Help with accessing caravan roof seal.

Jul 22, 2015
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Hi all,

New to the forum and a newbie within the caravaning world.

Having always been on caravan holidays as a child I love caravans and the freedom they offer. I was offered a 1992 elddis typhoon for a steal. It has a few issues, although I can see past them and am happy to put the effort in to make it something that the family will enjoy and be proud of.

The main issue is a leak on the centre roof rail, the one that runs from front to rear. I know how to reseal a rail, however can't figure out how to do that one, as it is unreachable. Can anyone advise me how I'd go about working on the roof rail?

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Many thanks.

Alan
 
Jul 22, 2014
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I recently resealed the two rails (alloy strips) that run from the centre to the edge, at the junction of the ally roof panels over the front to the single plastic roof over the rear toilet area. The front part of my roof has a shallow ridge and I reasoned that, as these rails (and the one along the ridge) screwed into something, there must be a crossbeam under the join and a longitudinal beam under the centre forward ridge.

So being relatively light (11st), from a tall stepladder at the side I put a broad plank from the edge to the ridge and lay on it to do those cross seams. I guess 70% of my weight was on the caravan side (no worries about that strength) and 30% on the ridge. I got on gradually, feeling and listening for any signs of distress - none at all.

I could reach to the ridge this way; and I will re-seal that too if necessary. Of course I would not be able to remove the ridge rail so easily as the plank would be resting on it. So, thinking about it while I was up there, what I would do is to work my way along its length, keep moving the plank along, undoing the screws behind as I go and lifting the rail and freeing it from the old sealant as I went. By the time I reached the front I would lift the whole rail off.

Then clean up the rail and get back up and work along the roof again removing the old sealant from the roof. Removing old sealant is by far the biggest part of the job, especially as someone had used silicone sealant in places - except in bathrooms, I hate the stuff, only way to remove it is painstakingly with a razor blade held at a very shallow angle. The silicone looked like a botched amateur repair, they tried to pump it under the rail in situ (hang on - I'm an amateur too). For my new seal I used Unibond exterior window frame sealant; it washes off with white spirit.

For putting the centre rail back on I would feed it into place over my plank, applying sealant in 2ft long batches (each corresponding to a shift of the step-ladder and plank).

Sorry this is partly theory, but no-one else has replied to your post. Without a cherry-picker ora gantry, I dont know how else to do it.
 
Jul 22, 2014
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A sliding gantry on rails to travel over the top of the roof would be ideal for a repair.

I suspect that when caravans are first made, they do these seals when it is still just a shell and they turn the whole thing on its side.
 

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