Camper Maintenance

We had been aware since early November when we were at Dauphin Island, AL that we had at least one leak in our camper that we had to deal with.  And once we had stopped near Orlando around Thanksgiving and investigated further it was apparent that we had at least four leaks to sort out.  It has taken until now to feel as though all of those problems have been successfully resolved.

It has primarily been the continuing Curse of Corwin Ford that is to blame for this situation.  If our van would have arrived anywhere close to when we had been told when our order was placed, we would have had plenty of time for a planned shakedown cruise.  And we likely would have used the camper several times before embarking on our current adventure, so the odds were good that at some point we would have dealt with some rain and had ample opportunity to discover these issues much sooner.

Two changes to our van have eliminated most of the leak problems in our trailer:  adding mud flaps and raising the trailer ball height.  I've given a detailed account of our problems and solutions here on the Unofficial Camp Inn Forum (though a condensed version follows):
http://www.campinnforum.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=35263#Post35263

Our new mud flaps.

Our Ford Transit Connect Van's tires would pick up water on the roadway and its low, square rear end would eject the water almost directly at the condensation drains of our side windows, forcing water in through the drains and into the cabin.  Adding mud flaps solves this problem by greatly reducing the amount of water getting thrown on the camper.  It should also reduce the frequency with which we need to wash the camper, which over time will help offset the cost of this needed upgrade.

The van's hitch receiver was nearly the same height as the one on our previous tow vehicle (2013 Mazda CX-5), so we used our existing ball mount with a 2" rise on the van.  However, on the CX-5 the trailer was very slightly nose up, whereas on the van it was very slightly nose down (being within a quarter inch of being dead level).  That slight difference was enough to cause rain water to pool up on the rear galley drain pan of the camper, where it would be sloshed forward along the drainways of the galley's deep storage lids when braking, and be forced under the lids and into the deep storage compartments.  The slightly nose up configuration greatly minimizes the amount of water that accumulates on the drain pan and thus solves this problem (newer Camp Inns have been redesigned to eliminate this potential problem).

We had some other minor issues to resolve as well.  The foil waterproofing tape on the driver's side pass-thru door had started to fail.  So we replaced that and took a close look at all the other door openings that also used the same tape.  There was also a spot in the upper curbside corner of the galley hatch where a piece of this foil tape was missing.

We removed all of the door seals (cabin and pass-thru) and thoroughly wiped them all down with Armor-All, re-installing them after they had dried.  (It is a bad idea to let the Armor-All get on the camper's raw aluminum skin, so cleaning them in place was not a good option.)  The Armor-All helps keep them pliable, so that they should continue to work as intended and not fail prematurely.

We've purchased a product called HyperVent and laid it on the floor of the cabin.  It creates airspace below the mattress, so that if water does ever get inside the cabin and remains undiscovered, it has a better chance of evaporating on its own.  Otherwise, water can get trapped under the mattress, creating an environment for mold and mildew to grow and allowing moisture to slowly work its way into the woodwork.

The original leak that we had discovered in Alabama was due to the galley hatch weatherstripping having been installed incorrectly at the factory, which caused it to fail prematurely.  So that was also rectified.  The pictures below show the original installation, the correct factory installation and how our installation looked after our repair.

How our cap seal was installed - on top of the side galley seal.

The portion of our cap seal that was starting to fail and causing a leak.

How a correctly installed cap seal should look - the side galley seals butt against it.

Our cap seal after being correctly installed.

We're hopeful that we are now ready for another year on the road, though we'll need a nice hard rain to know with absolute certainty.  We are hoping we'll get that this weekend.