During the rain the past weekend here, I was dry and comfortable in my bed, but I kept hearing a drip that sounded like it was inside. I got up and checked around my bed, but it was completely dry. The windows weren’t leaking, so I went back to sleep.
The rain getting in really starts months earlier – before the Hilton was even mine. My dad had leant it to my sister so she could move some things. She tried to park it in a car garage in Walnut Creek, and… well it didn’t fit. So the roof got a gaping hole in it. That was two days before I got it. Not having the money (and still paying rent), I patched it the best I could. I used water proof duct tape and sprayed over that with a spray rubberized leak fixer. I was hoping it held until I could do something else.
Then I was in Nevada in November, when my dad died, and it snowed. There was about 6 inches of melting snow on top of my van, but still no problems as far as I could tell. The first time it rained, I heard a drip, and I checked around. Water was definitely leaking in the rear door somehow. I figured it was time to get the roof fixed. So I went to an auto repair shop. They peeled off my makeshift patch – now soggy duct tape, and showed me a soggy broken fiberglass hole. They put some patch on it for $800, and I felt safe once again.
However, the first night it rained this past week, once again, I heard drips, and sure enough, water was coming in the back window or door or… somewhere! So I bought some door sealing tape and some stuff called Mortite – which is like a putty caulking. I put the tape around the door, and when I examined the back window, I thought it could be coming in there. The next night, it rained again, as I knew it would. I heard drips that were a little more muffled. I checked the place I knew was dripping the night before, and it was dry. My sealing seemed to have stopped that. But searching a little more thoroughly, I found that the inside of the cabinets that are part of the hightop roof were wet.
The patch seems to be tight though, so I don’t think it’s that. It has to be the seams where the roof and the van are connected. That’s the only way that water could be getting into those cabinets! I think maybe when she tried to drive the van into the garage, it may have hit hard enough to shift those seams, or loosen that connection.
There is supposed to be about a week of no rain, so I’m going to let it dry good – leaving the cabinets open, and then I’m going to use the Mortite all along that seam at the top. It’s supposed to rain the following week, so I’ll be able to tell whether that solves the problem. I don’t want to save money on rent, only to have to spend it on Van repairs. But I am committed to this lifestyle so, I’m just hoping here. If anyone has any other suggestions or similar experience, advice is appreciated.
It may be a leak that sends water running down a surface and then dripping off of a different area than where it originally came in. I had a window leak like that. It would have water run down my windows and then drip off of a plastic ledge and onto my sleeping bag. It took me a while to figure out that the problem was that window and not my roof. Keep in mind that the water could be running down an area that is hidden in between layers of roof, fabric, and whatever else insulates your vehicle. Hope this helps!
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Yeah, it’s definitely coming in somewhere and then draining down to other places, because all the back cabinets are wet. My plan right now is to seal that whole seam along the top and see how that goes. My fear is that the upholstery inside the cabinets will get moldy before I figure out how to fix it. Then I have a whole new problem. Right now I’ve got stuff stored in bags because I had to remove them from the cabinets. There is no way it can be coming from anywhere but the roof though, since it would travel downward and all the wetness is located at that roof line – so that’s my current plan.
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One way to look at life is that you’re not paying rent so you CAN afford to make necessary van repairs. And since your sis did the damage, any chance of her paying for the repairs (or at least some portion of them)?
Here’s a link to a blog post about patching a Casita camper trailer: http://www.interstellarorchard.com/2015/12/12/photo-patches/. I’m not sure this info will help you, but it’s worth checking.
I have a high top on my van and last year I replaced all the screws holding the topper to the van. As I (with help from my teenage nephew–good kid!) replaced each screw, I squirted some clear silicone caulk stuff in the hole to help seal things and stop leaks.
Good luck! I hope you get the leaking stopped soon. It’s hard to enjoy the rain when you can hear drip drip drip in the night.
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Hi Blaize,
The thing is that my sister already paid for it. She gave the money to my dad. He wanted to put it toward the van, and I told him to keep it, and I would take care of it. So it was in his bank, and when he died, all the money there went to pay off some of his bills. However, I don’t think the problem is too bad, and you’re right! I can take what I would be paying toward rent and pay to have it fixed if my next attempt fails. I really think I can do it though. I love the link you sent, and I love that there is so much information out there for us! Thank you for that.
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