Framed window defect causing leaks

[hugh]

I'd been having problems with a leaking window in my 21C. When it was raining, the track in the bottom of the window filled up with water and eventually overflowed to the inside of the trailer. No matter how much I cleaned the interior and exterior drain holes, I never seemed to be able to get more than a slow trickle of water to drain from the channel.

Today I was cleaning the holes yet again, and poking around with some thin aluminum wire to see if I could better clean out the channels. All of a sudden, I "hooked" something in the bottom channel. I gave it a tug, and low and behold, a small piece of aluminum popped out of the bottom channel. As it turns out, the inside drain holes had been punched out, but the punched out piece of aluminum was still stuck in the hole. Once I realized what was going on, I was able to remove the pieces blocking the other drain holes as well.

Now my window drains perfectly, just like the others, with no leaks to the inside.

Anyway, this is obviously something that would have been caught with even the slightest bit of manufacturing quality checks! It's a bit disappointing that neither the window manufacturer nor Escape caught this.

Just sharing this in case somebody else has a leaking window problem that could be caused by this issue.

The picture is of one of the scrap aluminum pieces that I removed. It's very small - less than 3/4 of an inch long.

[Rockhead]

Sweet glad you found the issue. Hope this help other owners

[diannelgraham]

Originally Posted by hugh

I'd been having problems with a leaking window in my 21C. When it was raining, the track in the bottom of the window filled up with water and eventually overflowed to the inside of the trailer. No matter how much I cleaned the interior and exterior drain holes, I never seemed to be able to get more than a slow trickle of water to drain from the channel.

Today I was cleaning the holes yet again, and poking around with some thin aluminum wire to see if I could better clean out the channels. All of a sudden, I "hooked" something in the bottom channel. I gave it a tug, and low and behold, a small piece of aluminum popped out of the bottom channel. As it turns out, the inside drain holes had been punched out, but the punched out piece of aluminum was still stuck in the hole. Once I realized what was going on, I was able to remove the pieces blocking the other drain holes as well.

Now my window drains perfectly, just like the others, with no leaks to the inside.

Anyway, this is obviously something that would have been caught with even the slightest bit of manufacturing quality checks! It's a bit disappointing that neither the window manufacturer nor Escape caught this.

Just sharing this in case somebody else has a leaking window problem that could be caused by this issue.

The picture is of one of the scrap aluminum pieces that I removed. It's very small - less than 3/4 of an inch long.

I agree the window manufacturers QC should have caught this. I'm not sure how Escape would have known there was a issue without doing a simulated rain downpour on the trailer just saying.

[hugh]

Originally Posted by diannelgraham

I agree the window manufacturers QC should have caught this. I'm not sure how Escape would have known there was a issue without doing a simulated rain downpour on the trailer just saying.

We'll, yeah, exactly. That's what car manufacturers do.

[diannelgraham]

Originally Posted by hugh

We'll, yeah, exactly. That's what car manufacturers do.

Car manufacturers produce all components in the vehicle to their specs unlike a company like Escape that uses third party components. Comparing apples to oranges.

[Rossue]

Originally Posted by diannelgraham

Car manufacturers produce all components in the vehicle to their specs unlike a company like Escape that uses third party components. Comparing apples to oranges.

Not true - Takata made airbag inflaters that became deadly for some car owners unfortunately.

That is just one example; Auto mfgs outsource a lot of items which is why supply chain issues are causing buyers headaches trying to buy a new car in many cases.