Today I want to show you some important things you should check on the roof of an RV or travel trailer if you’re considering purchasing it used. As you can see right off the bat this RV was covered however in a way that it was collecting water and snow melt, this is not good because of those in a lot of additional weight on the roof for an extended length of time which potentially could cause damage to the roof structure. Once we made it up on the roof we did a quick visual inspection and then started to dig in and you’ll notice there are many issues on this particular RV roof. Lots of the caulking and sealant around most if not all of the roof mounted items have been compromised and will no longer hold out water. So you’ll want to take the time to check everything and reseal where needed.
In this case, in my opinion, the whole roof would need to be cleaned scraped and then completely recoded and also reseal around all roof items. After that, we were looking at some of the seams of the roof which also were in need of repair and re-ceiling.
Don’t forget to take the time while you’re up there to look at the fins on the back of the air conditioning unit if these are all bent and twisted the unit will no longer work efficiently. There is also trim on the edge of this RV that has been compromised in fact is pretty much completely gone so the screws are exposed to the elements and will rust in eventually will allow water to seep in and rot out the wood structure. Another thing to check is the roof vent covers obviously if there is clear damage still need to be replaced but also they could be just very old and brittle and could break off very easily in the case of this RV that is one thing I would replace even if it did not have the hole in it that you saw.
Another easy thing to check from the roof is exterior marker lights and in this RV they certainly have had leak issues because you can see that all of them on the front has been re-coded and sealed with silicone sealant. If you see this it’s a clear sign that most likely water penetrated behind these and potentially cause damage to the structure. So these would definitely need to be removed cleaned resealed and replaced properly. Hopefully, if you’re looking at a used RV you don’t have these issues or at least this many but this worked out well for the video because you got to see many things that could go wrong on the roof of an RV. Like I said in the video in this particular situation
I probably would not purchase the RV just because there are so many issues with the roof alone. With that said it certainly could be used as a hunting camp or something like that without too much issue if you took the time just to slap on some thick sealant on the roof. Hopefully, you got something out of this video it will prevent you or help protect you from purchasing an RV or travel trailer that has extensive issues. The bottom line is it’s up to you to do the inspection to make sure you know what you are purchasing or what to offer based on the conditions that you are seeing.
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