Water in underbelly

[JBill9694]

CLARKR4, interesting that GD said that a clamp bars on the CoPlas is not needed since our Momentum came with them. I like it since it is dang hard to get the holes in the CoPlas and the beam flange to line up perfectly each time. Feels that it gives me some wiggle room when I put the CoPlas back up.

[CLARKR4]

John

I assume that you are calling the clamp bars the metal strip that is screwed on the outside of the coroplast similar to what is in my attached picture. Do you have those 'clamp bars' around the full perimeter of your underbelly?
Rich

[JBill9694]

John

I assume that you are calling the clamp bars the metal strip that is screwed on the outside of the coroplast similar to what is in my attached picture. Do you have those 'clamp bars' around the full perimeter of your underbelly?
Rich

If your talking about the bar towards the bottom of your photo, Rich, then yes, That is what I'm calling a clamp bar. The bars frame our CoPlas on all sides.

[CLARKR4]

John

Thanks for the confirmation. I will followup with GD on that point.

Rich

[CLARKR4]

John
I related the information that you sent me on the clamp bars, and the response I got from GD was, 'that does not appear to be something that is being done in production'. So I have a few questions, which I would appreciate answers to, which you can send to me directly to my email if you don't want to record it here. 1. Did you buy your Momentum (2018) new from the dealer? 2. Do you know for sure that the clamp bar was not added by the dealer at someone's request? I am just trying to pin down the it actually came on a new unit direct from the factory. 3. What is the manufacturing date of your unit? I don't know whether you are up to your knees in snow or not, but if all your answers confirm that the clamp bars were installed at GD factory, a picture of the clamp bar on your underbelly would be great.
Thanks very much. Oh, my email is 43richclark@gmail.com

Rich

[TucsonJim]

John
I related the information that you sent me on the clamp bars, and the response I got from GD was, 'that does not appear to be something that is being done in production'. So I have a few questions, which I would appreciate answers to, which you can send to me directly to my email if you don't want to record it here. 1. Did you buy your Momentum (2018) new from the dealer? 2. Do you know for sure that the clamp bar was not added by the dealer at someone's request? I am just trying to pin down the it actually came on a new unit direct from the factory. 3. What is the manufacturing date of your unit? I don't know whether you are up to your knees in snow or not, but if all your answers confirm that the clamp bars were installed at GD factory, a picture of the clamp bar on your underbelly would be great.
Thanks very much. Oh, my email is 43richclark@gmail.com

Rich

I've seen several dozen GDRV rigs over the years, and I've never noticed those metal bars on any of them. Normally, it's just a self tapping screw with a large washer penetrating the coroplast and going into the frame.

Jim

[CLARKR4]

Jim

Yes that is what I am told by GD, however as you can see from John's reply above, he states that his came with it. So not sure if it is only on the Momentum, or whether it was actually added aftermarket. I think it is a good security feature for the underbelly protection against water egress.

Rich

[JBill9694]

John
I related the information that you sent me on the clamp bars, and the response I got from GD was, 'that does not appear to be something that is being done in production'. So I have a few questions, which I would appreciate answers to, which you can send to me directly to my email if you don't want to record it here. 1. Did you buy your Momentum (2018) new from the dealer? 2. Do you know for sure that the clamp bar was not added by the dealer at someone's request? I am just trying to pin down the it actually came on a new unit direct from the factory. 3. What is the manufacturing date of your unit? I don't know whether you are up to your knees in snow or not, but if all your answers confirm that the clamp bars were installed at GD factory, a picture of the clamp bar on your underbelly would be great.
Thanks very much. Oh, my email is 43richclark@gmail.com

Rich

Happy Thanksgiving and you're lucky that our five straight days of rain (we're currently in the Pacific Northwest) has ended or I wouldn't have gotten the attached photos. The first photo is of the front curbside corner and the second is of the back curbside corner. As to your questions, yes we bought our Momentum new through a dealer and it came with the clamp bars.

I've wondered about previous comments by others about dropping the CorPlas in the area of tanks and how that could be done with the clamp bars in place. Now I see that they probably don't have the bars.

[Calbar]

Happy Thanksgiving and you're lucky that our five straight days of rain (we're currently in the Pacific Northwest) has ended or I wouldn't have gotten the attached photos. The first photo is of the front curbside corner and the second is of the back curbside corner. As to your questions, yes we bought our Momentum new through a dealer and it came with the clamp bars.

I've wondered about previous comments by others about dropping the CorPlas in the area of tanks and how that could be done with the clamp bars in place. Now I see that they probably don't have the bars.

These clamp bars are exactly the same as what my previous Rockwood had. They never gave me any problems to drop the coroplast though.

Rob

[CLARKR4]

John
Thanks for the photos and information.

I visited my RV dealer this morning in Langley BC, and spoke with the RV tech who was in the middle of replacing the two jack rams which were leaking. The coroplast was off the rear underbelly section. He said that there was enough water laying on the coroplast in that section so that when he took it down it soaked him. He found gaps between, what looks to me like landscape fabric, and the frame member. It looks like the black fabric is only along the edges of the underbelly. He has used that expandable caulking all to fill the gap in this area, which is right above the wheels. Traveling in wet or rainy weather there would be lots of water churned up by the wheels. If it had not been for the three broken screws and the weight of the wet insulation and accumulated water, which cause the coroplast to droop, I would never have found the problem. So for those of you who don't think they have the problem, I would suggest watching for sagging coroplast if you have been traveling in wet weather. Or checking the area shown in the two pictures I have attached. Hopefully this is the last you will hear from me on this topic.
Thanks for all of the comments.


Rich

[ThePowells]

Sorry for the tardy reply... I found this when I was on a snipe hunt for another thread...

Our Solitude has those aluminum strips around the perimeter, and AFIK, I am the only one who has dropped the coloplast. We bought ours new 13 months ago.

[CLARKR4]

Rob & Cate
You mentioned about this water alarm system that you installed in the underbelly. I think you mentioned that it was covered elsewhere, but my search so far has. been unsuccessful. Could you possibly repeat part of it hear or direct me to the specific thread. What does the alarm system consist of, what is it connected to, where did you buy it, how much was it, and any other relevant points. I think someone mentioned about it being in the basement behind the wall, but I understand that yours is laying on the coroplast, which has now been replaced on our unit.
Thanks for your repeated explanation.

Rich

[Cate&Rob]

Rob & Cate
You mentioned about this water alarm system that you installed in the underbelly. I think you mentioned that it was covered elsewhere, but my search so far has. been unsuccessful. Could you possibly repeat part of it hear or direct me to the specific thread. What does the alarm system consist of, what is it connected to, where did you buy it, how much was it, and any other relevant points. I think someone mentioned about it being in the basement behind the wall, but I understand that yours is laying on the coroplast, which has now been replaced on our unit.
Thanks for your repeated explanation.

Rich

Hi Rich,

Water alarms are discussed in this thread. https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...fully-enclosed Apparently the ones that I have are discontinued, but there are others. The kind that work well for RV application have sensing cables that can be routed to where water will first gather. I have one with the cable in the underbelly and the other with the cable in the water panel area. I power these with 12V to 9V step down DC voltage regulators and run them from RV battery power rather than 9V batteries. This is so that the alarms power off when the RV battery is disconnected. No point in the alarms going off when the RV is in storage.

Rob

[Ramjam]

I had just finished cinching down the ADCO cover straps that fit under the underbelly and noticed a small gap between the coroplast and the frame to which it was screwed, door side just in front of the wheel on the front axle. I pushed up on the coroplast and noticed that the screw heads on three screws were no longer attached to the body of the screw. They must have been torqued too much at the factory and the expanding hole fill must have been holding the coroplast in place until it could no longer hold the weight of the wet insulation, which I could feel as I was able to stick my hand into the cavity. I duct taped the coroplast to the frame and took the unit back to my dealer, not wanting to leave a moisture condition for the winter.

They have removed the coroplast on both sections of the underbelly and the insulation is waterlogged. They have checked all plumbing connections and report they are solid. I am told that there are no overflow outlets on any of the tanks other than the dump valves. We have had no overflows of any of the sinks or toilet.

I have suggested to my service tech that they need to check all connections to the tanks, check the tanks for any minuscule punctures of the tanks as there has to be a leak somewhere. It just does not seem plausible to me that any road water from rain could penetrate the underbelly, especially in that small gap mentioned above.

I have been reading about the vacuum breaker check valve problems that are connected to the black tank flush and wonder if that could leak into the underbelly. Any other known explanations?
Thanks for your thoughts.

Rich

Don't overlook water ingress when driving in the rain through the opening for the slide rams/racks. We have a Solitude 369rl and one of the slide rack/rams go through the frame above the space between the axles. We've had water get into the basement and soak the insulation when driving in rain. The insulation was so heavy it pulled down the coro-plast on the RHS. After replacing the insulation with rock wool (doesn't absorb water) and reattaching the coro-plast, I made a gasket made from 1" rubber material (from interlocking blocks from kids play area) to reduce the slide mechanism opening.

With most units if that have a slide rack over the axles, there will be, not if, water ingress eventually. It will just take awhile for the weight of the wet insulation to affect the coro-plast.