We have owned our Winnebago Tour about two and a half years and a routine maintenance item is to check the roof seam sealant for integrity. Over time, the sealant begins to pull away from the sidewall seam as you can see from the small crack above.
The best way to inspect this seam is to climb onto the roof and very carefully, bend over and try to gently push the roof inward. If you can push the roof in a bit and you see a small crack appear (usually on the outside of the roof) as you can see under my fingers above, then re-sealing is needed. Oh joy!!
Rick decided to do it right and first had to cut out the failed sealer with a razor knife. I first gently cut alongside the roof several times, deepening the cut each time. Then, I cut along the outside of the seam in the same manner. Since there are 40' of roof seam on each side of the roof, this was not a small project.
Here, you can see the ribbon of failed sealer as I cut it out. I was pleased to see the sealant come out of the joint fairly cleanly and was ready to replace it with new sealant.
The tools of the trade! Now that the tedious sealant removal has been completed (hurray!), I was ready to re-seal it. I used RV Pro-Flex sealant from Geocel which I have used before in similar applications with great success.
Here, you can see the new sealant after it has been applied (top of photo). I used the caulking gun to apply the sealant, then a wet finger to tool and smooth the sealant to form a nice, smooth seal. Once the sealant cures, it forms a strong, but flexible, seal and should last for many years. That is great, since I do not look forward to doing this job again in the near future!
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