roof vent warning

[Hoglou]

Last week we replaced the batwing with a razor, today we went topside to clean the roof and prep for a coating of goecel. After we popped the max air vent covers off to clean and recaulk if needed we found cracks in two of the three flip up covers.

The bottom side of the (left) pic faces towards the front of the coach and contains the hinge. The top of the pic (rear side) is where the lid elevates. Inside of the lid there is a bracket that runs front to back (top to bottom in the pic). The area of the lid around the brackets (top and bottom of the pic) had either sterss cracks or actual open tears about 1/32" high by 1-1/4" long. There were a few cracks also around the latarals (think of the top and bottom surface of a door), these are the long runs of caulk.

I used dicor non sag to reinforce the surface area around the cracks and to the remaining crack prone areas. We will replace the three vents later this winter, hopefully with something better than haung (sp). SUGGESTIONS? I did not see away to just replaced the lidss. While the coach does stay outside the max air covers have been on since week one and that should deal with the UV, so heads up give and your covers a hard look.

I will be modifing the new replacements on the bench before installing to accomidate for the stress points, stay tuned. Thinking of two mods. First, a shallow patch (3/16" thick) of JB weld where you now see caulk. And two, some type of vibration inhibitor on top of the frame to lower the compression stress on the laterals. Probably a rubber u channel product (think of a car door edge trim).

I added a pic of the razor batwing replacement while I was up top... our coax came out of roof box (right top side of the right pic) so we stayed with the original length and used eterna bond tape it to eliminate a trip hazard.... the black line in the pic is a rope for the tool bucket.

[Duckogram]

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