'67 Kencraft 17

Sweet! Thank you!

I can add some blocking around the vent once I pop the lid. That is reasonable since there seems to be no pitch at all on the roof.

I went down the rabbit hole of fiberglass repair boat style. Yikes!

To give a little of the story behind this old camper:

In 2014 I found myself in much the same job market as I am right now. I happened to find an ad for this trailer for sale on Craigslist. It was just a few miles from the job I had taken in Oregon. The gods were smiling on me because I found a mobile home park a mile from the seller where I could put the trailer and dink on it after work and on the weekends that I didn't travel back home.

I think it was a 5-year process but I applied for title in Washington state where I live. In our state I was only the "registered" owner until for the required time to clear the title. The trailer had been updated before it was abandoned at a hotel in Washington before the sellers got her. They gave up on getting the time to work on it after they found out that Oregon does not have a title application process for abandoned trailers.

Work done before I got her:
New sink, new countertop, new vinyl sheet flooring in the late 90s (date stamp on some plywood used for some repairs.) The original commode was gone but a decent portable camping toilet was used in the potty closet. No tanks, city water only. A few odd things going on with the windows, but all the glass was intact. I didn't do any exterior upgrades other than just washing it. Horror of horrors! They actually had painted the trailer with a nap roller so I have the bumpy texture that I don't even like on my house exterior much less this old girl! But it was clean looking from a distance. And it only cost me $1000. I re-plumbed it, and upgraded electrical so I could put an insta-hot water heater and an in wall electric heater.

As mentioned, I used the trailer for covid isolation and as a office the last few years. Several years back I saw that the roof was needing attention so I've kept it covered since.

In order for me to use the trailer to work out of town again I have to get her all gussied up so we can be accepted at an RV park!

Monday when I pulled it out and started washing it up I see that the roof is riddled with cracks that clearly show the roof framing lines through it. So now I suspect that I should have been waxing it or some other protective layer on the roof before now. I have settled on dicor fiberglass roof coating to rehab the roof finish.

As best I can figure out the original roof construction had enough rigidity to the fiberglass that they did not put any luan plywood down. I will be lifting the fiberglass and putting 1/8" luan down to support the fiberglass and slip in some foam insulation to fill the void between the roof framing.

I have created a tarp canopy to work under.

My plan is to do a couple of layers of dicor with absolutely nothing attached to the fiberglass. (Customer service with dicor was helpful. They also verified that I can do the front and ends if I just apply thin coats of the fiberglass roof coating.) Then I will reinstall what is needed, seal it and then do another couple of coats of dicor roof finish. That should build enough thickness for the cracks to be filled. After watching a dozen or so videos I see that winnebagos have a similar edge radius and the dicor fiberglass roof coating turned out beautiful on some of the jobs!

As of now, vents and skylight are off. I am 75% done sanding the roof and 2/3 of the way pulling off the j rail and c channel. I still have to remove the trim on the front and back end. Then I will pull the wire nails that have the top tacked onto the frame and get a peek under the lid so to speak. I hope to get that peek in the morning. But I will be traveling for the weekend so things will pause tomorrow afternoon.

My husband and I decided that this trailer was actually built on a Monday after somebody partied all weekend. There was an extra vent (both likely original, aluminum) on the top that I didn't understand why because there is only one vent in the interior of that trailer. When I pulled the vents off yesterday I saw that there was a sloppy "oops" hole that they put a vent over to camouflage the mistake. Complete with some dead ladybugs and leaf debris! Oh and a shield bug for good measure inside of the roof just under the vent. Today when I got the awning channel off I see that they had "cut the corner" with the trim as it turned down from the roof line. It didn't get a good overlap on the fiberglass roof.

Which explains the source for the water penetration and damage that's in the interior. I had done some mitigation when I first got it and prevented any further water intrusion but it wasn't clean looking.

These mistakes in the build make me wonder if this was a discounted trailer. It didn't have any venting where other models have the original refrigerator. And I kind of wonder if it never had a stove in it or tanks. Maybe a base model with no options and a discount for the extra vent?? The trim flaw was not visible until I removed the trim, but it looks like I am the first person to remove it.

I would like more information about roof sloping for the plumbing vent. The same reasoning would apply to the skylight to do a build up of 3/4".

Any words of advice are super appreciated! I am losing daylight hours researching this to find the middle ground for quality of work and time/money available to me right now. I need to check my email for buying the repair book, but this roof is pretty unique from what I can tell.

Thank you again!!

Indeed, actionable suggestions!

Plus reading through the book gives me excellent information to create my plan. I floated the roof yesterday then tidied up to take a few days off and plan. Opened the book up and started skimming the information. Wow! So nice to have a text and photo version that condenses the video tutorials.

I will be trialing the dicor coating as a Hail Mary for this roof. I am spending the weekend with my dad, and will pick his brain too! He built small airplanes when younger so I hope to bounce some ideas off him.

Happily, the pressure washing on Monday had no moisture penetration. And what I see of the top of the ceiling panel is perfectly clean once it got away from the trim flaw area. I understand now the you were referring to the skylight vent, not the plumbing vent for adding slope. Perfectly clean seals under that curb and the plumbing vent caps. That’s impressive!

I am pretty sure that they did not design this to last 100 years. But if the dicor works, I’m going to shoot for 75! She’s in pretty good shape for a beginner project for me.

Thank you!