Underbelly Insulation

[carnolddsm]

Underbelly insulation - found water and wet insulation in the underbelly this morning. What type of insulation should be used for replacement? Original kind of looks like fiberglass, but without the itch, guessing rockwool.

[Joscelyne3]

Hello Colan, I do not know what type it is but I will be following this thread. I woke up yesterday about 5:30 AM to the sounds of water spraying in the basement. Cause was a broken in line filter screen at the water pump. Water was running for about 3 1/2 hours. Took on a lot of water. Left a trail from Zion to 1/2 way Vegas. My concern is about mold starting to grow.
Will be following.
Safe travels to all.
John Joscelyne

[carnolddsm]

Talked to Grand Design customer service, nothing special about the insulation.

Wet insulation shoul definately be replaced.

[orbiker]

I had the shower P trap come loose at the connection. Drown the insulation.

Things like this are happening to lots of people.

It would be nice if there was some way of keeping the water out of the sub-floor. There are too many ways to let the water flow down there.

Thoughts ???

[GaryBro]

I'm curious as to how many people have had water in the underbelly that was not from a leak in the plumbing system. My 380TH got completely soaked from driving in a terrible rain storm for a couple hours. GD replaced the entire underbelly (and I hope the insulation). After the fix, I took a look underneath and found many places that water can get in while driving in rain. Decided that I needed to fix this, so bought a couple tubes of Silicone and went all around the underbelly sealing all possible entry points. Quite easy on a large part of it, but around the springs not so good. The easy parts mostly had an aluminum strip screwed to the frame to hold the fabric. Around the springs there were no strips and the fabric was just saging about 1/2 inch. I siliconed these areas and put duct tape over it to hold it tight until the silicone hardened. I then scouted around and noticed that the slide rails go through the frame and the hole is much larger than the track or the hydraulic rod. It appears as if this is a great place for water to get in. It seems like a bad idea to have the underbelly completely sealed, but have openings above it to let water in. I wonder if GD is aware of this and if so, do they think it is a problem?

[carnolddsm]

With regard to the gap between the coroplast and spring mounts.

I had fairly large gaps between the coroplast and the spring mounts that GD tried to close up with huge amounts of silicone. Keyword is tried.

I removed the silicone as much as possible. Then from sheet metal cut U shaped pieces to fit around the mounts. Applied silicone to the sheet metal and fastened to the frame rails with tek screws. Fastened and sealed the coroplast to the sheet metal U.

[Cate&Rob]

Hi Gary,

Almost two years ago, we had a discussion on this forum about this very topic. Even the idea of a better way to let rainwater/road splash out . . . since it is almost impossible to keep it from getting in. See . . .
http://www.mygrandrv.com/for...light=Duckbill

Rob

[kendive]

Talked to Grand Design customer service, nothing special about the insulation.

Wet insulation shoul definately be replaced.

If it's the same as the roof and around the fridge as our 2150RB looks to be this stuff...

http://www.ecobatt.us

[John612]

Hi Gary,

Almost two years ago, we had a discussion on this forum about this very topic. Even the idea of a better way to let rainwater/road splash out . . . since it is almost impossible to keep it from getting in. See . . .
http://www.mygrandrv.com/for...light=Duckbill

Rob

Rob - Would you please throw us a drawing of how and where this would be installed.

Thx,
John

[Smooth Sailing]

Found an old article about Silicone sealant. Some Silicone sealants have an acidic base as part of the curing agent. The acidic base will eat through metal. Article suggested nonacidic sealant, latex-based. One brand mentioned was ProFlex. It's a good idea to check with manufacturer for proper roof sealant.