Well, It Can Happen To Anyone

Passenger side, damage from water leak at electric lift bolt.

When you are sitting around the old camper in your favorite campground, what do you do? I tend to look at our camper like I look at Kobi. It's part of our family and we take super care of it so it will last forever.

Up on the North Fork of the Clearwater, I was doing just that. I looked at the camper and noticed a bit of rust in the same area where we had problems when we got back from Mexico. At that time, I took it into our Camper Dr., Chris, and he did a wonderful repair job on it.

Tuesday I took the camper back to the Dr. and left it for a check up. The news was not so good. Chris found a leak where water had seeped. The soaking caused problems that could not be ignored. The water had come in through one of the electric jack plate holes and had spread throughout the wood below. The entire area had to be torn out and replaced. The good thing is that none of the structural strength was affected and the camper will be better than new.

A closer look with fiberglass lifted up by the window.

Two outcomes will be that when Chris repairs the soaked wood he will use marine grade plywood as the replacement wood. This will give it more strength and will make it so it can't rot. Also, he will finish the job by installing 1/4 inch diamond plate to cover up the crack in the fiberglass facing adding greater strength to the corner of the camper where the refrigerator and slide reside. There is a lot of weight focused on this area and the plate will help hold it rigid.

We are looking at about $1500 in repair costs, but we couldn't avoid it. I have been very diligent about inspecting all seals and resealing ones that look like they could be a potential problem. Last week I even cleaned off and resealed the entire nose joint as a preventative measure. This problem shows me that I just have to keep up my inspections and be prepared to fork out some cash if something develops in a spot that I can't see. Oh well, it's only money!

Wet wood removed from damaged area. What a mess!

Marine grade plywood replacing rotted boards.

Exterior plywood face in place.

Repaired corner area and underside of camper edge. The heater
was removed to make the repair. 

Fiberglass exterior glued back in place and lift bracket ready
to be sealed and installed.

They manufactured a new lift bracket.

Fiberglass replaced on underside edge.

Finished repair looks great! Dimond plate is much stronger.

All is well with our little home!