the right stuff it won't flow.

Good luck,
Bill

SeaRay · 07-08-2011, 07:22 PM

Hey guys,
If you search this forum for eternabond tape, you will find a much better solution to calking the roof. We finally did ours last year and it really works well. I ordered the 4" wide tape and cut it to 2" and sealed the roof to the side extending down into the gutter. I think you will see from the posts that this is a popular and permanent solution as opposed to recalking every few years. It took wife and me about 4 hours to do ours. We rented scaffolding and it made the job easier. One of us cleaned the section while the other came behind with the tape. The eternabond web site tells you how to do this.
Good Luck.
SeaRay