New to Forum, Possible Leak Question

Hello I would like to introduce myself Jake from the gulfcoast area. I am a father of 4 kids and we recently purchased our (new to us) 5th wheel 2010 heartland sundance 3300rlb 2 weeks ago. Im not a impulse buyer and shopped/researched the complete gulfcoast region Texas to Florida looking for our Sundance. We looked at another before finding this one but it was sold before we could purchase it. So I drove 8 hours from Mississippi to Jacksonville Florida to find/purchase this Camper. We love it. Having never owned one before i need some help with a question. It rained this past weekend while camping. While staying in the camper no leaks. But when it came time to leave for home I went around to hook up the 5th hitch. When I started raising the jacks for hitch clearence water started to pour out of from under the 5th wheel hitch and into the front battery compartment. I immediatly went in to check around the loft bedroom and stairs, closets, bathroom but the carpet was dry. No water entered the inside of the camper. Is this normal for water to collect in the bottom lining above the pin box after rain? I really like this camper and want to remedy the problem quickly if this is not common. Thanks for any help.

Hi Scotty61,

Congratulations on your new-to-you Sundance and welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

There's a great bunch of friendly and helpful people here, so I'm sure you'll get some suggestions shortly.

Btw, I've moved the thread into the Sundance sub-forum.

Since you are new to owning an RV it's important to know that there are some maintenance items to be aware of.
One thing that came to mind is has anyone looked at the caulking on your new rig?
I suggest that you get up on the roof and check the caulking where the front cap meets the rubber roof.
Then check all the other areas that have caulking.

Peace
Dave

Hi Jake,

Welcome to the Heartland owners community, I can not speak directly to the Sundance as I own a Cyclone. But water in the area of the Pin Box is not "normal". I guess the question is how much water are we talking about? I get the impression that it was enough to flow into the front storage compartment..

Since it rained and there were no leaks in the interior of the Bed room or bed room closet then it could be a leak on the front cap with seams down the sides and along the front of the pin box. But with that said this is a 4 year old trailer and you do not know if the proper maintenance has been taken with regards to all of the calking. Calking on a trailer needs to be inspected and and suspect areas fixed every year to prevent water infiltration. This includes all of the fixtures on the roof as well as the front and back caps. You can get a RV Dealer/Repair shop to do this for you if you do not feel comfortable doing it yourself.

Obviously water can destroy any Trailer over time ( and it does not take that long ) so being proactive on this is very important.

Someone who owns a Sundance will most likely chime in if there is anything that is model specific.

Again welcome to the forums - and the Heartland family. You will find a lot of very knowledgeable people here.

I agree with others. You probably have a gap between the rubber roof and the top of the front cap. Our Big Country had a small gap on one side where the solid part of the roof was a tad lower than the front cap and rubber roof material, which left a slight indention for rain to gather and slowly leak under the front cap. It would drip down the sides of the pin box. A quick trip to the roof with a tube of self-leveling Dicor would probably be worthwhile.

Hi Scotty61 and welcome to the forum. I think you will find people here very friendly and for the most part very helpful.

I own and 2011 Greystone, very similar to your rig. As has been stated I think you need to check the caulking on the front end cap to make sure there are no bad sections. I've had to keep a pretty close eye on mine over the years. We live in AZ and the heat out here just simply eats the caulking up at a surprising rate. I would check that first. Then check the underneath housing for the king Pin and make sure you don't have some caulking problems there and also all around the King Pin area, might find that some of the fiberglass panels on the under side might be bad and need some repair. Hope this is helpful! Have fun and remember to be safe out there. Oh, by the way what brand of tires are on your rig? If they are Tow Max tires you might consider changing them out fairly soon. Check this forum for threads on tires you will find lots of discussions regarding Tow Max tires.

Being a 2010, it was most likely built in late 2009. That makes the roof caulking almost 5 years old. Probably ready for a recaulk job. Not much to it, so you can DIY the job. Just clean the old caulk joints (you don't need to remove any of it) and apply self-leveling caulk over the top of it. Don't be stingy, but you don't need to goop it on, either. I used a plastic paint spatula to smooth it down nice and neat, but even that's not required. While you're up there, do all of the caulking joints around tank vents, roof vents, and whatever. Then along the vertical joints of the caps (do front and rear), use a non-leveling caulk (I like BOSS 378). Here I use the spatula to remove as much of the old caulk as possible, clean the surface, and apply a bead of caulk.

Another potential leak source are the marker light sockets at the top of the front cap. Check those to be sure the rubber gaskets are still flexible and seated properly. Could even run a small bead of caulk around them.

Wow I am impressed with the quick responses! and thank you all for taking the time to reply. Seems like the Heartland community is a great bunch loyal folks. I do know that my roof is a Dicor roof, Do any of you have any suggestions as to what kind of Caulk, self leveling sealent I should use? Also to reply to grey ghost, My tires are Tow King. Not sure if they are a good brand or not. If you have any suggestions on good tires Im going to be buying 4 new ones over this coming weekend. A buddy of mine had one blow out on his rig and it completly ruined his fender trim and walls. I want my rig shined up and done right. I just purchased some airbags (ride rite) for my 7.3 f250 and also put installed an oversized Tranny cooler for a 6.0 (Auto Zone). Any suggestions from you guys on any upgrades or precautions are truley welcomed. I hope to be able to contribute back to the forms as I learn the ins and outs of my rig.

Most RV parts stores should have Dicor Self-Leveling caulk, as well as the non-leveling type. There are other variants out there, but Dicor is a recognized brand. To do the roof and all vents, etc., you will need 4 - 5 tubes. Maybe 2 or 3 tubes of non-leveling for the verticals, depending on how big a bead you apply.

Another place to check caulking is around the exterior tops/sides of window frames. Sometimes that can open up a gap and water could leak in there. So use the extra non-leveling caulk around there to use it up. I don't like keeping open tubes of caulk around for long.

Any questions you may have, go ahead and post them. Most of us have learned how to take care of our rigs from these forums. The only dumb question is the one you don't ask.

I just put a set of Carlisle ST tires on mine last week. Had good luck with them in the past of my last RV. I have 15" wheels, so I really had no choice but to stick with ST tires. There are enough threads and posts about tires on here to make you go cross eyed reading them all. Pretty much going to just have to decide for yourself what to put on yours. I don't believe there really is a right, or best, tire for an RV. That's as far as I'm going on that topic here.

Scotty, one more thing to look at. The clearance lights. They may be the type that use a rubber gasket with "Pop in" light fixtures. These may be dried out or not properly seated in the rubber ring. Welcome to the Family & Forum.

I will start the caulking job this weekend. I will also take some pictures to contribute back to the forum. Thanks again for your help guys. Also a big shout out to Heartland, I called them about a owners manuel had it in my mailbox 3 days later free of charge.

Scotty,

You might want to browse the manuals section of the forum. We've got softcopy of the appliance and subsystem manuals and a few owner-written user guides and troubleshooting guides. You can also get there from the TOOLS button at top of page.

Hey Scotty, to each his own regarding tires, however since you asked. I went with LT tires for my last two rvs. I had ST tires on both and had blow outs with Tow Max (Power King) and Carlisle also so I decided to upgrade to a Light Truck tire which are rated higher for speed and weight. I went with Michelin and have had great luck so far with them! However, as stated, to each his own, I just hate sitting along side the interstate with a blow out and NO ONE stops to help they just drive on by. Hate changing a tire when people are flying by at 80 mph about two or three feet from you, very nerve racking!! I also put on a TST tire monitoring system which allows me to monitor tire pressure and temp of each tire, just a little more piece of mind. Anyhow, good luck with your caulking job and tire shopping this weekend. Isn't this FUN? Take care, have lots of fun and be safe out there.

I will definitely look on the forums for manuels thanks Dan for the help.

Thanks for the input Greyghost. I think your on to something using lt truck tires. I will look at those also. You guys on here are great

Grey Ghost said:

Hey Scotty, to each his own regarding tires, however since you asked. I went with LT tires for my last two rvs. I had ST tires on both and had blow outs with Tow Max (Power King) and Carlisle also so I decided to upgrade to a Light Truck tire which are rated higher for speed and weight. I went with Michelin and have had great luck so far with them! However, as stated, to each his own, I just hate sitting along side the interstate with a blow out and NO ONE stops to help they just drive on by. Hate changing a tire when people are flying by at 80 mph about two or three feet from you, very nerve racking!! I also put on a TST tire monitoring system which allows me to monitor tire pressure and temp of each tire, just a little more piece of mind. Anyhow, good luck with your caulking job and tire shopping this weekend. Isn't this FUN? Take care, have lots of fun and be safe out there.

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What size Michelin tires did you mount?