5th wheel siding delaminating

[ray_biggs]

had a 92 alpenlite. the left side bed over siding blew/broke off. fiberglass replacement siding not available. sold. purchased an 89 alpenlite and now same thing is happening. this over a 10 year period.question: is this due to 1) water intrusion 2)age weather temperature related or 3) could it be a problem with excessive flexing?
ray

[Gjac]

kay-shane wrote:
Has anyone took on the job of fixing the delamination area? If so can you recommend a epoxy and was it a hard job to do?

Yes, I have with mixed results. Yes it was a hard job. West Marine sells some good epoxies but almost any epoxy will do because the substrate that you are bonding to is very weak so it will fail before the bond line. Just make sure the Tg (glass transition temp) is 300 F or higher. There are several issues here the first is fixing any leaks that caused the delaminations. The second is completely drying out the luan underneath. The third is you really don't know how bad the damage is underneath without removing the outer skin. If it is just delaminated with no bulges there is likely little rot. If you coin tap the suspected area you will hear a distinct thud in the area that is separated. If you post some pictures it would be easier to see what you have and how bad the damage is.

[maillemaker]

I don't know how you'd go about it. My ancient RV also has delamination. Only thing I could figure is you'd drill a hole in the outer skin, and then rig up some kind of device that could inject a very liquid epoxy under the skin, and then have some kind of brace or jack to jack against an opposing wall and press a sheet of plywood or something against the skin to let it cure.

[kay-shane]

Has anyone took on the job of fixing the delamination area? If so can you recommend a epoxy and was it a hard job to do?

[BarneyS]

Moved to Tech Issues forum from Towing.

[ray_biggs]

thanks guys. have had the rv in annually for winterizing and roof inspection. purchased 6 yrs ago had roof rebuilt and replaced 3/17.
ray

[ScottG]

Most likely water intrusion but there were also some problems years ago with glue letting go. Even more so when the sun beat down on it all the time.
Manufacturers were replacing entire walls under warranty.

[donn0128]

98% of the time its water related due to poor maintenance.