Monday, June 9, 2014

SOLVED WATER LEAK PROBLEM FOR $12.00

Every since I brought the Pleasure Way home there has been a water leak which landed under the kitchen sink.  I tried to find the source by eliminating several possible causes.  At first I thought it was coming through the vents on the side of the RV so I taped plastic over the vents but water still dripped down a pipe under the sink.  Then I thought that it might be the gutter over the window that runs around the side of the coach but it looked like the caulking was fine.  I just gave up and purchased a carport to cover the RV and not have to worry about the leak.

On this last camping trip it rained really hard and I was able to see that I had another leak on the other side of the RV where water ran down a pipe in the bathroom and leaked onto the bathroom floor.  I was now worried that there was something wrong on the roof of the RV.

I got back home and purchased some caulking with the intention of getting up on the roof and sealing everything that could possibly be causing this problem.  Today I set up my ladder and climbed up to see that the two air vent pipes, one for the bathroom and one for the kitchen, looked like they could use some caulking.  I applied the caulking around the base of the pipe and when finished I took a good look at the pipe and thought that something was just not right.  That pipe was just a hole in my roof so what was to stop the water from going down into the RV?  Climbed down from my ladder and went straight to the computer to research these air vents.

What I found was that these vents should have caps on them.  Duuhhh... you think?

I took this photo the day after I returned from Florida with the RV.  It's clear that there are no caps on the two vents.  I never gave it a thought that there were no caps on the vents, thinking that that is how it was supposed to look.

After caulking, I went to the local RV Supply Store and purchased 2 clip on caps and came back home and installed them.  We are expecting rain in the next few days and my caulking should be dry by then so we shall see what happens.

After applying the caulking.

Snap on cap.

This is how it is supposed to look.


I believe that I have solved my water leak problem for a total of $12.00.  

Perhaps the caps blew off on my way home from the dealership in Florida.  If they were off while on the lot there would surely have been some water damage inside and there was not.  So, they probably were old and cracked and flew off.  I'd hate to think that they were absent at the time of purchase.  I've looked at all the photos of the RV while it was on the lot and I can not tell if there were caps on or not.  So I'll just have to let it go.

Another lesson learned.