Slide Leak

[debsay]

I have a Keystone Montana 5th wheel. The bedroom slide apparently leaks. There is no visibly water anywhere when it rains, but the carpet on the closet side gets soaked. I've tried caulking, I've had the top seals replaced. It still leaks. Any thing else I can try?


2nd question:


Is it truly possible to run my 50 amp 5th wheel completely on solar? What would something like that cost me? I really appreciate the help as I am having to move my 5th wheel to a 5 acre lot that has NO electric.


Thanks sooooo much!!

[450Donn]

First? To truely find ALL water access points find a shop than offer a SealTest. Not cheap, but they will perform and identify all sources of leaks. For additional fees they can seal everything for you.
As to your second? Solar alone cannot run anything. You will need storage batteries. Depending on whatmyou want to run and for how many hours a day will dictate how much of each you need.
Dont think of trying to run high amperage items like micriwaves or air conditioners. A 13,5K BTU AC will draw around 20 amps starting and 15 amps running. Translated to 12VDC thats 150 amps running. Even if you did run an AC suffciently long to make it through the day, you would need dozens of hours of full sun to recharge the batteries. Rough calculations means one 150 watt solar panel will maintain one battery. That one panel is roughly 3x5 feet. How much spqce do you have on your roof?

[jacknife]

Buy a moisture detector and it should help you find the source.

[wingnut60]

I have 1260 watts solar and, no, cannot run it on solar alone. It can be done, huge investment unless DIY and still costly. Lots of panels/lots of lithium battery storage. Easiest is to set up a capable system and supplement it with a generator at times.
Also, lot depends where you will be located and what seasons you would be using it--not much usable daylight in Sept--April. Angle of panels vs sun ray direction com'es into play on an 'off-grid' situation.
If you are serious, there is a ton of info available on the internet from people who have done what you are asking...research is priceless.

[glennwest]

Yes, can run entire unit on solar. Yes, it is exspensive. I am in process of doing this. First I got rid of the rv acs. Installed efficent mini splits. I then purchased a complete Nisian leaf battery pack. It is in and 21kwh of 48v power. Going with as much solar as possible. No rv acs on roof so will run two rows down each side of roof. Should be better than 4k of solar. Will have two 4400 watt magnum inverters. 100 amp solar charger. This is doable cause it already has been done. But rv acs just pull too much power. Now lots of people don't go to this exstreme but they chase the weather so no ac needed.

[clifford j]

my suggestion for your water leak is to examine the bottom of the slide walls. I had a leak and suspected it was up top, turned out to be at the bottom edges. My walls are aluminum and capped with a piece of aluminum angle . The water was running down the wall ,going behind the angle piece and flooding the edge of the plywood floor and the carpeting. Rather than removing the angle piece I capped it with another angle. I cut the new piece larger than the original and bent it greater than 90* . A liberal amount of silicone was applied and while under pressure the new angle was screwed down with stainless screws. In fact I went and did the other 3 slides even though they were not leakers. Hope this might solve your water problem.

CLIFFORD

[08Carriage]

If you have a 2" EtherBond seal check it.
My Montana failed and water was running up under the seal. I removed it and found they did not caulk around the ends of the side and water was running down the wall
Caulked it and used 4" EtherBond

[Varago]

Dont make the same mistake I did, get it fixed NOW dont wait. Every day you wait will make the repair cost more.

I had a wet carpet in the back right corner so I sealed every thing on the outside that was near the corner. Over the next week the corner dried and I thought all as good :(

Not to long later I found a soft spot in the floor near where the leak was :((

To make a long story short I had to take up the living room floor (found a small lake under the floor). Most of the wood had dry rot and 90% of the living room floor had to be replaced. The protection barrier they put on the bottom of the frame holds water in as well as out. I was lucky, I have a good friend that's a wook worker, it also cost to have the roof re-sealed.

Dont think because its now dry it's in good shape.

[tuffr2]

For power I had a wooded 5 acre parcel that I had RV 50amp power run then got a 911 address so the electric company knew where their meter was. All in all, pretty easy to do. It was about $1,600 to have a line run hooked to the outlet. What gets me is the $35/month I get charged just to have the meter, even if I am not there.

Next I would use a generator. Maybe a few solar panels help with lights, 12v TV, refrigerator and water pump. To run A/C and micro wave you need a generator unless you want to go crazy with batteries and solar panels.

Your leak almost has to be the outside rubber seal, right guys? Make sure the rubber slide seal is not crimped or damaged.

[debsay]

I have been blown away by all the helpful responses to my inquiries! You are all awesome for lending you knowledge and experience!!


Thank you sooo much!


Here is what I know so far:


A) I should have mentioned that I live in AZ, near Tucson. Sun is not an issue, but it is sounding more and more like $$$ would be a huge issue to go solar.


B) My water heater (if you also read that post) seams to be working great now. I don't know that replacing the anode rod was the answer, but I would be the inches and inches of calcium (caliche?) that I got out of it probably WAS.


C) I am about as remote as you can get. I bought my camper from a dealership and their "promised" service has been a joke. I found out, after buying, that they don't do mobile servicing. They moved it here for me, and washed their hands pretty much. I know nothing about the seals. After over a year of complaining, and threats of going to BBB, they sent a guy out who replaced all the TOP seals only. Didn't fix the leaking in the bedroom. If you can offer any assistance on what seals I need to look at, and HOW to get to them to see them .... I would greatly appreciate it.


I'm pretty darn handy, but I can't figure THAT out no matter how many times I try to pull up the seal and get an eye in there.


Thanks again all!!!

[LAKnox]

Originally Posted by debsay

I have a Keystone Montana 5th wheel. The bedroom slide apparently leaks. There is no visibly water anywhere when it rains, but the carpet on the closet side gets soaked. I've tried caulking, I've had the top seals replaced. It still leaks. Any thing else I can try?


2nd question:


Is it truly possible to run my 50 amp 5th wheel completely on solar? What would something like that cost me? I really appreciate the help as I am having to move my 5th wheel to a 5 acre lot that has NO electric.


Thanks sooooo much!!

1. I've read posts where people have had leaks that were traced to a front slide, but water appeared in the rear living area. Some slides have a cloth-like material underneath that's infamous for wicking water. Also, some slides (and they seem to be mostly bedroom slides, for whatever reason) also will run water down some of the metal trim. I'd jump on a Montana-specific forum (Montana Owner's Group) and post there.

2. Yes, you can run a 50a trailer on solar...for about $5-8k. Get a Nissan Leaf battery, hack it up to turn it into a massive 48v battery, special charger and monitoring system, window A/C to cool it, shed to store it in and a 10k watt inverter. Then get some 400+ watt solar panels, about 8, to charge it.

Yes, I'm being a bit facetious, but this is exactly what my cousin and her husband have done with a '64 GMC bus being converted to an RV. So far, they've run a mini-split A/C, 2 window A/C's (one for the battery) and a portable A/C, along with a 1600w heat gun, just to get some idea of draw. They drew 4800w continuous on their 5kw continuous inverter for about 30 minutes. Battery =was= discharging. Turning off the heat gun and their solar was net charging the battery with the 4 A/Cs still running. You can see their build at Beginning from this Morning..

Lyle

[Dennisok]

A traditional solar system big enough to generate enough power for two ac units and trailer load would probibly be cost prohibitive. Along with a solar system you need a battery storage system and an inverter system for at nights and on cloudy days when you are not generating enough energy on solar. I have no idea on total cost but it would be a pretty expensive option.

Glen and Laknox above have some great ideas on how to lower total costs.

A couple of other ideas:

Short term it might be cheaper to use a generator. Obviously then you would have to pay fuel costs but if you kept refer and water heater on propane you could run generator just when you were at the trailer or some type of combo solar and generator system.

One other idea would be to install a swamp cooler. A swamp cooler would allow you to have a much smaller solar system but doesn't cool as well.

For a solar system it will be all about compromise, only running 1 ac unit (or changing ac for a mini split) or using a swamp cooler, leaving refer and water heater on propane would lower your total connected load and allow a smaller solar system and smaller battery storage system. These would lower your total project costs.

What are you going to do for water and sewer? A well pump is usually 20 amps at 240 volts. Amperage is depending on depth.

Good luck on your project!