Tent trailer water damage

Came across this water damage after a recent rip with a torrential downpower and a leak was noticed.

I knew the corner caps need to be replaced, but I'm not sure if the wood can be salvaged or the clamp down hook either.

The rest of the trailer is in really good shape so if I can fix it, I'd prefer to do so. Might be better to offload it for cheap and move on.

Thoughts?

 

Use it till something fails. That’s likely 3 to 5 years…… sure it will bug you but it will still work great and let you figure out the best next step.

 

The wood in that second picture looks like it's been rotting for quite a while.

 

That clip is hanging on by a thread. I"m thinking I can reinforce the backer and the pump silicone around it. Replace the corner caps and hope for the best going forward I guess.

Yeah, it could have been.

 

I'm curious about the structure of that roof. Is it all plywood and then a laminate directly on top of it, or does the roof itself have a structure and these wood pieces are reinforcement for certain areas? My 98 Coleman had a rigid foam roof with an ABS shell over it with some reinforcement in certain areas.

If you can replace the wood, I'd do so with marine grade plywood, resecuring the top layer back down via a marine glue or something, covering over that that entire section with Eternabond, then mounting on top of and through that. You can probably stop here and enjoy it. I suspect you'll realize that you won't find a perfect match for that existing wood, so don't fret. Just get as close as you can.

If the roof is ABS, you can also look into patching it with MEK and ABS (e.g. old Legos or ABS 3-d printer material work) and then painting over it with something like a bedliner to help seal things ups.

 

I think it's plywood with laminate over top, and then blocking reinforcement at the clamp down points. I'll have to take a closer look when I get home.

 

I have repaired and restored about half a dozen pop ups…..that’s fixable. It is tedious and won’t be perfect but as long as you can get some good attachment points you will be good. You’ll have to do it in stages. I would install a “runner” on the inside….drill a few holes to be able to clamp it to good wood. Then scrape out all of the rot. Cut new wood pieces to fit into the rotted areas and use copious amounts of gorilla glue and clamp together. Protect all areas where is could drop with a plastic drop cloth. Once the gorilla glue dries you can sand u even areas and plane it down to match contours. If I couldn’t reuse the original roof skin, I usually used aluminum flashing and eternatape to seal.

 

I've replaced the entire roof on my popup. It's not a fun job. However, it was worthwhile because I was able to repair and fix it my way (better that what Forest River did from the factory). I agree that your wood rot is not recent. It's time to rebuild or move on.

 

People will poopoo the use of gorilla glue, but clamping the boards allows the glue to expand and adhere to every possible crack and crevice and it actually does a really good job. I had an entire side rot out similar to yours and used that method in 2008. My cousins daughter is still using that pop up.