Resealing my roof edges

[GWayne]

so I did some research and I am still not sure what Stone Mason's Gutter and Siding sealant is. They claim that it is a "thermoplastic" sealant. I don't think this is just another name for silicon, but I am not sure and couldn't find out. Apparently the product become unavailable in the USA (it's made in Canada and still available here) and Winnebago now recommends a product called Nuflex-640, also a Thermoplastic sealant??
Wayne

[wmckinley]

For Those of you that are resealing your roof seams. IMHO it would be a good idea to pull the fiberglass out of the gutter. It will add to your work, but may be well worth it.

After a trip to the factory for the tour and reading a few threads here, I knew my needed resealed. I went the extra to pull the roof out of the gutter channel.

I found quite a few screws with busted off heads. They didn't fail from corrosion, the were torqued too tight when the coach was built. the drivers side only had 8 of the original screws still intact. Can't remember how many are used, but it is greater then 24. I replaced all broken ones and doubled up on remaining ones.

3 of the pictures are from my coach, 2 pictures are from the winnebago factory showing how the roof corner is constructed, depending on year of coach.

[Journey cat]

Originally Posted by GWayne

so I did some research and I am still not sure what Stone Mason's Gutter and Siding sealant is. They claim that it is a "thermoplastic" sealant. I don't think this is just another name for silicon, but I am not sure and couldn't find out. Apparently the product become unavailable in the USA (it's made in Canada and still available here) and Winnebago now recommends a product called Nuflex-640, also a Thermoplastic sealant??
Wayne

I just did my Journey and re sealed with the Nuflex 640
I found it to be easy to work with and as they say flexable
I ordered through Constructionfasteners & tools out of Canada
6 tubes @ $6.91 plus shipping to Florida for a total of $71

The complete job on my 34H took only 3 tubes and I was not shy in its use

[CJ7ole]

Originally Posted by wmckinley

For Those of you that are resealing your roof seams. IMHO it would be a good idea to pull the fiberglass out of the gutter. It will add to your work, but may be well worth it.

I thought about it, but it seemed to be tucked under the front and rear caps. Was that an issue for you?

[wmckinley]

CJ7ole

No, just cut the roof right at the cap. I used a multi-mate to make the cut. It appears that's the way they do it at winny service.

Cut from the bottom up to just the top side of the roof radius. You will also have to clean out the pocket under the roof material from the end of the gutter to the cap.

They fill that full of caulk.

Btw I used the manus-bond. Picked it up at Lichtenstein while I was in Forest City.

[wmckinley]

Picture showing filled void between end of gutter and cap

[JPeterson]

A couple years ago, I sealed my roof seams with Dicor self leveling caulk. It failed within a few months. I should have done some research and saved myself some time. I am now in the process of using Manus-Bond 75am.

After seeing wcmkinley's post about the broken screws, and that we have the same model and year of motorhome, I took a look and found about 1/3 of my screws broken also. Thanks for the heads up.

[wmckinley]

JPeterson

Glad you looked and caught it. Fixing it should help keep leaks away.
I don't think after reading some more about it that it's limited to our model.
At the factory all models (gassers) went through the same line. Same screws, assemblers, and air tools used on them.

[millsrv]

After several gutter rail re-calking jobs on my 07 Voyage I finally used 4" wide Eternabond White Tape.
Where I purchased it:
https://www.amazon.com/EternaBond-RS...d+rv+roof+tape
Here is a link to Eternabond's Information Page: https://www.eternabond.com/articles.asp?id=148
We just returned from a 4 month road trip and were in many rain and hail storms, and had no problems, no leaks. I believe that using Eternabond Tape will eliminate the need to ever do calking along the sides again.

Standing on the ground and looking at the sides you cannot tell the tape is there, thus the 4" width. If your roof is painted along the edges the white tape clearly won't work for esthetic reasons. Mine was white and unpainted so it was a good match and looks like new.
There are no seams in the tape, the loose calking was removed and the area cleaned with lacquer thinner before applying the tape. There is a learning curve to apply the tape correctly without air bubbles, YouTube is helpful for this.

Using Eternabond tape may not be approved by Winnebago but I don't care. RV repair shops may badmouth it because they make lots of money re-calking RV's. Based on my research it is an excellent product and when applied correctly will last the life of the RV. Time will tell.

[bruceh]

Using Eternabond tape on the side seams is a really bad idea. I am an ex-fan of Eternabond as I thought that I had a solution to the periodic caulking. I was seriously incorrect.

The reason for this is that you are not simply sealing the side seam with caulk, you are attaching the fiberglass to the metal channel with adhesive caulk. Adhesive is the key word here.

Eternabond is quite specific that they are only a sealant. I just got off the phone with them about this issue.

About 5 years ago, I re-caulked using the correct adhesive caulk and then applied Eternabond thinking that I was done for good.

This weekend I was parked side on to a strong wind and the wind lifted the entire left side of my roof. I now have a nightmare job of removing the old caulk and the Eternabond glue and then trying to re-attach my roof properly. This is after a very tense ride home with the roof held down with gorilla tape.

Eternabond is OK to seal out water, it is useless when it comes to holding down your roof. The problem is that once you apply Eternabond, you can’t check the adhesive caulk underneath.

[Jim_HiTek]

Not sure what happened in BruceH's case, but I'm with MillsRV. It almost sounds like Bruce tried to install Eternabond over a recaulking job on the side channels. Given the age of his RV, seems possible that there was a lot of old caulking up there spread out. Ebond won't stick to silicon or many other caulks.

My RV hadn't had any maintenance recaulking done so it was relatively clean, but had a strip or two of caulking peeling off. So I had my RV thoroughly cleaned, waxed, including the roof, than had a couple guys brush the channel and clean rag the roof edge, while installing 2" Eternabond into the channels along the roof. I had them pull off any loose caulking that they found and I didn't replace it, just covering those areas with E-bond. Didn't think there was a need since, where it belongs, is where it's now covered with E-bond. Meanwhile, as they worked, I took pics.

The E-bond has ~1" inside the J channel, and ~1" on the roof fiberglass. I can't see how it can let go even in a strong wind with 25 feet of that tape on either side of the coach.

Here's a link to the install: Eternabonded edges of a fiberglass roof...

Of course everyone has an opinion, and they are free. Mine is that E-bond is a great product for this situation. Which might be why Winnebago actually used E-bond on the roofs for a season or partial season as a factory repair. Probably they felt it to be darn expensive for them to continue doing it though.

[ftodaro]

I did my gutter seams earlier this summer. I too used the manus bond, got a good deal on it on E bay. I also agree use the manus bond and not silicone or other products. Silicone is so hard to remove and nothing else sticks to its residue. I used one tube for each side. It took me about 12 hrs to clean and caulk both sides. I did one side per day. I would clean it first and then shoot the entire side with the caulk.

Mine needed it bad the seam was cracked and broken along then entire seam. Hopefully i will get several years out of it. Because my seams had failed there was a lot of dirt and debris that i had to dig out before a laid the new bead of caulk.

[millsrv]

I will report if my Eternabond job fails down the road. That said based on my past experience with this product I have every reason to believe that it will hold up.

First of all we just tested it (big time) with a 9800+ mile cross country trip in every kind of wind and weather imaginable. It's not going anywhere, still stuck hard on the fiberglass and aluminum.

The other application I decided to experiment with it was on the slide-out awnings. By all indications I should have replaced mine a few years ago as they were tearing where they attach to the gutter rail. They were actually torn about 1-2 inches at each end. I cleaned the fabric with Lacquer Thinner and applied Eternabond, folding under each end about 3 inches. Fast forward two years and the slide awnings are looking fine. The Eternabond is holding great. I had nothing to loose except the cost of the Eternabond in doing this as the awnings were in need of replacement anyway. They just survived the trip with all of the weather and still are holding up.

I believe that the proper preparation is the key. I used Lacquer Thinner and a brass wire brush to prep for the edge reseal. Then applied the Eternabond in warm weather using a roller (designed to apply wall paper) to seal the Eternabond tight to the surfaces.

I know of others that have successfully done this to seal the side edges of their fiberglass roof Winnebagos and after years it is still doing fine. This was not my idea I learned about it here on this forum serval yards back and finally decided to do it.

[smlranger]

I think something just prevented a good seal of the tape in Bruce's case. I used 2" eternabond on that seam on a 2002 Journey. It was still stuck fast 8 years later when we traded the coach.