Window Leak caused a rotted upper section beam
 

Hi all, I'm new to this forum, but not to my Hi-Lo. I have enjoyed reading the adventures of like minded folks as I researched for my upcoming repair project. About 5 years ago wife and I bought a 2002, 24' Hi-Lo. Love the concept, love the camper. A few years ago we had a leak in the window above the kitchen sink. Narrowed it down to a crack in the stove vent hood outside flap that was leaking inside the wall onto the top of the window frame and coming out at the bottom. Fixed that and thought I had the problem solved. Camping last week, we found that the window was still leaking at some breaks in the caulking at the top, and likely was part of the water problem all along. Unfortunately, the beam at the bottom of the upper section is rotted and must be replaced. Sections of the wall are also mushy and will have to be replaced. Obviously the windows will have to be taken out and reset and I will replace all the seals while I am doing this repair. I replaced a portion of the seal a few years ago and understand how to separate the top from the bottom to gain access to the beam, except behind the refrigerator. I assume the plywood beam is one peace the whole length of the trailer. I am not sure of the structural capabilities of this wall without the beam in place, since the outside wall has buckled slightly where the worst rot is located. I haven't seen any threads on the beam replacement. Has anyone replaced one of these beams? I am open to suggestions short of taking it to a repair shop. Thanks for any assistance. Blessings and happy camping to y'all. Ralph

beam replacement
 

Hi, I am in the process of a major complete rebuild of the upper half of my 24 tow lite.And what i did was replace the plywood beam with a pt 2x4 from home depo and gorilla glued a piece of 1/4 inch plywood to that to get the correct thickness.I'm convinced it will work just fine.For the aluminum which they covered the beam with I cut down aluminum gutters purchased at home depo,just get some STAINLESS STEEL staples and staple a piece of 30# roofing felt to the 2x4 so the aluminum does not touch the pressure treated wood.I am still learning many things as i go but I beleve Ive got it licked now,I have rebuilt all four walls and roof way better than they where originally and am now working on the lift system,replacing guides pulleys and cables.Good luck!! hope I was able to help.

Repairs water dammage
 

Beach Papa, sorry to hear you have water damage. You are on the right track asking for advice. This is a do it yourself if you want it to be. The Classic trailers are able to be torn apart from the inside. Start by covering your floor and counters tops with cardboard and duct tape. It is nice to have the cardboard as a base for setting tools on. Remove any wall panels in one big piece to use as a pattern if possible. Take pictures of the curtain placement/measured drawings. We didn't have to replace any of our rail. See my post of 11-7-2012. It has a word description and pictures of our restoration. The link is provided. All I can tell you is we are not experts,however we are two years after repairs. We are hi and dry. Best of luck. Send me a PM if you need immediate phone help.

Welcome
 

Beach Papa, Welcome to the site and as you can tell from the above posts there are some great folks that can and are welling to help us with our hilo.

Later Tim & Nancy

Thanks
 

Thanks for the kind and helpful replies. I have not searched out any of the referenced links, but I will soon. Here are a couple of photos to show the damage. It was all hidden under the trim and did not show up until after the screw holding the curtain pulled out.

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I am afraid I may be looking at the same kind of project once I get into it. Since the beam extends behind the refrigerator, I assume you had to separate the upper section from the lower section and then raise it up above the refrigerator to access the entire length of beam. How did you support the top while you were replacing the beam? Do you have any photos of your project? I wish you success with your project. Ralph

Sam, I just looked at all your restoration photos. You did a great job on the rebuild. It took me a while to navigate this site to find your 11-7-12 post, but I got there eventually. My camper is newer with flat fiberglass sides instead of wavey. I haven't opened up the can of worms yet, but will keep you posted once I do. I am still concerned about how to hold up the top half of the camper once I remove the bottom rail/beam. Surely, it can't just rest on the exterior fiberglass walls if all the structure inside the wall is rotted. I am thinking that I will have to put some kind of brace that goes from the floor to the ceiling to take the weight while I have the wall apart. Any thoughts or past experience stories are welcome.

HiLo repairs
 

I had dh look at your pictures/waterdammage and read your description. You are absolutely right about separating the top and bottom half. You would need to rent a crane. Read some back posts from GaryK52 and you will see how he made braces for his ceiling. You should find where the ceiling rafters are . Stradle two if possible to support the roof on each end. Maybe buy a temporary type garage to enclose the entire trailer while working on it. This is hard to explain. Hopefully others will give you some suggestions. sp(straddle). Defeniately you will be bracing at the inside corners to support your roof. Even though your walls are straight the repair process will be the same as our walls. Wow,water damage is cruel and extensive on your HiLo. We sure love our HiLos to put this much time and effort into repairs. Good thing you got your rotater cuff repaired. Keep us posted.

Unfortunately, you explained it very well Sam. I am still in the planning stage. I think I understand what I will need to do. I will photo document what I end up doing so hopefully others will benefit from my experience. I word to the wise though. This is a 2002 model camper. If you have a similar camper I would strongly suggest that you remove and reset all your windows properly to include a bead of caulking at the top and along the sides. only butyl tape was used at the factory and in my case I believe an over zealous window installer over tightened the screws and squeezed out all the butyl tape from between the window and the exterior wall. Hindsight is 20/20 I should have reset the windows a long time ago and avoided this whole disaster.

water dammage
 

Don't beat yourself up. You are right hind sight is a great thing. We also had a great amount of water damage and we wondered if we bought it with the start of damage. Good idea to take pictures and share your experience to help others. We have taken every window out and reinstalled with butyl tape and Lexell caulk. Lots of work that will pay big dividends when it is pouring rain and you are hi and dry. Since HILO is no longer in the manufacturing business your only choice is to fix what you have. You will be saving thousands of dollars.

WOW!! It has been a while since I started this post last year. A lot has happened, my mother-in-law broke her femur in August and then once she recovered from that she had several bouts of internal bleeding. I think we now have all that figured out and she is on the mend. I can finally get back to my project although we may miss the entire camping season for this year. I haven't started the tear out yet. At least the camper wasn't torn apart when all this interruption happened. Getting older and failing health are all part of this life. We still have her to share life with and we are blessed each day. Blessings to each of you as you enjoy your Hi-Lo and IF I ever get started on this project I will post some photos. Beach Papa

starting repairs
 

Beach Papa, I hope you are able to start your repairs. That's half the battle just getting started. I know what you mean about life happening and getting older. We did the reverse. Repairs came first and now I've had cancer surgery and will start chemotherapy treatments on May 19th. I have to have four treatments 21 days apart. Hopefully I will feel up to going camping for six days in August. Keep us posted.

Hey Sam, Unfortunately, my repairs have been temporarily side tracked again with a raccoon in my attic wall. However, clearly my struggles do not compare to what you are going through. Our prayers go with you for complete healing with a speedy recovery and that you would feel God's peace and presence as you walk through this valley. I know many people who have survived cancer to live long and full lives. In all circumstances it is important to keep an eternal perspective. Blessings to ya....

Well, after a little more then 5 weeks of work on the camper most every day, I am just about finished. The rotted wall and beam sections and the bulb seal has been replaced, with the cables now adjusted. I just need to reinstall the blinds and curtains and a few last minute repairs. I will post a photo documentary as soon as I can put it together, but that will take some time. Blessings and happy camping to each of you. Beach Papa

HiLo repairs
 

Glad to hear from you and to know that most of your repairs are done. Would love to see your pictures and descriptions. It surely will help someone else with repairs. About a 3ft. section of our seal repair failed. In hindsight the metal flashing wasn't heavy enough. We were able to purchase a section of drip edge for about $5.00. A snip with the tin snips and the metal hopefully will work out. Just need a break from the rain and the 90degree temps and high humidity. We are going camping in August two weeks after my last chemotherapy treatment. Bummer had a mammogram and the radiologist recommended a needle biopsy. I think the "bad gremlins get in while I am sleeping". I need to see how you were able to raise your HiLo high enough to work around the refrigerator. Take care and go camping soon.

Sorry to hear you are still being attacked Sam. We will continue to pray for your complete recovery and healing..... Sad to say but I did not separate the camper enough to replace the beam behind the refrigerator. That section of beam was not as badly damaged as other sections under the windows, so we just said, "good enough" and moved on. I guess I could have removed the refrigerator or built some sort of external structure and used jacks or a couple of chain hoists, but I decided it was not worth the effort and risk. We got the camper back home a couple days ago and I sanitized the fresh water system to prepare for some camping. Turns out the faucet in the shower was broken, so I had to take that out and replace it, so it put me behind again. Will get to the photos and repair write up soon. Blessings, Beach Papa

leaking window wall repair
 

We didn't get to replace the seal behind our ref. as it would have been a major major job. Just sew up some towels and fill with rice. Homemade weather proofing. Thanks for the prayers as the days following chemotherapy are a little rough. DH has to fix our seal sometime this month. Camping in August!! Right now our truck is in the repair shop. Waiting on parts. All the brakes need to be replaced. This is a fantastic speciality shop that we use. Good honest work at reasonable prices. Good thing we didn't take off on a big trip as we would have been stranded. We always take care of our vehicle and have it checked out before a big trip. Still this is no guarantee that the truck won't break. We are very fortunate that our neighbor lets of use her car as she can't drive. We take her to all her medical apts. ect. Never hurts to mow her lawn and put favors in the favor bank.

Finally finished the restoration
 

Hey Sam, and others who may be following this thread. Trying to figure out how to use this Forum is like trying to rebuild a Hi-Lo. One step at a time. We have competed our repairs and I posted a new thread with an attachment to the process. Attached is a link to what we did with photos and narrative. You asked about getting behind the refrigerator. I think when you asked that question, I didn't think it was possible, but since we are now finished, I realize it was possible and is explained in the narrative. Looking forward to a test camping trip for 3 night in a couple of weeks and if everything goes well, we will go out again for a couple of weeks. Happy camping to y'all.

Hi, Beach Papa. Fantastic summary- thanks for sharing it! Enjoy your first campout in your "new" rig!

Beach Papa,

You, sir, deserve a gold star by your name. Very detailed and informative. I just noticed this weekend that my a/c condensation and rain had been leaking down the sides and leaked in around the windows on both sides. I only noticed this because our medicine cabinet in the bathroom wouldn't open,and when I went outside to make sure the top was all the way up, found my cables pulled through the aluminum. I temporarily fixed this by lowering the top down on 2x4's and placing a piece of 2x2 angle iron in between the cable and rotted beam section. Looks like I will be going through your procedure several times over the next few weeks depending on weather and time.