How does your A Frame door seal?

[RiderEh]

Could a few of you please take photo's of how your door seals, particularly when folded down? During heavy rain while our A-Frame is parked, after erecting it there is water right where the top half of the door lays flat. I've got a few more leaks I think I can seal, like bubble windows, but this one makes me think I'm almost missing a seal on the door. There is quite a gap between the bottom and top halves of the doors with no seal there for instance. It does seem weird that it's leaking there though as the trim overlaps the door hinges. It could be I need to fix my other leaks first to make sure it's not leaking between panels.

[OYO]

I'm a little confused by this: "particularly when folded down". The top door section doesn’t provide any water protection when the camper is folded down.

There is no seal between the door sections (at least on ours), just the aluminum overlap when the roof is raised.

Is the water in the doorway or towards the center of the camper?

[RiderEh]

OK it's good for me to understand there is no seal between the 90 degree angle of the folded doors. The water is splattered in a rectangular directly below the folded down half of the door, almost like there was a giant hole in the camper and it rained directly into it. It's quite strange, it must mean it's splashing down and not just running down a wall.

[OYO]

It sounds like the seal between the front and rear sections may be leaking. It runs across the rear roof panel and is ~3" wide.

There are several threads on this forum (and YouTube videos) about replacing them. Using the "Search This Forum" feature i found this one:

https://www.forestriverforums.com/fo...ip-225163.html

I'm sure there are others.

Ours leaks, but I have not addressed it yet.

But, we've found that raising the front of the camper a few inches when we are storing it outdoors keeps the water from pooling on the the rear and prevents the leaking.

[RiderEh]

Originally Posted by OYO

It sounds like the seal between the front and rear sections may be leaking. It runs across the rear roof panel and is ~3" wide.

There are several threads on this forum (and YouTube videos) about replacing them. Using the "Search This Forum" feature i found this one:

https://www.forestriverforums.com/fo...ip-225163.html

I'm sure there are others.

Ours leaks, but I have not addressed it yet.

But, we've found that raising the front of the camper a few inches when we are storing it outdoors keeps the water from pooling on the the rear and prevents the leaking.

Interestingly I know there is a huge gap in my foam strip where it ripped away due to contact with the fantastic fan opening knob when lowering. I thought the rubber seal was supposed to do the work though, and this was more or less for insulation/air tightness as a double seal. I'll look into that as well. That link you sent makes it look just like regular weather stripping but wider. you could likely just get away with rows of 1" strip you can get at any hardware store and adding some glue between it.

[RiderEh]

Well I spent some time this weekend on the camper. I stripped the old caulk away from the bubble windows and the fantastic fan, and did two layers of Proflex clear on them. I then doubled up on all the other exposed seams on the roof top and the hinge plate edging. I also added foam weatherstrip to the corners of the triangle walls where it meets with the roof, as there were gaps there. Hopefully this improves things. I think the easy fix for the door is some rubber cement and an old bicycle or motorcycle inner tube to create an overlap between the two door halves.

[dmchaven2004]

Before the rain season check all the corners of your skylights they tend to have hairline cracks mine did I filled them with a self rising black caulk. It worked for me. I noticed you posted this in February hope it helps anyway. Good luck Don.

[RiderEh]

So what I've found was some shoddy assembly may be leading to my leaks. it seems to be water is running down the trim on the left side, and the seals aren't compressing enough to keep it out. Pictures attached. It doesn't look like too bad of a job, I'm thinking remove the black aluminum trim and trim down the fiberglass top/foam/plastic white ceiling with a jig saw, then reassemble and reseal. It's held on by a few rivets and screwed into the ceiling with tek screws. My only worry is that black aluminum trim may also be glued on, which could be a pain, and I need to find a glue that will work, though PL 400 may do the job.

What I have done so far is reseal all windows and edges of trim with ProFlex clear.

[OYO]

Those Bolts aren't OEM in my opinion.

Someone has done some major surgery.

[RiderEh]

Originally Posted by OYO

Those Bolts aren't OEM in my opinion.

Someone has done some major surgery.

Those bolts are my doing, I removed the rivets and used these when I replaced the torsion bars. Easier to work on next time.

[OYO]

Originally Posted by RiderEh

Those bolts are my doing, I removed the rivets and used these when I replaced the torsion bars. Easier to work on next time.

My bad.

It reallly looks like the top is misaligned, but it could be just the trim.

Hope it works out for you.

[RiderEh]

Originally Posted by OYO

My bad.

It reallly looks like the top is misaligned, but it could be just the trim.

Hope it works out for you.

That was my thought as well, that maybe the gap needs to be split between both sides. But I don't see how you could realign this easily without redoing all the strap hinges and moving everything 1/4", which would mean you'd have some serious swiss cheese holes everywhere. I guess I should measure the roof width on both ends and see if it does get wider near the peak.

[OYO]

"guess I should measure the roof width on both ends and see if it does get wider near the peak."


Great idea!

[RiderEh]

The roof ended up being wider by about 8mm at the peak. I ended up peeling the aluminum skirt back and jigsawing a strip off, it all firts up much tighter now and compresses the seal. I used PRoFlex and recaulked that aluminum skirt as well.

However, after a big rain I'm still having a ton of water pour in through the door from somewhere, you can see it splashes right up the walls of the cabinet/bed by the entryway. I think the only way I'm going to figure this out is put the wife in the camper with it closed down and hose it down really good to figure out where it's running in from.

[RiderEh]

Well I had the wife and kid crawl inside and flooded it. Very minor seepage at the door, but I don't know why there is so much splashing and water sitting at the door. Here's some photo's of the door, is this comparable to everyone else?