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Water infiltration
While at Oyster Fest on Sunday a storm with strong wind blown rain came through (yes, the one with the tornado) and I saw a couple of drops of water on the sill under the toll window. I also noticed a few drops of water in the cup holder. Dried up everything and headed home the next day. On the way home wife, who can hear a mouse peeing on a cotton ball at 50 meters, complained of a high pitched whistle from my side of the coach. Got home and started the search for the water leak/whistle. Could find nothing on the roof or front cap. Looked up some old posts and Jon stated that with OTR I could pressurize the coach, so tried that and soapy water … nothing. As much soapy water as I used, the front of the coach is really clean. Put my leaf blower in the toll window, sealed it with a heavy foam meat tray and blue masking tape. Fired it off and got on the ladder again. Finally found a little soap foam from the front of the upper window over the driver. Also found a soapy drop on the sill on the inside. A close inspection of the window showed where the glass had separated from the sikaflex allowing water from the roof to pour off the front cap and right down that front seal on the upper window. All well now after a lot of scraping sealing, a few well placed words and a lot of sweat. Also found the rear of the trapezoid window on the driver’s side separating as well resulting in more sweat. Removed the interior parts covering those areas and found some indications on the plywood that moisture had been there (staining), cleaned the area real good with bleach to stop any mold that might decide to form. Rest of area looked good.
The moral of the story … If you have an H and it has some time and/or miles on it, It might pay to check the edges of your windows that are held in with sikaflex to see if the seal is separating. If you find indications of separation, take the time to open the interior to verify all is ok. My H is a 2000 shell with 223,000 miles. Other windows seem OK. Just another thing to check both pre and post trip. Ain’t these big ole buses fun?
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3 Replies
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I had Walter D’Andrea re-do the sikaflex in both my trapezoid windows when he did some paint work on my Bus. Glad he recommended it …
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Hello all, I have water ingress both in the electrical bay under the driver seat and on the passenger side by the entry stairs.
I am fairly sure it is the sealant in the grooves where the gutter stops above the drive and passenger sides.
I have pulled out as much as I can with the intent of resealing.
I would like the clean out the bits of rubber (or what ever it is) from the grooves before applying new sealant.
1 What will dissolve this rubber type sealant?
2 What sealant should I use to reseal the it with?
Cheers
1995 H3-40 OTR
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The Sika “Aktivator Pro” that I bought with the Sikaflex 255FC to use as a pre-treatment removed residue of the old Sikaflex.
This stuff is THICK. I would recommend having a good powered caulk gun if you plan to do more than a foot or so of it. I did it by hand, heating up the tube to try to make it more malleable, and it was still flexing the caulk gun and testing my strength.
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL
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