Water leak

darbyjudy

Senior Member
Joined
May 31, 2005
Messages
254
I have a 2004 Sunvoyager with the atarium, model 8379. I have a water leak in the compartment in front of the entrance door. The compartment is mostly under the atrium slide out. When it rains I get water inside the compartment, it appears to be coming from the top of the compartment. I don't think it is coming in around the door seal . Has anyone else had this problem and if so what is the fix.
 
I had the same leak in our #8351 Sun Voyager, though on the driver's side. My electrical compartment would fill to the top of the compartment lip, whether traveling or stationary, during every rain. This compartment is directly below the front of the slide and my driver's side door as well.

It was successfully sealed under warranty. Unfortunately, what was done is a closely held secret by the service department, though as a hint, they indicated that massive quantities of expanding foam insulation was used or re-applyed. I believe they used a pressure test of sorts to confirm the results.

I could not determine the source of the leak myself.
 
Darby, I would recommend you contact a Gulf Stream servicing dealer and talk to them about getting this repaired under warranty. There is a fix and it should not take too long provided the service department is familar with the problem and known repair. It is basically a foam block the length of the room placed below the "D" seal to enable this block to seal against the Bulbb seal making the roof water tight. Good luck.
 
water leak

Mike it is leaking when the atrium is open. Across the top of this compartment is a medal piece as though part of the frame. You can place your hand inside where the ram comes out that operates the slide and it appears that you are touching the top of that compartment and it feels as if the top portion is in two pieces, and meet at the piece of medal across the inside top of the compartment. I wonder if the water coming off of the slide out is coming inside and through the top of the compartment. As far as contacting GS, since I am the second owner of this motor home they will not honor the warrenty.
 
Maybe you could try tech support and if you can't do the fix yourself try and get an estamite from your dealer. I'm sorry to hear about your leak however, good luck with it.
 
Darby, You are correct in diagnosing as to how water is getting into the compartment. You will need to start at the top of the slide out room seal and make sure that the top seal swipe is over the two side seal swipes. Fill the two side seal and top seal corners with a good silicone, preferably black urethane. The two side seals need to over lap the bottom seal and again seal the corners. Let all this cure before using the slide out for a day. If you will draw in the slide out a couple inches and on the inside look at the top of the room, you will see that the sealing is on the small "D" seal and that affixed to the wall is a double bulb with a sweep seal that does not look like it is going to do anything. You are correct in assuming this does not seal well and this is another fix that is needed. Now bring the room in even farther so that you can take a closed cell foam rubber block about 1 1/2" x the length of the room and place (glue), with double sided tape, this block seal under the "D" seal on the inside room flange so as to creat a seal for the block seal to meet the double bulb seal. The double bulb seal is on the main wall and when the room is out the inside flange of room seals to the inside bulb and when the room is in, the outside flange seals on the outside bulb. The sweep part of the bulb seal just acts like a windshield wipe to swipe of any clinging water to prevent it from getting the carpet so wet. If you contact Gulf Stream with the unit number, they may send you the block foam seal and double stick tape at no charge and if you feel confident enough you could do it yourself. If not you could print and explain this process to a repair facility and get the issue fixed. Good luck and leet me know how you do.
 
update on water leak

Mike I have contacted Gulfstream and I have been talking with Butch Kolb. He is trying to get the repair done at Gulfstreams expense under warrenty even though I am a second owner and this has been a problem since day one when the MH was manufactured. I sent him som pictures and he thinks maybe it is setting low in the opening. I just hope I can get it resolved, for we love the MH other than the water leaks. I don't want the floor to go bad again in the bedroom. Gulfstream appears to want to do the right thing but Butch said it has to go before the board to get an OK on it. You know I always said I would not buy a new unit and let the first owner take the big hit but not sure about that now. It was a complete suprise to me when Gulfstream said the factory warrenty was only for the origional buyer, even though the MH was only 6 months old and had only 2500 miles on it. Waht a wake up to me. La Mesa had told us the warrenty would be transferred. Thanks for all the posts and I will keep you updated on what happens.
 
Update on water leak

Mike I heard from Butch at Gulfstream today and they turned me down on repair by warrenty. So I guess I will just have to continue trying different things until I get it fixed. One thing I have did that may help is install a piece of rubber gutter on the sidewall of the slide out. I seen this on a new Monoco and it looks as if it may work. If the water gets past the swipe seal it then will run down the side and the gutter will catch it and it will run to the outside. Sounds good, I just hope it works. Also on the bedroom slide out Butch mentioned a couple of closed cell rubber blocks to seal between the two pieces of aluminum angle at the top. I appears they were left off in manufacture. So If the gutter doesn't work I will try to find some 1 1/2 inch rubber about 6 inchs long to install at the top and see what happens next. This is so fustrating, I had a 6 year old winnebago with a slide that never leaked, I upgrade to a newer motor home and I have had water leaks from day one. Also on the compartment leak, it is coming from the top, the factory has forgot to spray the foam stuff on the outside of the top to seal it. At this point I can't figure out how to get into it to seal it. If I could buy some foam in a can with a hose maybe I could get to it. I will just have to do some checking.
 
darbyjudy said:
...This is so fustrating, ..., I upgrade to a newer motor home and I have had water leaks from day one. Also on the compartment leak, it is coming from the top, the factory has forgot to spray the foam stuff on the outside of the top to seal it...

You mean you are not heartened by the fact that at least "the commitee" did look into the matter. They may have decided that their company bears no responsibility nor liability for water leaks, defective design, and forgotten assembly process steps? But darn, they did look into it!

Gees DarbyJudy, you sure hold high expectations. This is soooo sad, isn't it?
 
water leak

Well you know it bothers me that they will admit to the problem but won't step up to the plate and make the necessary repair. I went out today and bought a can of the the spray foam and I will attempt to spray the top of the compartment. I guess at this point I cannot afford another MH so I will have to try to live with what I have. Being 70 years of age this will probably be my last one, I was hoping I made a good choice when I bought it but it appears I should have listened to several people who told me to stay away from Gulfstream because of the factory service. It is a shame for they do make a great motor home, it not the big things but all the little things like water leaks that gets you so fustrated that you certainly would not recommend to a friend to buy one. Just today I went out and installed a shelf under the bathroom sink, not much of a job but could made a big difference if you were buy it. Why didn't Gulfstream install this shelf, what could it cost them, peanuts I bet.
I will say that all the people I have talked to at Gulfstream has been very nice, I guess if they want their job they have to go by company policy. It is a shame for I think Gulfstream could be one of the ones to look up to. all they need to do is just listen to their customers a little.
 
Re: water leak

darbyjudy said:
It is a shame for I think Gulfstream could be one of the ones to look up to. all they need to do is just listen to their customers a little.

I know, when we received no satisfaction from their online help and forum and then it was censored and shut down, this is exactly why went to the trouble of creating this forum for all Gulf Stream owners...so they would have a voice that hopefully, through shear mass, would resonate through to those who can make changes at the company. This is not a site created to bash Gulf Stream but rather allow people like Darby here to know that someone is listening and that they matter.

Sorry to hear its not worked out well for you Darby. Someone at your point in life that plunks down that kind of dough does not deserve this and certainly should not have to go through the hassles you have.

Good Luck on your own self repair.
 
Thanks for listening

You know what really hurts, I was a blue color worker so I never made a lot of money. We saved a little through the years after the children were raised and we felt for a 50th wedding anniversary present we would one more time buy a newer MH. It has caused so much stress in the family that I just wish I could do it all over again. I would certainly keep the 1997 Winnebago and when it broke fix it.
But we as a lot of people wanted something nicer and fell in love with the 37 ft. Gulfstream. It is so liveable. The workhorse is great. If we could just get the dam leake stopped I would stop worrying and life would go on.

Thanks to all for listening to my problems.
 
Update on water leak

Well I just got back from being out in the MH for 5 days. One night we got a pretty good rain, and once again the bedroom slide leaked in the rear corner and also I got water in the compartment in front of the door. This morning I took the hose and sprayed water on top of the compartment and opened the door and the water is coming through the top like I thought. I tried to spray some foam inon the top but I can only get my arm in the opening and I guess I didnot get it covered completely. I will try again.
I have also heard from Butch at Gulfstream Coach and it appears that they are going to install some rubber pieces in the cormers of the bedroom slide out at their expense. He feels that the water is pooling on the back corner of the slideout top and is coming in at that poing. I guess either they forgot to put these rubbers pieces in at the corners or it is a later addition. I am keeping my fingers crossed, hoping i can get these two things solved. We really like the MH but these problems has caused some worry for us.
 
Darby,
Glad to hear that Gulf Stream is going to do something after all. Hopefully it will be the fix you need for the leak. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Chasing water leak

:D :D Well I think I finally found the problem causing the water leak in the bedroom slide out. We were in Eastern TN and had several days of rain and once again the bedroom slide out leaked in the rear corner. I put a pan under it and had to empty the pan several times in the night. The next day I was really hot and called LaMesa who had sold me the MH and had guaranteed me that the leak was repaired. No satisfation, so then called LaMesa customer relations in CA. Now this problem has been going on since I bought the MH in April of 2005. Well it must have made me feel better because I started looking again for the source of the leak. It was raining lightly so I ran the slide in a little and felt all along the top and it was dry. Then I got out my ladder and climbed to the top and notices water running to the outside of the slide out and then toward the back of it. I really looked closly this time and it was running under the medal corner trim and then dcown to the bottom of the slide and theminside of the slide out and dripping off between the plywood and the medal trim. I have sealed the medal trim with some clear sealer and it looks as if it has solved the problem. Now why couldn't the RV Tech find this problem, instead he replaced the seal around the slide . Once again the small things was overlooked. Well anyway if this is solved I will be very happy. You will never know how many hours I layed awake worring about this water leak. When you become a senior you don't need this . Also have got the compartment water leak stopped by spraying some foam on top of the compartment. So things are looking up.
 
Darby, I am glad to hear that you may have resolved the leaking issue. Le t us know after the next few rains and good luck.
 
I've read with interest your situation with the leak. Our 2006 Sun Voyager was a rental unit when we bought it last year. So we are the second owners and the warranty issue has come up, too. It surprised us, but we got GS to cover some work after a somewhat heated "discussion." Without a warranty transfer I will never buy used again. Good luck!
 
coolchas11 said:
I've read with interest your situation with the leak. Our 2006 Sun Voyager was a rental unit when we bought it last year. So we are the second owners and the warranty issue has come up, too. It surprised us, but we got GS to cover some work after a somewhat heated "discussion." Without a warranty transfer I will never buy used again. Good luck!

With a 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty, how many coaches are traded that are still under warranty?
 
With a 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty, how many coaches are traded that are still under warranty?


You are right on this statement but when I bought my 2004 Sunvoyager it had been in service only 6 months. I was told by La Mesa that I would get the remainder of the factory warrenty. After finding the problmes I contacted Gulfstream and they set me straight. Thank god I bought a service policy . You would think any manufactur would stand behing their unit for at l east 12 months. I would hate to think that I owned a company that manufactured MH and I didn';t think they would last one year. Sorry bunch.
 
Hi Darby -

Well, like they say: Persistance often pays off.

As you probably recall, you and I have had quite a few discussions in the past when I owned the same model-coach - and had a lot of the same problems. I am so heartened to read that you are finally getting some resolution and closure on your issues. I never got that far, and finally gave up and traded mine in on another brand.

Again, congrats!
Ron
 

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