Recommendations for caulking

Jms

We just purchased a year end clearance 2018 T@G XL Outback. It has sat on the dealer lot for almost a year, and I see that some of the caulk will need touching up around the top vent, around the shore power plug, around the air conditioner outlets, etc. What are your recommendations for type and brand of caulk to use?

WilliamA

I'll get run out of town for my thoughts on this, but I use run of the mill bathtub caulk and carry it with me always. You could use silicone caulk or have a moose blow its nose in a bucket and then smear it on your trailer and clothes. Acrylic is easy to apply, can be worked smooth and sticks well. You should probably use urethane on the roof vent.

WilliamA

Jms

Thanks, William! Luckily I don't see the town villagers headed down the road with pitchforks and torches. I'm a little ignorant of the different caulk types. Why urethane on the roof vent versus the silicone or acrylic?

LuckyJ

Perso, I would go with exterior silicone, since it will be expose to uv lights.

LuckyJ

@LuckyJ said:
Perso, I would go with exterior silicone, since it will be expose to uv lights. Probably some for the RV.

But I do have a feeling that this is a bit like goop. They make it for different usage, but I do have the feeling that it is the same stuff, maybe with only different color.

WilliamA

@Jms said:
Thanks, William! Luckily I don't see the town villagers headed down the road with pitchforks and torches. I'm a little ignorant of the different caulk types. Why urethane on the roof vent versus the silicone or acrylic?

I'm of the camp that UV exposure isn't as big a deal as the caulk probably won't stay on long enough for that to be a problem. I like to touch mine up every so often and have many times found small places where the caulk let go long before UV became an issue. I just like the Arylic as I said, because it's so easy to put on and manipulate. It doesn't get all over and make a mess nearly as bad as Silicone. For the roof, Urethane has more stretch and is probably more forgiving to temperature extremes because of the direct heating from the sun exposure. Urethane is a pita to get off, just like silicone. It's also more forgiving to have a messy application up on the roof as it's harder to see. For general purpose, all around caulking, it's really hard to beat the application and cleanup of acrylic. It cleans off with soap and water so long as it hasn't set, sticks well and makes a really nice looking bead. For bolt/screw holes, I use plumbers putty around the head of the fastener and squeeze it into the hole before putting in the bolt/screw, whatever. It stays pliable, doesn't peel off and is overall, in my opinion, a much more water tight product. It wouldn't work for seams though. Caulk for that.

As to the pitchfork wielding villagers....just stick around for a bit. They'll show up....

WilliamA

Jms

Thanks, LuckyJ and WilliamA. Who knew there was so much to learn about caulk! Any favorite brand of acrylic caulk, WilliamA?

I'll keep an eye out for the villagers lurking around. :-)

WilliamA

@Jms said:
Thanks, LuckyJ and WilliamA. Who knew there was so much to learn about caulk! Any favorite brand of acrylic caulk, WilliamA?

I'll keep an eye out for the villagers lurking around. :-)

Yeah, the stuff that's on sale! I don't buy the big tubes that require a gun unless I'm redoing the whole side seam or some big area. I generally just buy the white, bathtub and tile hand-squeezed tubes and carry one in my onboard "kit". It's nice for field repairs. I find it much easier to get a nice, smooth bead of caulk with the hand-squeeze tubes. It's also good to know that once you've opened a tube, no matter how well you seal the end it will set up over time because there is air inside the tube. No sense in buying a big tube, use 10% and throw the rest away.

WilliamA

Jms

Thanks for the tips, WilliamA! I was feeling the same way - don't want to buy a big tube and gun for such a small trailer just to have it dry up. Simple solutions to simple problems.

mgreen2

Be sure to see the maintenance recommendations from NuCamp on the forum.

http://teardrop-trailers.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/183/important-maintenance-reminders#latest

Jms

After doing a bit of research and visiting our local ACE hardware, I'm leaning toward trying DAP Dynaflex 230. It is an advanced acrylic latex caulk without silicone. Many of the tub/shower/kitchen caulks all seem to have some silicone in them. After reading a number of posts regarding the difficulty with removing and recaulking over silicone, I'm hesitant to use anything with silicone. I looked into the polyurathane caulks that are recommended by Nucamp and that are sold at the RV stores, buy they seem difficult to work with in small areas, require mineral spirits to clean up, and are somewhat toxic. I like WilliamA's philosophy regarding the acrylic caulks. The acrylic will bond to fiberglass and plastic, and it cleans up with water. Has anyone tried this particular caulk before (the DAP Dynaflex 230)?

WilliamA

That's the one I use...
WilliamA

TomD

Anything that says “tough” in yellow on the package gets my attention

Jms

Great! Thanks, WilliamA. I've been removing the original caulk from the AC vents, water fill door, and hose door. I'm having trouble getting the residue off from the original caulk. Did you use anything to get rid of this residue before you used the acrylic caulk? Did you have any issues with the acrylic caulk sticking to any left over original caulk?

Also, I've noticed that you don't have the stickers on the side of your trailer in photos from your posts. Did you remove them for a specific purpose? Seems like the caulk residue is worse on the stickers, but it comes off of the fiberglass nicely. Wondering if you found the stickers to be a pain. Mine are getting a little scratched up where I was using the plastic razor blade to scrape the caulk off. Wishing nuCamp would have cut them to leave a margin around each of the doors.

Thanks, again!

WilliamA

Sorry about my apparent laziness. I'm spending a lot if time working on my Jeep which necessitates being on one of my other forums. I'm also in the clutches of seasonal affective disorder which necessitates rereading every novel ever written by Joseph Konrad and Albert Camu.
As to the vinyl graphics on my trailer, I ended up taking them off, not because I didn't like them (I did) but because they were crooked and driving me nuts. Every time I looked at my trailer all I could see were those damned crooked stripes. I'm not talking about "curved" but mismatched.
If you followed the arc across the door from front to rear, the radius was different on the door (flattened) than on the trailer. Solved that one. Yes...I am THAT picky.
When I peeled them off, I used a hair dryer to warm up the vinyl and cut it right at the doors (carefully) with an exacto knife. For all the other places the graphics went under something (water access, electrical door etc) I removed the component so I could get the vinyl off completely, then re-caulked everything after reinstalling the parts. I also removed the cheesy tent attachment rubbers from around the doors and left them off. After all, I bought a camper SO I WOULDN'T HAVE TO PUT UP A FREAKING WET, MOLDY, LEAKING, NOT WIND-FRIENDLY, HEAVY, CUMBERSOME UGLY TENT! I should also mention that I don't care much personally for tents. A tent, much like panicked, full-on sprinting, is a perfectly logically alternative for those times when every other conceivable option has been explored, and failed. That list of conceivable alternatives includes sleeping in a cairn made of piled stones or a culvert wearing a snorkel to get above the waterline. Plus, while I love my home state of Wisconsin more than any other place I've been and spend a lot of time camping in its environs, I have it on good authority from a native American friend of Chippewa descent that the term, "Wisconsin" actually translates (loosely) into the Ojibwa language as: "Mosquito's are in the tent."
But I digress.
How to clean off the caulk and glue lines? For removing the caulk I use a metal Potter's Rib. That's a thin flexible tool potters use to smooth wet clay. It's very thin like a razor blade, 4" wide and shaped like a half-moon and made of spring steel. It's not sharp as a razor blade but IS sharp on the corners. It will easily go through and under the caulk, cutting it clean along the trim.
I clean off the residue from any leftover caulk using the best, most sensitive non-abrasive tool bodymen have and depend on: my fingers. Once you've got the thick line of caulk cut away, just rub the caulk line with the edge of your finger and the rest will rub off.
Once you peel off the vinyl graphics, you will expose a tiny glue line. It's where the vinyl glue edge has been exposed to the environment and has collected dirt leaving a dark line. I can't tell you the product I use (no, it's not gasoline) to remove that but it works better than any soap, degreaser, de-buggutter, cleaner on the market. It's also something you probably have on hand. I CAN tell you that it's basically the same active ingredient used in bug and tar remover, so let's just call it that. Or you could just use one of the thousand cleaning products on the market that cost money but don't work. I'd tell you what it is but the moderators will come to my house and burn a cross in the yard. Don't want that. It's not actually my yard. Don't want to be kicked off the forum AND out of the house in the same day. Two different days would be fine, but not the same one.

WilliamA

Jms

Wow. Thanks for all of the great information, WillamA! The wealth of collective knowledge and experience on this forum is amazing.

Sorry about the gray skies in Wisconsin this time of the year. I spent a winter in Seattle a few years ago and saw 2 days of sun in 5 months. That was enough for me. Headed back to the southwest after that. At least the mosquitos aren't out this time of year. :-) And you've got some good books to read. I haven't read much of Camus, but I did enjoy Heart of Darkness (and who hasn't seen Apocalypse Now a dozen times). I'm currently re-reading (and re-listening to) some Alan Watts myself.

Thanks for the info on the stickers. I'm finding the caulk residue much easier to remove from the fiberglass than the stickers. Reason enough for me to start disliking them. I'm going to leave mine on for now, but I might consider cutting around the items that have to be caulked next time around. Thanks for the tip on removing the doors and frames to get the stickers off too.

I also got your message about the solvent. Thanks! (and I saw the villagers peeking over the battlements as I read it). Although I can't imagine your status of this forum would ever diminish. And if you were kicked out of your house, you have a nice cozy trailer to stay warm in.

Again, thank you for all of the excellent information and for sharing your experiences!