D seal question

[Garypowell]

RESOLVED D seal question

All,

I decided to check all my caulking this time home. Surprisingly I saw only two problems after a year of ownership. One was on the bedroom slide where the side meets the lower edge. Very easy for me to recaulk.

The other was only visible from the roof. It was where the D Seal meets the side of the RV on the off door slide…..saw a gap in the caulking.

Once up on a ladder looking at it close up it did not look like I thought while looking at it initially. I have put an exploded stick drawing below to try and describe what I saw.

1. Looking from the aft of the RV forward this is the skin of the RV.
2. This is a piece of metal that is right up against the skin of the RV. This seems to be a backing piece for the D rubber seal. There is caulk sealing the top of this joint right where the arrow from “A” is pointing.
3. Is a piece of either hard rubber or metal that the D seal is slide over.
4. This is the rubber D seal.

As mentioned above #1 and #2 are in contact and there is caulk at point A where they meet. And this caulking is intact with no problems.

What I was seeing, that I thought was initially a problem, is there is caulk at point “B”. And there is a crack there. As the D seal flexes the crack gets larger and smaller. The caulk after looking at it seems to be “overflow” when they caulked the #1/#2 join area. But it is on all three D seals on my rigs slides. And the rest of them the caulk seems to have good integrity. It is only the off door slide where the caulk that is touching the D seal and the #2/#3 piece that is cracked.

Again, I thought this was a problem, but the more I think about it the only seal that is important is the “A” caulk that is sealing #1 and #2…..right? If water gets in here it will drop down to the slide top and be on the inside of all sealing surfaces….and from there…..I could go anywhere it wants and cause damage.

And….if any water goes down crack “B” this is OK….it will drain down through and end up hitting the outside of the big rubber flapper seal…..right?

So all of this to pose two questions:

1.Is there supposed to be caulk at point B to seal part #3 and the D seal to #2?
2.And is my assumption that any water leaking down into area “B” is not a problem?

Thanks!

 

[jbeletti]

Gary - consider emailing this post and image to service@heartlandrvs.com with your VIN and contact info and ask them to phone you to discuss. If you took an actual picture of it - that would be helpful to them as well.

 

[Garypowell]

I did as Jim suggested and sent an email to service@. I had never tried this approach before....I usually call when there is a problem.

Got my return call early this afternoon. Not bad for a Monday!

I was told indeed there needed to be caulk from the sidewall all the way across to the top of the D seal. Or in my drawing from 1 - 4. I asked if I should use Dicor roof stuff and was told "no". I was told to use some good quality caulk that had silicone in it.....but not pure silicone. I was told the silicone based caulk was more flexible than pure silicone and flexibility was needed because of the D Seal.

Leaving a week from Wednesday.....so I have a little more work to do.

Thanks Jim....and as always thanks Hartland!