Chasing a window leak and pulling my hair out

[Cameron]

I feel like these window leaks are like a game of tag that we'll all play at some point, and now I'm "it". 

I've been on the road for about 5 weeks and have had a few big rainstorms with no leak problems at all. The Ollie did great. Then a few days ago I woke up to a wet mattress and have been working on this problem ever since with no success. It's the rear streetside window. So I'm throwing myself to the mercy of all of you who have dealt with this.

The water is not overflowing from the tracks. The weep holes seem to be doing a good job. The dripping (sometimes slow, sometimes fast) seems to be coming from the joint in the aluminum frame, between two screws, directly below the center post of the window. Only here.

This is what I've done so far.

- Clean out the tracks. They weren't really dirty and didn't have any blockage, but I cleaned them out anyway. Tested with a hose sprayer, no change in interior leakage.

- Duct tape to seal the four sides of the slider window to prevent water from rolling down window onto track. Tested, failed.

- Covered whole window with plastic taped against hull on three sides. Tested, failed.

- Put new bead of silicone caulk along three sides of exterior frame where it meets the hull. Let it dry, then tested. Failed.

- Covered AC unit with tarp in case that seal was faulty. Tested, failed.

- Covered AC unit and window with tarp. Tested, failed.

- Covered the screw holes in exterior light fixture above window with duct tape. Also checked caulking around light. Tested, failed. 

- During these different tests I've raised and lowered the tongue, and tilted the trailer from side to side during the spray tests, but nothing made a difference.

Fortunately the KTT mattresses dry out well with my little space heater and I've been able to stuff some microfiber towels up under the window shade frame to catch the drips to prevent a wet mattress. It's driving me crazy. Between the storms when there was no leak and the storms that put water inside I was on no unusually bumpy roads and had no major jarring type incidents which would have broken any seals or cracked anything. I have no idea what could have changed from one day to the next.

I opened a ticket with OTT yesterday but haven't gotten any advice yet. One of Oliver's new distributor sites is Tim's RV in Erving, MA. I'll be down that way in a month and may see if they can help. 

Tomorrow it's not supposed to rain so I'm going to dry out the inside of the window frame and try putting a bead of silicone along the bottom of the frame.

It appears to be a Lippert 8800 series, but their website didn't have anything relevant to my problem. 

[rideandfly]

Sorry to hear about the water problems, sometimes very difficult to locate the source. We had water dripping out of of three windows on three occasions so far, but the windows were not the problem in each case for us. We keep the window weep holes clear.

One time the porch light over the window was allowing water in above the window allowing water between the hulls resulting in water dripping out of the window, fix was to remove the light and reseal (old style light). One time the Oliver sign on the rear of Ollie (many here had this problem) allowing water in between the hulls dripping out of the window, removed the sign and resealed to fix. One time during the winter when running electric heater for a few days in Ollie without using dehumidifier water dripped out of the curbside window, found heavy condensation collecting between the hulls in the rear of Ollie to be the issue, using two small dehumidifiers cured the problem for us. Checked where we had access between the hulls at other locations and found very little condensation between the hulls except for the rear of Ollie. 

Just wanted to share some of our experiences.

 

Edited October 13 by rideandfly

[Cameron]

Update....

I put a bead of silicone caulk in a place I'm not sure how to describe. It's where the aluminum window frame screws up against the interior hull window opening. I covered the horizontal gap, the vertical gap under the window center post, and even wiped some caulk around some of the screws/bolts that hold the frame in place. I had some rain last night, and I'm in the middle of an electrical storm at the Bay of Fundy right now, and no water is coming in. I'm happy, the problem seems to be fixed, but I don't understand it. The other windows don't leak. What happened to this one window that caused the problem. It's a mystery. But a dry mystery! Lol.

[Cameron]

21 minutes ago, Cameron said:

Update....

I put a bead of silicone caulk in a place I'm not sure how to describe. It's where the aluminum window frame screws up against the interior hull window opening. I covered the horizontal gap, the vertical gap under the window center post, and even wiped some caulk around some of the screws/bolts that hold the frame in place. I had some rain last night, and I'm in the middle of an electrical storm at the Bay of Fundy right now, and no water is coming in. I'm happy, the problem seems to be fixed, but I don't understand it. The other windows don't leak. What happened to this one window that caused the problem. It's a mystery. But a dry mystery! Lol.

 

[Steph and Dud B]

So, the leak stopped when you sealed the interior perimeter of the window frame? I'm guessing you didn't stop the leak, but you have redirected it elsewhere. It's probably running down between the hulls and exiting via a scupper drain now. Which is fine and solves your immediate problem. When you get home maybe you could try carefully directing water at various suspect areas while someone monitors the scupper drains to see if there's still an external link. At least you have a dry bed now.

[Steph and Dud B]

One other thought. Is it cold out? I've had condensation form on the interior aluminum window frames on cold humid nights when I was running the heater then drip down the wall. A surprising amount of water, actually. If this happened while you were sleeping below that window it could be condensation from your breath. Opening the roof vent a bit might help.

[DavePhelps]

Tracing leaks is a real challenge. Up in the attic, behind the side panels, there is a lot of wiring (the dreaded Oliver sign and the marker lights to name two). On my trailer, no drip loops were employed on these wires. So when my rear Oliver sign started to leak, as well as my streetside marker light, the water did not go straight down but traveled along the wires horizontally to a low spot where they dripped. In my case, this was out the rear streetside ceiling speaker, which is right over my head when I'm sleeping! This is all just to say that, water can travel a long ways before it finally comes to light. I would tape the Oliver sign and the marker light as one other test. As Steph and Dud B mentioned, water is still getting in from somewhere, even though you sealed the interior of your window, which you shouldn't need to do.

Regarding the window weepholes, This was discussed a while back. They are not so effective draining water due to capillary attraction between the narrow slots and the water. What I ended up doing to solve this was to cut some short pieces of paracord and stuff one end into the slot. It acts like a wick and you'd be surprised how much water they will suck out of the track in a heavy rain, and they do it quickly. I know about heavy rain here in the PNW (well, it used to rain here....)! So, you may also want to try this hack to stop the leak.

Good luck,

Dave

 

[Geronimo John]

3 hours ago, Steph and Dud B said:

At least you have a dry bed now.

All:

Sort of a related topic.  Should find a light dusting of mold/mildew on the underside of the mattress, would using 91 proof iso alcohol kill it? Or maybe better what would you use to do so?

GJ 

[Ronbrink]

9 hours ago, Geronimo John said:

All:

Sort of a related topic.  Should find a light dusting of mold/mildew on the underside of the mattress, would using 91 proof iso alcohol kill it? Or maybe better what would you use to do so?

GJ 

It should, best mixed 50/50 with water; vinegar and hydrogen peroxide can be used, as well in like manner. Don’t spray directly onto the mattress, rather lightly blot the mattress surface and allow to throughly dry. I would remove the mattress from the trailer for treatment, especially if there is high humidity inside or outside.

[Cameron]

13 hours ago, DavePhelps said:

Tracing leaks is a real challenge. Up in the attic, behind the side panels, there is a lot of wiring (the dreaded Oliver sign and the marker lights to name two). On my trailer, no drip loops were employed on these wires. So when my rear Oliver sign started to leak, as well as my streetside marker light, the water did not go straight down but traveled along the wires horizontally to a low spot where they dripped. In my case, this was out the rear streetside ceiling speaker, which is right over my head when I'm sleeping! This is all just to say that, water can travel a long ways before it finally comes to light. I would tape the Oliver sign and the marker light as one other test. As Steph and Dud B mentioned, water is still getting in from somewhere, even though you sealed the interior of your window, which you shouldn't need to do.

Regarding the window weepholes, This was discussed a while back. They are not so effective draining water due to capillary attraction between the narrow slots and the water. What I ended up doing to solve this was to cut some short pieces of paracord and stuff one end into the slot. It acts like a wick and you'd be surprised how much water they will suck out of the track in a heavy rain, and they do it quickly. I know about heavy rain here in the PNW (well, it used to rain here....)! So, you may also want to try this hack to stop the leak.

Good luck,

Dave

 

Thanks @DavePhelps for the response. I was a Canadian dollar store the other day and saw a pack of pipe cleaner things in the craft section and thought, hey, I'll get some and try them. I put them in last night during a heavy rain and did notice the wicking action. Yes, they really work and I'll be using them in the future during rain. Regarding the point of intrusion, it's hard to  believe that water entering from the rear Oliver light or marker light could travel forward all the way to the window, but hey, I'll tape them off and try anything. 

[Cameron]

10 hours ago, Geronimo John said:

All:

Sort of a related topic.  Should find a light dusting of mold/mildew on the underside of the mattress, would using 91 proof iso alcohol kill it? Or maybe better what would you use to do so?

GJ 

Thanks @Geronimo John for the response. I was able to catch the leak pretty early on without the mattress getting too wet. I was on shore power so I put my space heater up toward the affected part and dried it out successfully. But I'll continue to check. Nobody wants mold/mildew!

[Cameron]

13 hours ago, Steph and Dud B said:

So, the leak stopped when you sealed the interior perimeter of the window frame? I'm guessing you didn't stop the leak, but you have redirected it elsewhere. It's probably running down between the hulls and exiting via a scupper drain now. Which is fine and solves your immediate problem. When you get home maybe you could try carefully directing water at various suspect areas while someone monitors the scupper drains to see if there's still an external link. At least you have a dry bed now.

Thanks @Steph and Dud B for the response. Regarding condensation, my problem was definitely not condensation. I regularly wipe down the inside of the windows and tracks when I wake up while cold weather camping, so I know what's normal when it comes to that. This was a definite rain intrusion. I wish I could find a schematic of the window to better understand how the pieces fit together and how my quick fix could redirect water elsewhere. 

I did check the spaces under the streetside hatches and found the in-between spaces dry, at least from what I could see and feel. I didn't remove any of the insulation to check under. Again, very mysterious.