So I bought a camper

Late last summer I decided to sell my pop up and by a small camping trailer. I checked it for water damage and thought it was good. Wrong. The interior walls, roof and all the storage areas look good and feel solid, the water damage is in the right rear corner of the camper. Is there any experts who's repaired one? Do you go from the inside or outside or both. I resealed the roof last year and plan on doing the corners with Dicor seal-tite tape. Not sure what to do about the windows and exterior lights. This will be after I fix the water damage. I go to pick it up out of storage this weekend and the fun begins

when we did ours, we removed the windows and re-caulked the daylights out of them when re-installing.
AND, to stop roof leaks, we removed the outside panels...peeled them up after removing the corner edgings...to get to the rotted frame and re-caulk and replace it.
New screws all around, too.
rewired and re-insulated and new paneling inside as well.

They are all different. Most hand built, depends if Jim or Bob built it and was it Monday morning they put the roof on? Mine leaks in the front and back at the roof, the bathroom skylight cracked and leaks. I fixed the slideout roof already. THey put the rubber roof on and left it go over the sides a little. then put the aluminum siding on it, then trim over the edge hiding it. So when it rained the water ran down between the siding and wall. If they would have left the rubber over the siding there never would have been a problem.
Is it aluminum siding or fiberglass? U can take the aluminum off in sections and fix the rot. But its not fun.

I do know that they install the appliances first, then build the camper around that. It's practically impossible to replace some stuff. Water lines? Forget it. I've owned many.

It's aluminum. It's near vintage. 1988 model that is in pretty good shape. I plan on keeping it covered when not in use.

I would pull the siding off if u can determine its not just the roof. Its like opening a can of worms. They r normally made out of 2x2's stapled together. If u have a rotted 2x2 u will have to fasten it to the siding anyway. When u r finished put a set of gutter extensions on it. They fit in the little channel that's supposed to keep the water off the sides.

For windows and other outside fixtures and rails, use butyl to bed them not caulk. Comes in cartridges or as a tape ..... depending on the application, choose whatever is easier.

On the aluminum campers, are the siding pieces stapled on?

So I need to remove them, clean off old seal and reseal to do it right?

My neighbor bought one with a little water damage by the bed. That turned into a nightmare. Landed up being a nearly a complete rebuild.

I'm counting on the worse case scenario. I'm retired and don't mind having projects.

Awesome. That will be a good project

Had one I used as a hunting cabin, I always was going to do some work on it but seeing how it was assembled it looked like a nightmare project..

Finally between the mice, snakes, and mold I decided to get rid of it, my son suggested burning it, I ended up giving it to a local kid that helped with haying, he drug it back onto his folks property and used it as a love shack.

I can't even begin to think what kind of girls would enter that thing, lol

I had one I had used for 10 years that developed a soft place in the floor. Thought I would fix it and the more I opened it up the worse it looked. Finally gave up and ended up selling it for $300. I felt guilty about the deal to boot.
but the guy insisted.
Then I bought one and after I hauled it home I discovered a small soft place in the corner. Same story, the farther I went the more rot I found. I fixed it but probably should have set it on fire.
Hope you have better luck.

The water problem I had with mine was water entering at the bottom exterior and tracking in the floor. floor is quite bad now. I am thinking of recycling the appliances, and rebuilding a mini house on the frame.

Mine was, and the 2x2s inside were all stapled together also.

Got ya, I have one I'm debating what to do with.

we have a nice one we bought and i'll remove the cabinets and bathroom in the middle and replace them with a little woodstove and a recliner.

I had a 74 Dodge Tradesman with a 360 in it I did that to. Trapped a lot out of it and took it ice fishing when the kids were little. Would really get some looks when youd wheel through town with smoke rolling out the chimney,lol

Any reason why I couldn't use treated wood and foam insulation? Thinking down the road to prevent rot from happening again.

Also thinking about marine plywood it there's any floor damage.

Mold, mildew, fungus and odor is always possible when you have a leak with wet rotten wood and insulation. Make sure you get all of the wet and moldy material out, let it dry out completely, then rebuild/reseal as needed. Using a good disinfectant mildewstat fungicide product in the bad areas may help.

Good luck. Dave

Lobo,
Pressure treated plywood.

Care to share pictures? Id be interested in seeing everyone's campers for ideas.

Agreed, pics of the project would be awesome.

No pictures but I rebuilt one last summer. It was alot of work but for the price it was worth it. Paid 200 for it and put 500 into it. It is a 26' fifth wheel low top. Still have finish work to do and need to take out the oven and deep clean it. mice had a huge nest in it and even after cleaning it up it still stinks. Tried to burn it out but no good. Have to figure that out.

Basically the whole back floor, including the 2x frame under the plywood was rotten, back wall and 10' of the side wall was barely there. My dad and I worked alot of hours on it.

Well I finally tore into it. It's pretty bad. From the wheels back the whole sill is rotted and about halfway up both corners. These things aren't made to take apart. All staples and glue. I've been at it about a week and will probably be another week before I can see the end.I'm only putting in a couple hours a day on it. That's all I can stand.

I would recommend some good fire insurance..................

keep going you can do it , pic plesae