leak question

[renene]

I found a trailmanor for sale. owner has no pictures and says there is a small leak coming in through a light fixture. its over an hour drive to see. should we go look at it or just look for another?

[Bill]

What year and model is the TM in question?

Bill

[renene]

2003 2720

[Bill]

Renene -

Good. By 2003, most TMs had aluminum framing in the shells. Prior to 2001, most TMs had wood framing, and a long-standing leak could cause the wood to rot. Aluminum doesn't rot, of course.

You will need to fix the leak. It is undoubtedly a matter of doing some recaulking. Time consuming, but not hard or expensive. You should spend some time looking at the threads regarding leaks - there are a lot of them, most in the Exterior forum.

The "no pictures" thing bothers me. Anyone can take pictures these days. If the owner doesn't have a smart phone, you can be sure that his neighbors or his friends or his family do. He should be willing to send you half a dozen photos of the interior, and another half dozen of the exterior. Scams have happened. Be sure that no money changes hands until you have seen the unit, and are sure he owns it (title, registration, insurance papers, or whatever, stating his name and a matching VIN). If you buy it, make sure that you get a signed bill of sale, and that the bill of sale includes the VIN, and the sentence "There are on no liens on this trailer."

There is a tutorial on pre-delivery inspection at
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ad.php?t=17998
It will help you know what to look for, what questions to ask, and so forth.

Finally, you are presently a Trial Member of the Forum. Remember that this gives you only 30 days of free access to the complete Forum. Your next step is to become a Site Sponsor, which will extend your access to a full year for $12. See this post
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=1064
to find out how to do it.

Hope to see you on board with us soon.

Bill

[renene]

Thank you. If i was to look at older trailmanors can you tell by looking if it has a wood or aluminum frame?

[Bill]

Yes. Check post #10 here
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ad.php?t=18130
Larryjb did a BIG favor for a lot of us when he made this note. His picture is taken looking upward at the bottom edge of the shell. There is an opening there (for the pocket stop) which lets you view the structure of the wall.

Bill

[renene]

thanks!!

[Larryjb]

The bag seals that keep the large gaps sealed between the shells contains a wood strip so that the seal has something to screw into. Some have replaced this with a composite or plastic wood. I have yet to do this, but I understand it's easy to do.

[Shane826]

Anyone have a write up how to replace those wood strips for the bag seals? I suspect the ones along the bottom edges would involve jacking up the shells.

I want to crest some vinyl flaps that will tuck in behind those strips and seal around the inside of the bed frame. No matter how level my TM is, there’s a nasty gap along the street side all along that wall through the bathroom. It’s a welcome mat for bugs.

[Larryjb]

Shane,

I'll be replacing the wood strips that the bag seals are stapled to later this month. I'll try to take some pictures of that replacement process. Some one else took some good pictures of the bag seal replacement process, but I don't have the link here. I'll look for that one later.

I'm not planning on replacing the seal material itself at this point. The material appears in good shape. I might replace the foam, but I'm not sure where I will be able to source the foam, or what shape to cut it.

So far, I've determined that the wood strip replacement needs to be 1" x 1.5". I'm planning on using vinyl wood stock, the stuff available for window trim.

Interesting tidbit I've come across. I was planning on gluing the vinyl strips to the aluminum sides with a polyurethane glue such as Gorilla glue. I just learned that it expands and releases CO2. Because neither the aluminum nor the vinyl inserts are porous, this may present a problem for the polyurethane glue. I have a choice to either use treated 1" stock wood, which would probably last another 10-20 years, or use a different glue.