Electrical gremlins and plumbing stacks...

[Jim Bennett]

Looks good, Doug. Now that you rid yourself of these electrical gremlins, you might want to get a garden gnome for campsite decoration.

[Parker]

Going back to the beginning, this looks like a good place to use some kind of packing material (like oakum, perhaps) around the ABS pipe to fill the void around it, with a layer of caulking on top where it's more accessible. Of course that's easy to imagine, sitting here in front of the computer. Our 19 is of the same age....something else to check. Thanks for posting your findings and repair details.

[dbailey]

Originally Posted by Parker

Going back to the beginning, this looks like a good place to use some kind of packing material (like oakum, perhaps) around the ABS pipe to fill the void around it, with a layer of caulking on top where it's more accessible. Of course that's easy to imagine, sitting here in front of the computer. Our 19 is of the same age....something else to check. Thanks for posting your findings and repair details.

The new vent I used fits tight to the ABS -- it's obviously sized for exactly that purpose. Here's another picture of the new vent without the cap. It's a tight fit getting it over the ABS. Not water tight, of course, but the geometry is much better. Assuming that the dicor caulking I used stays fixed, there's not much opportunity for water encroachment.

I did consider a bit of caulk around the ABS pipe, but given how the original caulk seems to have been pushed up the pipe, I assume that the pipe moves up and down (either through thermal expansion or just through vibration as the trailer moves). In that case there's not much any caulk can do to seal it.

[ruscal]

Doug,
The product you used almost got it right. You correctly assumed the vent stack should not be caulked to the roof jack due to pipe movement. ABS plastic pipe is used here in California for sewer and venting. It is slick, and easily installed. I was constructing some buildings for the University of California where we had some simple wood framed buildings about 14' tall with plywood sheathing. They were flat roofed pitched to roof drain assemblies that were hot mopped down to the roof. A few months after we completed the buildings the roof drains were leaking. All of them! on 8 buildings. It took a little sleuthing, but we discovered the vertical ABS pipes were growing in length enough to rip the roof drain assemblies, screws and all from the plywood sheathing. The drains were lifting over a half inch. We solved our problem with bellow sections in the pipe.
So what that means is that any roof jack should have the ability to seal the pipe and let the pipe move freely up and down. A simple lip seal moulded into the jack could do that. It would look just like the one you used, but would have a soft lip integrated into the part. I would use an angled lip at a 45 degree angle upward so water would be shed away from the pipe. The pipe would be free to move up and down. The bonnets we see on the RV vents may not have much purpose other than keeping birds out. Our homes don't have such bonnets. The companies making this stuff should get with the program.
Russ
The vent you have will probably work great. I doubt much water will enter the crack, even at highway speed.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by dbailey

The new vent I used fits tight to the ABS -- it's obviously sized for exactly that purpose. Here's another picture of the new vent without the cap. It's a tight fit getting it over the ABS. Not water tight, of course, but the geometry is much better. Assuming that the dicor caulking I used stays fixed, there's not much opportunity for water encroachment.

I did consider a bit of caulk around the ABS pipe, but given how the original caulk seems to have been pushed up the pipe, I assume that the pipe moves up and down (either through thermal expansion or just through vibration as the trailer moves). In that case there's not much any caulk can do to seal it.

Doug: That is a perfect fix in my opinion. Glad to see you got it done right. Regarding the sealing around the pipe the Ventline V2049 literature says "wipe seal feature" so as Brian indicated initially, and you have discovered while installing, the tight fit around the pipe should be enough to seal out any water.

[dbailey]

Here's an outside-the-box solution I considered, but didn't implement: 3D print my own vent cover.

If the vent cover were caulked to the trailer top as this on is, but rose a little higher than the ABS and then curved down and into the inside of the pipe, it would take some really strange winds for any water to get inside. It's a difficult shape to manufacture, but I have a friend with a 3D printer and it shouldn't have a problem with the shape.

In the end I didn't pursue it because I have no idea how tough the result would be, nor how it would stand up to constant exposure.

[SFDavis50]

https://www.amazon.com/Lippert-Compo...s=Lippert+vent

I bought this vent because it uses the Bernoulli Principle to provide a very slight vacuum at the top of the vent stack whenever driving or if there is a slight breeze. I haven't had a problem with odors although a few times I caught a slight whiff in the trailer right after stopping. I plan to install it on a warm sunny day so it may be spring before that happens. It was expensive for a few pieces of plastic but I think it is a very good design. The funnel shaped piece goes into the 1 1/2" ABS pipe. I wanted ETI to install one but they wouldn't.

[Jordan]

This is a great set of posts. I am picking up a new E19 - it appears this issue came from a 2013 vintage trailer. Does anyone know if ETI has upgraded its vent caps to use a model closer to the replacement that was installed in this post?