Caulking issues

[Kc2427]

I have a 2016 3011 forester. Any one having caulking issues. It's starting to peel off but the problem is the paint job is coming off because they caulked everything and then painted the unit. Is there a caulk that is brown that matches the brown paint job. Will contact forest river for ideas. Warranty ran up in August. Any ideas would be great.

[sgtlm17]

Yes I have this problem. Caulking or silicone is flexible and paint is not. I notice it most at vertical seems.

[Tombsy]

+3, I was a little puzzled by it as well. I used some black aquarium sealant on the worst spot on the inside corner of the rear bumper just to seal it up. I've used it for other projects and its pretty tough stuff used for assembling aquariums. You can't really notice the colour when its weathered a bit. I've read that silicone caulk isn't really recommended so we'll see. But I could use a bit of the dark brown touch up paint for a couple other spots if anyone has the codes.

[13larry]

+4 mine too, but waits until warranty is up. Very Sad.

[AncientMariner]

I'm still under warranty and both verticle seams for the back cap have the paint peeling.

I am still mentally debating with myself if I want to go through the bother and time to have them fix it, or just leave it as is due to it happening again unless they change the caulking.

To the OP, if possible you might want to change the heading to something like paint coming off caulking to catch more eyes.

[sgtlm17]

I will use Tombsy method in the spring.

[AbdRahim]

Same problem here. Also, the paint seems thin in several places. Several spots on the gutter on the top have lost paint as well, as the hinges on several compartment doors. There is a number in the driver's door I think for the company that mixed the paint. I had the body shop that did the warranty work mix up touch up paint for the four colors. They have a machine to create an exact match.

[13STL]

We have the same issue here. We are making Forest River aware of this problem and hopefully will be able to get this (along with a few other issues) addressed when we uncover our new 3051 in the spring.

[Sagecoachdriver]

I have notice white showing on the side verticle seams at the very rear. Since mine has the indigo full body paint, it's been difficult to find a black and grey caulk to match. Mine came with 4 little bottles of touch up paint. I don't think there is enough to cover both sides if I used a white caulk. I'm 3 months out of warranty and winter is almost here.

[AbdRahim]

Yup. Had this problem from early on. Neither body shop or dealer would not address it. Just said cannot paint over sealant.

[Sagecoachdriver]

This morning, I used the touch up paints and covered over all the white showing on the back vertical seams. I had plenty to do, but still lots of touch up left. Will wait a couple of days and then seal with clear silicone caulk. That seems to be what FT used on the lower sections. It's like the guy caulking at the factory didn't want to take the time and get a ladder to do the top 4 feet. Glad I'm getting this done before the rainy season if we have one here in SoCal. Roof looks good, just hope the slide seals work properly.

[Iwannacamp]

FWIW they make paintable seam sealer in the body shop world... would it seal the RV stuff I dunno...

[Sagecoachdriver]

I have a recess around most of my windows no caulk. The dealer said they is a rubber or foam type seal/gasket. Have any of you added caulk around yours?

[HappyGuy]

Dicor is paintable and I have been able to get touch up paint from Forest River in the past. I was picky about repainting the dicor after every reseal but once I realized that I was going to have to redo the repaint every 12 to 24 months I decided that a little bit of white showing didn't really bother me. Unfortunately I got my touch up paint last time I was at the factory so I don't have a contact at FR to get the paint. Hopefully one of the kind souls that work at FR will be able to PM you that info. They gave me my paint in 100 ML containers without any applicators. NBD since I knew where to go to get some nice applicators:


https://www.griotsgarage.com/product...e=&from=Search


After you use one of the syringes to apply a line of paint to the area your touching up, one of the DWs foundation makeup triangle sponges will work awesome to cover the larger area. The kit above also has tiny applicators for touching up the edges of the Dicor so you don't accidentally get paint on the roof etc.

After o couple rounds of a few hours on my knees I quickly got over my perfectionism but if you want to go for it, the kit above might keep you from adding to your sailors vocab.

BTW the paint doesn't exist that will move with an elastomeric sealant like Dicor. I don't think tinting it would be a good idea since the tint would never match your paint. Add to that the possibility that the changes caused by the tint might mess up the Dicors sealing properties and the idea of tinting becomes much less appealing IMO.

[clhjsh]

Our 2012 Lexington has the same issue at the transition from the rear cap to the sidewalls but our unit is painted in mostly darker colors with the rear cap and transition all dark brown. I cleaned up the area and used "Pro Flex RV Sealant" which is available in black. It turned out really well and unless you look really close you don't notice it.

[NMWildcat]

Might look at Big Stretch colored caulk by Sashco. I used the grey colors on some of my vertical seams and it worked very well. I think I found it at Home Depot. But there are quite a few more colors online.

[newRVer]

Originally Posted by Sagecoachdriver

I have a recess around most of my windows no caulk. The dealer said they is a rubber or foam type seal/gasket. Have any of you added caulk around yours?

I asked the same question on the forum and at the dealer and have never really gotten a a good answer myself. I had a leak on the one window above the sink and the dealer contacted FR who said to caulk around the top of the window. That seems to have stopped the leak but one has to wonder why this was the fix if the windows are meant to have a gap and not caulked?