Underbelly Question

PaulHand26 · Oct 13, 2018

We have recently had a mouse chew on a pex waterline under the kitchen sink....Carpet is wet as well as underbelly is sagging due to water. My question is this: Is there anything between the underbelly liner and the flooring such as insulation? Can I just drill some drain holes or does it all need to come down?
Darn mice!

danemayer · Oct 13, 2018

Hi PaulHand26,

In your Landmark, immediately above the coroplast there's probably a layer of radiant foil insulation that doesn't care about water. Above that there may be batting type insulation that has soaked up water and should be removed/replaced.

Oldelevatorman · Oct 14, 2018

PaulHand26 said:
We have recently had a mouse chew on a pex waterline under the kitchen sink....Carpet is wet as well as underbelly is sagging due to water. My question is this: Is there anything between the underbelly liner and the flooring such as insulation? Can I just drill some drain holes or does it all need to come down?
Darn mice!

If you’re sure it’s mice spray the area with bleach before you vacuum or pick up droppings or replace the insulation etc. They can carry hantavirus. Try to seal up everywhere that they can get in after you do your repairs and put some repellent down. I’ve drilled a series of 1/4” holes in the coroplast in different spots to see a leak easier!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

sengli · Oct 23, 2018

I just went thru this same kind of issue. My water ingress though, was from driving in a storm, and the water blew into the under belly from the wet roads. There is a layer of batt type insulation in the center of the belly cavity that unfortunately holds water like a soaked towel. Drilling 1/4 inch holes (by hand..no power tools..your water tanks are there too!) will let the lions share of the water out, especially where sagging.

I ended up cutting access portals in the several places in the coroplast belly and removed the wet insulation. Did not re-install the batt insulation. Bought one of those high powered industrial blowers, that look like a squirrel cage design...and put the nozzle of that up in the coroplast, for weeks at a time on days where it would promote drying. It did dry everything out eventually. I just didnt want to drop the coroplast this year.

meagle · Nov 22, 2018

Sorry my response is late on this thread...I to had a big issue with the underbelly filling with water while driving on rain soaked roads. I could not get Heartland to deal with this problem. In fact, even with pictures and sending them copies of Heartland owner experiencing the same problems they would do nothing. I would literally have gallons of water in the underbelly after driving in the rain. What I did was spend a couple of day sealing the underbelly myself with caulking, scrim tape, and making "piston hole" covers where the hydraulic slide pistons go through the frame. I also place a small drain hole at the lowest point and removed the insulation. It is much better now. I looked at the underbelly of other higher priced fifth wheels to compare how they were installed. To my chagrin the others had a much nicer install and certainly looked better. Per a dealer in Oregon we are not the only Heartland owners experiencing this problem. I was disappointed to say the least with Heartland on this issue. I was surprised by their response on this issue because on other problems they were very good. It is problems like this that will cause one to consider other RV's when it comes time to replace it.

dave10a · Nov 22, 2018

meagle said:
Sorry my response is late on this thread...I to had a big issue with the underbelly filling with water while driving on rain soaked roads. I could not get Heartland to deal with this problem. In fact, even with pictures and sending them copies of Heartland owner experiencing the same problems they would do nothing. I would literally have gallons of water in the underbelly after driving in the rain. What I did was spend a couple of day sealing the underbelly myself with caulking, scrim tape, and making "piston hole" covers where the hydraulic slide pistons go through the frame. I also place a small drain hole at the lowest point and removed the insulation. It is much better now. I looked at the underbelly of other higher priced fifth wheels to compare how they were installed. To my chagrin the others had a much nicer install and certainly looked better. Per a dealer in Oregon we are not the only Heartland owners experiencing this problem. I was disappointed to say the least with Heartland on this issue. I was surprised by their response on this issue because on other problems they were very good. It is problems like this that will cause one to consider other RV's when it comes time to replace it.

X2-- I had a lot of water from driving in the rain and removed the soaked insulation. Some RV manufacturers actually do something about this and Heartland has chosen not to. Sad Sad Sad...

LBallard · Jun 30, 2019

dave10a said:
X2-- I had a lot of water from driving in the rain and removed the soaked insulation. Some RV manufacturers actually do something about this and Heartland has chosen not to. Sad Sad Sad...

Do you have any information on what other manufacturers have done to eliminate this problem?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

LBR · Jun 30, 2019

LBallard said:
Do you have any information on what other manufacturers have done to eliminate this problem?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would be very surprised if you get a reply...dave10a pretty much kissed us off with a baited thread on January 20th. They never did reply back and sounded like they went with either another truck/trailer, or the motorcoach route (was kind of hard to understand.)

meagle · Jun 30, 2019

I don't believe that this is an issue with most other manufacturers. If you look at the Grand Design underbelly you will see one that is nice and tight and has a metal seam that goes around the entire perimeter of the unit. It is far superior to the one on my Landmark. I had to spend a couple of hundred dollars and a spend a couple of days sealing it with RV caulking and scrim tape. It made a huge difference. I went from gallons of water to just a few drops from the exit drain that I created. Maybe this is why Grand Design has catapulted to one of the best selling brands in America. I also looked at several other manufacturers and they seemed to have a more secure underbelly than my Landmark.

Kathi-27 · Jun 30, 2019

removed all of batt insulation and added 1/2 fiber board insulation from lowes between frame rails. Between coplast and radiant foil. Then sealed with spray foam. Drilled a couple small drain holes if any water does get in there. fiber Board is water resesant

Oldelevatorman · Jul 1, 2019

meagle said:
I don't believe that this is an issue with most other manufacturers. If you look at the Grand Design underbelly you will see one that is nice and tight and has a metal seam that goes around the entire perimeter of the unit. It is far superior to the one on my Landmark. I had to spend a couple of hundred dollars and a spend a couple of days sealing it with RV caulking and scrim tape. It made a huge difference. I went from gallons of water to just a few drops from the exit drain that I created. Maybe this is why Grand Design has catapulted to one of the best selling brands in America. I also looked at several other manufacturers and they seemed to have a more secure underbelly than my Landmark.

We looked at GD. They’re ok, but not a Landmark! Yeah the underbelly isn’t perfect. Not that big a deal to me. You spend all that time sealing it and something goes wrong and you have to take it all apart again. IMO it’s good enough! So far we haven’t had any mice!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Underbelly Question

PaulHand26

Member

danemayer

Well-known member

Oldelevatorman

Well-known member

sengli

Well-known member

meagle

Well-known member

dave10a

Well-known member

LBallard

Well-known member

LBR

Well-known member

meagle

Well-known member

Kathi-27

Well-known member

Oldelevatorman

Well-known member

Similar threads