Delamination 327RES 2014

[fatjack]

Yup i have delamination on my Heritage Glen looks like water got in to the wall from the awning mounting screws. Luck I found it early however good old Lazydays in Tampa wanted 120 an hr to diagnose what you can clearly see from the ground they also said Forest River wont cover any way because I've owned it for 15 months. Good thing I'm handy... Does anyone know where to buy the internal wall board and tape? I already contacted Forest River and am eagerly waiting their response.

[VinceU]

It's not really "wallboard ". It's really a sandwich with fiberglass laminate bonded to a substrate (Luan). Both bonded to the aluminum frame with all open spaces filled with foam. The inner surface is similar to the outer, a Luan board glued to the framing on top and glued to that will be the decorative finish. As far as I know, all of the factories change an entire side wall in one piece, no splice is allowed. The glue process really is a hot roller with wiring, backer plates all installed prior to the layers being glued and hot rolled as a sub assembly.

[fatjack]

Yea I noticed that when I tried to pull up the board the let it vent I think I'm going to just have to deal with the wall deformity on the inside...

[VinceU]

Originally Posted by fatjack

Yea I noticed that when I tried to pull up the board the let it vent I think I'm going to just have to deal with the wall deformity on the inside...

Most important is to stop the water incoming. You can use discrete Small diameter stainless screws with small washers to tighten the "sandwich ".

[fatjack]

The water got in where the awning fabric channel attaches to the wall I should be able to take it loose and inject the epoxy into the screw holes. Then the plan is to pull it next to a tree and place pressure on the outside wall with with cribbing. Inside I'm just going to replace the seam tape I pulled off to investigate since the paper has a textured look to it you cant tell unless you run your hand over it. We are hoping to upgrade to a class a in a few years, and of course someone other than Lazydays will get my business.

[youroo]

Originally Posted by fatjack

The water got in where the awning fabric channel attaches to the wall I should be able to take it loose and inject the epoxy into the screw holes. Then the plan is to pull it next to a tree and place pressure on the outside wall with with cribbing. Inside I'm just going to replace the seam tape I pulled off to investigate since the paper has a textured look to it you cant tell unless you run your hand over it. We are hoping to upgrade to a class a in a few years, and of course someone other than Lazydays will get my business.

Tree or Structure to jack against after Injecting Glue should/could work! Place a large plywood "Contact Area" on the side wall also! Youroo!!

[Rich5117]

Have some questions, was the rail where the awning inserts, caulked the entire distance on top of the rail? Can you see if the rail was installed with a backer such as butyl tape or foam? My reasoning for these questions is if these areas were not caulked originally, it is not something that we as an owner would normally check to perform maintenance. If this area was to be sealed and wasn't in either case it should be repaired by FR. Definitely watching this one.

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by Rich5117

Have some questions, was the rail where the awning inserts, caulked the entire distance on top of the rail? Can you see if the rail was installed with a backer such as butyl tape or foam? My reasoning for these questions is if these areas were not caulked originally, it is not something that we as an owner would normally check to perform maintenance. If this area was to be sealed and wasn't in either case it should be repaired by FR. Definitely watching this one.

Good Question, I'll have to check mine, but I do not remember any caulking in that area, and diff. not any butyl tape, I think it is just screwed on to the wall.

[fatjack]

There isn't any calking I found a screw put in at an angle where the deformity happened above it the wall is fine under the rail its deformed. It does look like butyl tape under the rail. I had to put the repair of its going to rain here in Florida for the next few days. Maintenance wise I never checked these attachment points on my past two trailers but since this has happened I'm going to go screw by screw and inspect filling questionable screw holes with marine grade adhesive and of course caulk above all of the rails.

[Too Tall]

What a sad testimonial for FR. 3 months out of warranty and facing this issue which sound like IMO, lies square in the lap of FR's lack of quality control.

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by fatjack

There isn't any calking I found a screw put in at an angle where the deformity happened above it the wall is fine under the rail its deformed. It does look like butyl tape under the rail. I had to put the repair of its going to rain here in Florida for the next few days. Maintenance wise I never checked these attachment points on my past two trailers but since this has happened I'm going to go screw by screw and inspect filling questionable screw holes with marine grade adhesive and of course caulk above all of the rails.

The only place I found caulk was at the end where the gutter ends are attached, can't tell about the butyl tape if it's there under it I can not tell.

[Too Tall]

This site may or may not help you

http://www.delamrepair.com/

[Platokidd]

As the op has already done. Think I would try contacting Forest River and see what they can do to help out.

[Witch Doctor]

FR makes there own walls in there plant next to the rockwood/ Flagstaff factory. Granted they do get the glue from a supplier from what I was told on a tour, but they are all compressed and cut out made at there own plant. IMO a class action suite would do nothing. Have you had your delamination looked at an that is the cause sun as you claim? Not more the month ago another member had his back wall removed they found water and the tape not installed correctly. FR did not fix that, he had it rebuilt and it cost him around 5000.00 bucks to have it repaired, but they also found the water leak that caused it when they removed it. IN the boating industry they had a problem with blisters on the bottom of boat hauls. There were class action suits that went nowhere back in 90's. the cause was the curing process of the gel coat. They did finally get it together. Ending most if not all the problems, but it was not done by a class action suite. Sorry to hear about your problem, Too Tall link explains it pretty good how a wall is made.

[bramfam5]

We took the trailer to a shop in Anaheim, CA that does high end repairs on DIesel Pushers, custom fab, diesel tractors and fire trucks. When he did the repair they found no indication of leaks. If it was a leak it would start by the rear window, the clearance/marker lights, the mounting point for the ladder. The delam started where none of those exist. I found a company in Utah selling a two part epoxy for RV's. OCRV used that at it helped some, now it continues. It is only happening where the rear wall is exposed to the direct sun. The lower part of the wall is blocked by the sun and is not separting. The right side wall is shaded by my house and most of the left side is shaded by my neighbor's house and Class C.

I have also read that stresses from vehicle twisting, torsional stresses can cause delam.

FR refused to help.

Uniflite was the company with blistering problems and they eventually went out of business. I believe the Uniflite company was purchased by Bertram.

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by bramfam5

We took the trailer to a shop in Anaheim, CA that does high end repairs on DIesel Pushers, custom fab, diesel tractors and fire trucks. When he did the repair they found no indication of leaks. If it was a leak it would start by the rear window, the clearance/marker lights, the mounting point for the ladder. The delam started where none of those exist. I found a company in Utah selling a two part epoxy for RV's. OCRV used that at it helped some, now it continues. It is only happening where the rear wall is exposed to the direct sun. The lower part of the wall is blocked by the sun and is not separting. The right side wall is shaded by my house and most of the left side is shaded by my neighbor's house and Class C.

I have also read that stresses from vehicle twisting, torsional stresses can cause delam.

FR refused to help.

Uniflite was the company with blistering problems and they eventually went out of business. I believe the Uniflite company was purchased by Bertram.

You might be on to something about the heat, I have a friend with a 2010 Wildcat his wall was delam. where the refer and stove were on that slide. I asked him if he had any fans behind the refer to get rid of the heat? we took the two covers off because it was in the slide and there was not one fan to move some air and cool down the back of the refer. That is what we think caused his problem, to much heat. Even through it was a guess, can't see any other reason it had no signs of water either...Good luck with your repair

[Too Tall]

It looks nice but is it really better than the old style siding? Local trailer repair people I talked to were very negative on the laminated siding. I don't know what the repair process is on the laminated, but if it's true you have to change the entire wall, that seems expensive. You accidentally get hit by a fender bender and you are looking at thousand?

My first trailer was a stick built Terry and quality wise, it was superior to this Rockwood. It didn't come with the TV and sound system or slide but it was rock solid and simple to repair and maintain. Same with the Mobile Scout, one piece all aluminum roof was fool proof. All in all, IMO, glitz and cool st;uff has taken priority over quality and ease of repair.